free range trouble

ok i need a little help with something. ok how can we get rid of a fox family (5) we have had a trapper come by but he couldnt catch even 1 one so how can i keep my babys from getting eaten besides locking them up (they hate that)?

Are they in a coop at night? Can you keep a donkey with them? Or other Livestock protection animal? Clever foxes!

yeah there up at night but id like them to come out during the day so they can eat bugs and stuff

Mine come out in the day but they are in a fenced in area which is movable, and has a good wire mesh cover, so they get grass and bugs and stuff but are not free food for predators. I am sure they would like an even bigger area to run around, but they can only do that on the weekend when I am at home to supervise.

Have you tried a humane trap (havaheart-type). You would have more time to work with trapping the foxes--and could try different bait. I saw a show where they were trying to catch an animal in Texas which was eating chickens--they actually put a live chicken, safely caged, next to the trap to attract the predator. Admittedly they were attempting to catch a Chupacabra--but it ended up being more of an odd looking coyote:0)

so my DH was right about using live bait? well, our trap is currently an inside cage, but we will get back to trapping our coon later. our north neighbor who farms saw him a few days back, he ate 20 pounds of cat food then headed back towards the lake...

farmgirl, a fox is really scary. someone here, grownut i think, had a fox problem till it got run over...

if you can find MollyD's thread about her new GP dogs, she put in links to recue sites. you can get a guard dog through adoptions perhaps?

also, perhaps you can hide outside with a shotgun?

catscan,

chupacabra ... an urban legend ... terrible mange infected coyotes. We had dog with it ... terrible for myself as a kid to have had a vet had to put her down. I was astounded that it wasn't curable.

Kelly in Moxee

Kelly--there has been some modification of the mangy coyote theory--possibly a hairless southern subspecies. I am going back to Brazil next week--their Chupacabra is much more impressive. Bipedal, part reptilian with glowing red eyes and fangs. Sometime it flies! Cool.

I think for the northern Chupacabra you need to use hardware cloth in conjunction with the trap.

Yup. T'was I with the fox. Shooting deterred it somewhat. The dogs (border collie mixes) learned quickly to chase it, listen for it, etc. It would run in among the goats and score some juicy chicken. I had been trying to figure out the baited live trap thing and was also considering adding geese to the yard to alert the dogs when they slacked off, or at least to help give alarm ASAP.

There is a thread around here somewhere...

Just bumped up the 2 threads I know of where we spent a lot of time on protection discussion v foxes and foxys.

Another idea if you can tolerate them is a pair or two of geese. They can get pretty evil. I raise pheasants( which EVERYTHING eats...le sigh..) and just one pair of geese in the pasture area solved my problems. good luck!

Hey I've got a pair of geese and I love mine! They're real sweethearts! The male even lets me kiss him on his head ^_^. He's the world's biggest ham. Bring out a camera and you won't get a single picture without him in it LOL!

MollyD

Kelly--Most mange is treatable, but sometimes immunosuppressed dogs can't be cured and euthanasia is the kindest thing. I think they try harder now to cure them than they used to--my Boston had demodex as a puppy, but it cleared up as his immune system kicked in.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-mange.htm

catscan,

This was 40 yrs ago and the cost (according to my dad) was said to be more than getting another dog without it ... a fawn colored French Briard. My siblings and myself were all heart broken and loved her so much. She was just a 3-4 month old pup. I thought my dad just was being a tight fisted jerk but I suspect he was just trying to be practical.

Kelly in Moxee

Kelly 40 years ago most folks made a lot less money than they do now and you mentioned siblings so your parents had mouths to feed. That had to be a priority over medical bills for a dog. Could not have been a very easy decision for them to make but I would say they had their priorities right in putting their children first. Must have seemed very harsh to you and the other kids back then. I remember vets as being way more expensive then (in proportion to the average income) than they are now.

MollyD

Can you get an electric fence for you fox problem? I had a ox scare not that long ago and got portable electric poultry netting. So far so good.....

Myrhh! You have ox? How terrifying! :0)

hi myrrh! cat, i am relaly godo at reading typso, i am thinking she meant FOX...

i need to get some prices on that fencing...

Thats what happens when your cat likes to spend his free time napping on the keyboard. It gets a bit sticky!

An ox hmm..... I hadn't really thought about that. A goat or two are just waiting for a real house, but I hadn't considered an ox. Cheaper then a tractor I suppose.

Would an electric fence protect against an ox? Somehow I suspect they would plow right through it.

Ox trouble...

Very troubling.

All right, who here has lost an ox? Speak up--he is giving Myrrh no end of trouble.

But he is so cute. Don't you just want to hug him?

No--I want to comb him. Looks like a great fiber animal.

A great rug he would make:)

We could pose on it with our chickens. Chickcake.

Ground crew! Who allowed that alien life form to get into the wild??? We will have no end of difficulties now with the Department of Interplanetary Life Form Control. That could even delay the launch of the Eggsplorer II.

Somebody is going to have to explain this!

Oh, he's ADORABLE!! You can beam him over here!

i would take him, but i am waiting on my Yak. i know i ordered one, where is the Yak Fairy?

The Yak Fairy is very unreliable, TF. Totally disorganized. I thought I told you about that.

Release of alien life forms into the wild is the source of all domesticated animals, Moxon. They were released to provide food for the workers on the Nascar Plains, Machu Picchu and the Egyptian Pyramids.

Glad I was able to clear that little concern up for you.

Stomp...stomp...stomp....nobody ever tells me anything...stomp...stomp...stomp....and there I go making myself look like an idiot because I'm worried about the release of the ox life form. Well geepers, I'm just gonna go put on my astronaut diapers and sit in the corner and sulk.

I often file patent applications in some parts of Southeast Asia. I am totally convinced that mail service is performed by Yak in some areas, due to its completely unreliable nature and months long delivery time. Every time I am waiting for foreign counsel correspondence from there, I believe that the Yak Fairy gets involved to mess it all up. Therefore, I believe the Yak Fairy is very busy dealing with the mail system in certain parts of the world and does not have time for North American deliveries at this time.

I would like the PF (pigeon fairy, not to be confused with the platypus fairy) to deliver a mate for my homing pigeon so she will stick around. I repeat, I do not want a platypus.

That would be the MF--Monotreme Fairy. Echidna and Platypus are required to share a Fairy due to their extremely weak evolutionary strategy. I mean a mammal laying eggs! Whose going to take that on?

We have a similar problem with the Brazilian custom service--once our packages go in, they are never heard from again. Incompetence--I think not! Conspiracies--I see conspiracies, Everywhere!

Oh but those echidna are soooo adorable. I love hedgehogs, and echidnas remind me a bit of hedgehogs. Maybe I would like a visit from the MF after all...

The Brazilian patent office is not as bad as Argentina. I think the entire staff of the Argentina patent office are busy investigating the wine growing regions of their country. Perhaps there is a fairy operating in the Brazilian customs office causing your headaches...

thanks for all yalls help

yer mighty welcome [glad to]. please forgive their ramblings LOL

Rambling? Oh, yeh.....Sorry:0)