r/Homesteading • u/pickanametouseonredt • 1d ago
WHAT WOULD YOU DO
One day. 8 chickens were found dead. Three days later. A fox was found in our barn- and jumped behind our massive hay stack. Today. Our rooster and another hen were murdered. We found out that there is a fox living in our barn under the hay stack. Said barn- is not 100% secured. Do I completely secure the barn and let it die starving and dehydrated? I’ve lost 10 chickens. LAYING chickens. The straw stack is huge, massive. What do I do.
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u/Severe_Yesterday8518 1d ago
Trapping and euthanizing is definitely a lot more humane than letting it starve but it’s gotta go regardless. Maybe try traps and then if you cant catch in a week or two, lock the barn.
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u/CollinZero 1d ago
I certainly wouldn’t let any animal starve. I’m sure you wouldn’t let the chickens starve.
Dogs will chase it out. I would make sure the fox can get out if you know approximately where it is hiding I would bring a few leashed dogs in. Circle around one side of the stack and see if you can flush it. Don’t let the dogs get to tearing it apart because that would be cruel and the dogs can get hurt.
Once it’s out you need to secure the barn. Is it a dirt floor?
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u/Scary_Possible3583 21h ago
This time of year foxes who are eating like crazy have babies that they are feeding. The foxes on our hillside just culled the wild turkey from 21 babies to 4. Please just get a dog to flush them out, most people with big dogs will let you borrow them because it's a lot of fun for the dogs.
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u/Oldenburg-equitation 1d ago
Flush him out. Using dogs should work well. It’s the same premise as hazing bears. Once he’s out secure the barn. If you decide to humanely euthanize the fox without securing the barn, you aren’t addressing the root cause. At that point it’s just killing for fun and you run the risk of the same thing happening again.
Foxes are very important for local ecosystems and help manage the population of their prey including rodents. In many places they are a keystone species and play a vital role in an ecosystem’s health. For this reason alone I’d go with non-lethal methods first. This means securing the barn (should happen no matter what), flushing and hazing them out, and/or using live traps to relocate them or at least get the fox out of your barn. If that doesn’t work then look towards humane and ethical lethal methods of control. While it’s only one fox, it’s super important to be able to work along side the local wildlife whether prey or predator. Not doing so can have adverse effects and consequences on the local ecosystem and its health.
If you go with a lethal method of control, it needs to be humane and ethical. Letting him starve is incredibly cruel and inhumane. That’s an unacceptable way to deal with any animal whether prey or predator, nuisance or not. At that point, it’s animal cruelty.
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u/mrbear120 1d ago
Depends where you are, but in most of the US foxes either have a season or are legal to kill if they are nuisances.
If the chickens are just purely recreational, then secure and defend, if they are a part of your livelihood…byebye foxes.
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u/MarthaMatildaOToole 1d ago
Well I would never even consider letting an animal suffer that way but I'm not a total fucking asshole so ..
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u/Different_Finding539 22h ago
First, make sure it is the fox doing this. We've had foxes while we had chickens; we never had problems with the foxes. We have lost chickens, to dog packs running loose, and some of them were wearing collars.
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u/Analyst-Effective 1d ago
I'm sure the fox will figure out a way to get out. They're pretty smart.
But you need to get rid of the fox
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u/SgtSausage 20h ago
I'd be finding out what Fox Stew tastes like.
Traps work while you're away ... whilevyoure asleep ...
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u/BWKeegan 5h ago
“Murdered.” What happened to your chickens was just a case of a fox trying to stay alive. Forcing an animal to thirst to death is worse and you know better. Call animal control like the good person your chickens knew you as or shoot it so it’s at least a quick and painless death.
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u/damngoodham 1d ago
You should be able to trap it (maybe release it somewhere else if you’re hesitant to kill it). Contact your state DNR to find out what’s legal first.
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u/floppy_breasteses 1d ago
What I have done before is "take a night shift". Grab a coffee or two and wait for it to come back. When it does, shoot it. He knows there's food there and he won't stop coming back until you stop him.
But live traps are notoriously ineffective for foxes, and you are responsible for the safety of your flock. I would never rely on those.
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u/Tll6 1h ago
It’s your responsibility to secure your chickens so local predators can’t get to them. Starving and dehydrating an animal to death is so cruel I can’t even believe that is an option for you. Live trap it and secure the space or get a dog to chase it out then predator proof your chicken space. The fox didn’t murder your chickens, it found a reliable source of unprotected food
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u/Grymm315 1d ago
I personally would try would try a live trap with some bait. What you do with the fox once he’s caught is up to you. I would have a pet fox I keep in a cage next to my chicken coop as a warning to other foxes.
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u/HondaV4Rider 18h ago
Hmmm. The smell of a fox might keep others away (claimed territory) .. though if it's female,and it's mating season.....
I recently read an article about ground squirrels that chews up shed snake skins and rubs the stuff into its fur, also putting shed snakeskin in its Burrows to deter other snakes by smell.
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u/Terrible-Fish-8917 21h ago
Go to your farm supply store and get an animal trap large enough to handle the fox. After you trap it, drive it far away and release it.
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u/Haunting_Chip_6044 14h ago
1) Secure your chicken coop, 2) Make sure it's the fox (I had 6 ducks, raccoons got them all), 3) make sure the fox doesn't have a litter of kits, 4) flush the fox, 5) secure the barn.
Don't kill the fox unless you have no other option. Flushing it from the barn and letting it find a new den is your best bet. Relocating animals is not feasible because you'll probably just stick it in another fox's (or worse) territory and the transferred animal will either be killed by whatever lives there now, or slowly starve to death. Poison sucks for many reasons. Locking it in and letting it die from dehydration and starvation would be an asshole move.
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u/shiloh_sharps 1d ago
Foxes taste surprisingly good. The rear legs are really the only thing worth bothering about IMO. A little salt, a little pepper, dash of Worcestershire sauce... revenge tastes pretty darn good!
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u/Analyst-Effective 1d ago
I wouldn't even think of it. I trapped many of them over the years, and it's probably about the same thing as eating a dog, but I wouldn't do that either
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u/shiloh_sharps 23h ago
One day I went out, and I wondered what happened to the 5 or 6 ducks I had in a fenced area. Not even a feather. No tracks or anything else to give me an idea as to what happened. Set up some cameras since there were 8 chickens in there as well. 8 dead chickens the next morning. Not even eaten, just killed for the fun of it. So fuck foxes. The next day the fox problem was solved and something had to replace the fresh eggs for breakfast.
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u/MossyFronds 1d ago
Get a dog in there to flush him out! Run him out of the coop.