Trapping foxes

[lacrego]

Anyone have experience live trapping foxes? I have a trap set out with a beef bone with meat suspended and secured with wire.

Where should I set the trap? Near the coop or where he attacked my chickens? Or near a fox hole (not a den) under a fence?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[tellynpeep]

See my discussion and video of trapping my fox here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/677983/i-caught-my-fox-updated-now-with-the-video

Is it a red fox or a grey fox? Red fox are much smarter and harder to trap. I used the largest size Hav-a-hart; it took me weeks to trap mine, and I have video of the fox coming by the coop every day, multiple times a day, and looking at the trap. You will have to make it look as natural as possible, and have it out so the fox can get accustomed to it. Also, the fox had zero interest in any bait except the live chicks I used to lure it in. Good luck.....

 

[lacrego]

Thank you thank you thank you!! This is great, I will be trying this! Loved what you did and the video. We have a few red foxes running around, hopefully not for too much longer.

 

[bigoledude]

You will find several great videos on trapping foxes on YouTube. Search using, of course, "trapping foxes, "dirt hole set", "trapping coyotes" and "snaring foxes/coyotes". The canines are very curious and are not that difficult to catch.

If you have a hole in the fence where it is coming through, a snare is very effective and simple to set up. I much prefer a spring-up snare.

 

[ernndbrtt]

I know this is poitically incorrect, but, why not just shoot it and sell the pelt to buy more chicken feed? Our natural resources officer (game warden) told me that anything preying on our chickens and soon to have goats is fair game. Is losing some of your chickens worth not effectively dispatching the predator so it cannot prey upon your or some else's birds again?

 

[Oregon Blues]

I don't think that is politically incorrect. If the fox is live trapped, it still needs to be killed.

It is cruelty to turn it loose in unfamiliar territory where it has a huge chance of dying in the first week, and maybe not an easy death. Or where it will kill someone else's pet chickens.

However, it is a lot easier to trap the fox than it is to shoot it. In order to shoot it, someone has to be there, and be a good enough shot to hit a fox, and be in an area where any over-shot is not going to do any damage to neighbors' houses, or kill anyone with a stray bullet. People use live traps just in case they catch a cat or dog or other animal that they do not want to kill.

 

[lacrego]

I don't think it's politically incorrect either, I should have the right to protect my animals, livestock and farm. He took out a third of my flock in a matter of minutes, the day after I used one of the dead birds (tied and staked to the ground) and sat and watched from my rooftop hoping he'd come back for more. That was a long and eventless day, I figured a live trap would be a more time efficient way of going about it. As far as the pelt goes, I was thinking a wall trophy for the inside of the coop, but hey, that's just me.