Fox trap.

[moonlighter 1,163]

Hi, I’ve got a fox taking some free range chickens that live behind the farmers house. I’ve got a cage trap at set. Any tips or do’s/don’t’s as it’s not something I’ve used before. Thanks. 

[unclepesta 101]

7 hours ago, moonlighter said:

Hi, I’ve got a fox taking some free range chickens that live behind the farmers house. I’ve got a cage trap at set. Any tips or do’s/don’t’s as it’s not something I’ve used before. Thanks. 

You will be lucky to cage trap the fox around a free range rural situation. Snaring is a much better option as it can take quite a while to coax a rural fox into a cage this time of year due to the abundance of food elsewhere. 

When you walk around the farm you will smell where the fox has been and if you stick some decent snares about on these run throughs and walkways you will have better chance imo.

Always try to locate the den if the ground permits and deal with the cubs too,these can be snared around the den quite easily,or you can sit back and pick them off as they emerge with the 22lr as its not too noisy.

In fact if you pick a couple of cubs off at the den before trapping attempts are made then the parents will most likely move the cubs far away from that area,and then the problem and risk will probably be reduced.

Always a good idea to run some snares around chickens to pick off those curious passing foxes. they might pass by those chicken a hundred times before they attack and when they do they kill loads in one session.

As i said in another post it can be an emotive subject killing foxes when they have cubs to feed.

 

Good luck with your choices.

[moonlighter 1,163]

Thanks for the reply. The farmer wasn’t too keen on fox snares as there a public footpath right through the field and it passes within a few meters of the pen where the chickens go at night. The problem now, since the lockdown is that there are more dog walkers than ever before. I’ve had a quick look for the den, but the one I found doesn’t look very used, especially if it has cubs. Also, my mate with the terriers isn’t very local and dosnt really want to travel far from home at the moment, which is understandable. I’ve set the trap behind a big old tree away from prying eyes, so I’ll just have to see what happens. It shows willing if nothing else to the farmer. I had no dead bait, so I used a pound of tripe. That stinks like hell. I’m picking some pigeons up too tomorrow so I’ll try them in it too. 

[Dirksdonuts 79]

The cage should pick it up no problem at all. I wire a pigeon from the top of the cage hanging down so it looks at that whilst walking in seems to work ok. I have covered the bottom of the floor with soil and leaves in the past just to hide the bottom of the trap but not always necessary. 

[unclepesta 101]

3 hours ago, moonlighter said:

Thanks for the reply. The farmer wasn’t too keen on fox snares as there a public footpath right through the field and it passes within a few meters of the pen where the chickens go at night. The problem now, since the lockdown is that there are more dog walkers than ever before. I’ve had a quick look for the den, but the one I found doesn’t look very used, especially if it has cubs. Also, my mate with the terriers isn’t very local and dosnt really want to travel far from home at the moment, which is understandable. I’ve set the trap behind a big old tree away from prying eyes, so I’ll just have to see what happens. It shows willing if nothing else to the farmer. I had no dead bait, so I used a pound of tripe. That stinks like hell. I’m picking some pigeons up too tomorrow so I’ll try them in it too. 

Thats the problem at the moment there seems to be more walkers and bike riders everywhere makes things a bit difficult on places with footpaths, its like a bank holiday in some areas. dirksdonuts seems to do alright with the pigeon maybe see if you can add a bit of visual attraction with one of them swingin around. trouble with offal and baits this time of year is the damn flies. Anyway hope you get some results and sort your problem

[BenBhoy 4,706]

I've had success on our farm. Run going behind straw stack. Set up trap besides stack, bale either side and loose straw on top. Bait wired from top. Accounts for 10-15 a year.