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Tried and true methods to bag foxes?
- Thread starter rbstern
- Start date
That's how Macongonites do it.
My understanding is a fox will kill several and then leave them, coming back again for the dead ones left behind.
Follow up from today's mess:
After today's attack, I followed the trail of feathers. Found a dead chicken stuffed in what looked like a fox den opening, in the dry creek bed, down into the valley behind my office. I left it where it lay, and set up about 20 yards away, off to one side, with a 12ga loaded with 00. Figured I'd pop the fox when he stuck his head out.
After sitting for 15 minutes, see some movement, get ready...and the chicken pops out, fully upright and alert. Either one of two things: The fox stuffed her in there without killing her, or she stuffed herself in there and played dead. She's missing a bunch of tail feathers, has a pretty good gash on her breast. But she was on her feet and able to move. Got her back to the coop, where the wife doctored her up and secured her in an enclosed pen with one of the other recovering chickens from an attack on Sunday.
I go back, set up about 50 yards uphill from where that hole is, this time with a 10/22. Figure I'll pop the fox when he comes back for the chicken. Sure enough, he comes back within an hour. But he moves almost entirely in the dry creek bed where the hole is, hull down, and never gives me enough to shoot at. He pops out at least 100 yards away. It's raining, my glasses are fogged. I let fly as he's moving away, maybe 125 yards. Got off six shots, but he was never still, and the foliage was in the way. Tracked over that way, didn't find any blood. Pretty sure I missed him.
Meantime, I see some feathers here and there in the area where I had shot at him. So I start tracking those. After about 200 yards, down over another ridge, I find a dead chicken. And this one is actually dead. So, he left a dead chicken, far from us, to come back for the second, presumed to be dead chicken, much closer to us. Ballsy.
About an hour ago. I'm standing watch over the chickens as they start moving themselves back to the coop for the evening. One of the roosters starts booking into the woods, down in the direction of the fox hole where I found the chicken. I'm thinking, what is this? A solo rooster Banzai charge? But a moment later, I see he's with two more hens who had been missing, making their way across the creek bed and up the ridge, out of the woods from where all the excitement happened. I guess they managed to hide themselves successfully when the attack happened earlier.
The official tally:
2 dead ducks
1 wounded duck (now nearly recovered)
5 dead chickens
2 wounded chickens (prognosis iffy for one, pretty good for the other)
For the TL;DNR crowd:
The fox is presumed to be still on the loose. If I'm really lucky, he's got a 22LR in him and will go off somewhere to die. Otherwise, the hunt continues.
Follow up from today's mess:
After today's attack, I followed the trail of feathers. Found a dead chicken stuffed in what looked like a fox den opening, in the dry creek bed, down into the valley behind my office. I left it where it lay, and set up about 20 yards away, off to one side, with a 12ga loaded with 00. Figured I'd pop the fox when he stuck his head out.
After sitting for 15 minutes, see some movement, get ready...and the chicken pops out, fully upright and alert. Either one of two things: The fox stuffed her in there without killing her, or she stuffed herself in there and played dead. She's missing a bunch of tail feathers, has a pretty good gash on her breast. But she was on her feet and able to move. Got her back to the coop, where the wife doctored her up and secured her in an enclosed pen with one of the other recovering chickens from an attack on Sunday.
I go back, set up about 50 yards uphill from where that hole is, this time with a 10/22. Figure I'll pop the fox when he comes back for the chicken. Sure enough, he comes back within an hour. But he moves almost entirely in the dry creek bed where the hole is, hull down, and never gives me enough to shoot at. He pops out at least 100 yards away. It's raining, my glasses are fogged. I let fly as he's moving away, maybe 125 yards. Got off six shots, but he was never still, and the foliage was in the way. Tracked over that way, didn't find any blood. Pretty sure I missed him.
Meantime, I see some feathers here and there in the area where I had shot at him. So I start tracking those. After about 200 yards, down over another ridge, I find a dead chicken. And this one is actually dead. So, he left a dead chicken, far from us, to come back for the second, presumed to be dead chicken, much closer to us. Ballsy.
About an hour ago. I'm standing watch over the chickens as they start moving themselves back to the coop for the evening. One of the roosters starts booking into the woods, down in the direction of the fox hole where I found the chicken. I'm thinking, what is this? A solo rooster Banzai charge? But a moment later, I see he's with two more hens who had been missing, making their way across the creek bed and up the ridge, out of the woods from where all the excitement happened. I guess they managed to hide themselves successfully when the attack happened earlier.
The official tally:
2 dead ducks
1 wounded duck (now nearly recovered)
5 dead chickens
2 wounded chickens (prognosis iffy for one, pretty good for the other)
For the TL;DNR crowd:
The fox is presumed to be still on the loose. If I'm really lucky, he's got a 22LR in him and will go off somewhere to die. Otherwise, the hunt continues.
Hell ya! Then tape it's mouth shut and strut him around the local bar!!!
rbstern
one consideration if you have a problem down the road and you don't have a 100% shot, hold. Don't give away your position or alert the predator that you are on to it. Better to hold off and wait for the 100% shot.Another consideration is setting up a decoy (live) bird where you have a clear shot on the predator before it can reach the bait (live bird). Make certain bait is placed where you are 100% certain on predator approach from any angle to drop it before it reaches your bait.
Contact Ga DNR and see if you can obtain a depredation permit to kill the foxes. I doubt that you have only one hanging around.
Don't believe I need an agency's permission when Georgia law is already clear on this: Justifiable to kill an animal if one reasonably believes it is necessary to defend against an imminent threat to other animals or property.
The physical evidence: Dead and wounded birds with bite wounds, piles of feathers, patterns of killing particular to a fox, a fox sighted trying to retrieve a chicken it had taken. And my wife actually witnessed an attack yesterday. After two weeks of this, I think it's fair to say any fox sighted on my property is an imminent threat to our livestock.
