A fox went out on a chilly night...

...and begged for the moon for to give him light,
He had many a mile to go that night
before he reached the town-o, town-o, town-o...
many a mile to go that night before he reached the town-o.
And when he got there, he ate chickens. And had fun killing the ones he didn't eat. :furious:
Thankfully it didn't get to our layers, just the half-grown meat birds/replacement layers. They were in a chicken tractor inside our (obviously inadequately ) fenced-in garden. Now we're brainstorming ideas of how to fox-proof a future chicken tractor.
What's ironic is that I lived 12 years out in farming country and we never lost an animal to a fox (we had chickens most of those 12). I live in the city now and have had chickens for about 2 years, and lose 15 in one fell swoop. There are some differences in housing, but then, we weren't expecting to have to keep out foxes here; just dogs, hawks, and people mainly.
Pretty disheartening! But now we know...!

Aww.

Sorry about the fox that came to town-o and went to town-o on your flock of birds.

What a waste of their lives- I was at first going to ask if you could feed them to your dogs or cats, but I am not sure what diseases foxes might carry. Not something I would want to take a chance on.

Hope you can figure out how to fox-proof. :clover:

Aw, what a bummer. I hear often that foxes are more abundant and troublesome in populated areas, 'cause there's easier pickings there.

Maybe set a trap with one of his kills and get a nice purse out of the deal. :twisted:

When we lived in Florida, my mom saw a fox crossing a bridge from one city to another. :shock:

I'm so sorry about your chickens... I hope you're able to figure something out for the future.

Thanks for the responses...

Nyctra":3c60dvdd said:

Maybe set a trap with one of his kills and get a nice purse out of the deal. :twisted:

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I did have this thought, but the likelyhood of catching something else...cat, stray dog...is higher than that of catching the fox.
I do keep thinking of having a lovely fox pelt in my posession though!

MamaSheepdog":3c60dvdd said:

What a waste of their lives- I was at first going to ask if you could feed them to your dogs or cats, but I am not sure what diseases foxes might carry. Not something I would want to take a chance on.

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Yeah, we buried them in our compost piles, so they won't go completely to waste...
My dog would have eaten them if we had skinned them ( apparently he's rather picky :roll: )...but I have no interest in skinning stiff mutilated chickens.

Miss M":3c60dvdd said:

When we lived in Florida, my mom saw a fox crossing a bridge from one city to another.

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Wow...I guess that is what happens when we move into their habitat...they adapt!

bikegurl":38wnmdsv said:

Wow...I guess that is what happens when we move into their habitat...they adapt!

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Yeah, like the poor owls and raptors that were going to go extinct because of people developing land. Surprise! They do quite well in the city.

I'm definitely in the country, not city. We've seen red fox and grey fox but never had them bother any of our livestock. Raccoons have tried without success to get into the chicken coop. Only domestic dogs allowed to roam have killed our chickens and harrassed our goats.
Sorry for your loss--it would be a bummer to have to worry about the foxes instead of just enjoying an occasional glimpse.

Rainey":357s89zf said:

Only domestic dogs allowed to roam have killed our chickens and harrassed our goats.

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We didn't actually see the culprit, but judging by the size of the hole they dug and the carnage, we figured it must have been a fox. The hole was barely big enough for something the size of a Jack Russell, and the chickens were scattered around the garden; a few missing heads, and a few with the guts pulled out. There were only 7 or 8 in the garden; the rest had completely vanished.
I figured if a dog had done it, it wouldn't eat them or take the carcasses with it...I could be wrong though...
Also, I think it happened around dusk, not after dark.

Sorry you lost chickens.
It's a poor time of year to take a pelt.

Not sure what the laws are in NY (or how familiar with tanning you are),
but if you get a fox and can keep it's skin, start by preserving it with salt or by freezing.

Epidermal slip can start in the freezer if pelts go in warm or take too long to freeze. Something to consider, as most people's first inclination is to ball a skin up and cover with plastic before freezing or even cooling a skin.

Better to flip a skin flesh side out and let it chill for a few minutes in a cool place before turning fur side out and rolling up to freeze.

Zass":1zg0vuh6 said:

Sorry you lost chickens.
It's a poor time of year to take a pelt.

Not sure what the laws are in NY (or how familiar with tanning you are),
but if you get a fox and can keep it's skin, start by preserving it with salt or by freezing.

Epidermal slip can start in the freezer if pelts go in warm or take too long to freeze. Something to consider, as most people's first inclination is to ball a skin up and cover with plastic before freezing or even cooling a skin.

Better to flip a skin flesh side out and let it chill for a few minutes in a cool place before turning fur side out and rolling up to freeze.

Click to expand...

Thanks...I know it is probably the worst time to get a pelt...I didn't even keep the doe skin from the sick doe the other day...the fur was falling out constantly as I was skinning!

I have no ideas what the laws regarding fox trapping are...so...not really gonna happen, but I did have evil thoughts toward Mr. Fox. :evil:

I would try cougar urine. Or any large cat urine. Preferably male. Spray it around the garden and it will keep every thing except a big cat out of your garden.

Just a tip I picked up surfing the web.

We've had a problem with a red fox out here in the sticks. Last year it first got a duck, then 2 guineas, then another duck, and later a chicken. Three other birds lost tail-feathers as the fox was caught in the act in the middle of the day and chased off by my dogs. This year we've lost two ducks to the fox, but the dog must have caught it in the act the second time. There was still snow on the ground, the duck was perfectly headless and there were fox tracks and dog tracks...

Foxes are tricky. They don't easily fall for traps, unless you use really powerful lures. Unfortunately those lures will also attracts local dogs, since you live in a more urban environment. Depending on the lures used, it could also bring in other small, clever, four-legged predators. If you have the ability to bait it and wait with a weapon on hand, that's probably better than attempting a trap. We haven't tried the lures yet, but have a biologist friend who says that's what field biologists use to attract target species.

Foxes are creatures of habit, though. Ours follows the same path everytime it visits our property, attacks birds from the same location. Last year, it must have been watching pretty closely, because the three times it got only tail-feathers were all times we had all been outside for quite a long time and only just returned indoors minutes before the attacks occurred. If this is your first visit by the fox, it probably isn't the last. It was a successful raid and it will very likely come back in a week or two to try again. It may attempt to enter the exact same spot.

Foxes this time of year do seem to like to kill everything they can. They cannot carry more than one carcass away at a time, but if nothing scares them off, they'll come back for as many of the bodies as they feel they need, then hide them somewhere to be eaten later. Last year the second duck killing was horrible for me. The fox left the duck gasping on her back with punctured lungs at the end of the property while trying to make more kills near the coop. I had to put the duck out of her misery, bawling my eyes out.

This year we figured out the preferred ambush point and have set up a net in that whole area. Will a net stop a fox? No... but it has prevented the fox from being able to use it's preferred method of attack, making any other angle far more risky. If the fox figures out that it could ambush from the most interior corner of the property, then we're in trouble. But so far that hasn't happened.

I don't have much advice, but offer my sympathy. Foxes are frustrating.

I have a fox problem also. One thing I have noticed is that I caught him by surprise in the back yard and we basically scared the crap out of each other. I used to see him come out of the wood line at least once a week. I have yet to see him since we met.

what about live-trapping and the releasing? I've done that with lots of foxes.

We have foxes--red and grey. Only get occasional glimpses of them or see the tracks, never have lost any poultry to them. The only predators that have bothered our chickens are raccoons and domestic dogs and only the latter actually killed any. The raccoon was trying to get into the coop at night and the hens made such a racket they woke us up and my son chased the raccoon off. But we don't let our birds free range so that would make a difference.
Anyway just wanted to say how much I enjoy my occasional fox sightings. I know I wouldn't if they were killing my livestock. But I do appreciate having predators around. The coyotes keep the woodchucks in check--at least the woodchuck problem gets worse the summers after winters when we see lots of coyote hunters along our road. And I assume the foxes and coyotes (and maybe the mink?) help keep down the rodent population. I wonder why sometimes they hone in more on domestic prey--had assumed that in more built up areas there isn't much else left for them, but from earlier posts in this thread, folks in the country have problems with them too.
Hope you all find ways to keep your critters safe.

I'm just building a live trap right now, don't know if it's fox or marten. I only lost one doe (this was a fox, I'm sure) but half a mile down the road the next rabbit raiser lost already 6 does, and a full litter of kits.

Everything that I'll find in the trap, save cats and rabbits ->SSS

We moved all our hens back to the coop (right next to the house) to protect them from the fox. So far so good!
My husband is planning on retrofitting the tractors to *hopefully* keep the fox out. That way we can forage our chickens and eat them, too! :twisted: His plan is to lay stock panels under the tractor. That way the hens can sort-of scratch, but the fox won't be able to dig under...
Think it'll work??