Help !! Ideas fox in pen

tom

Well-Known Member
Ok I'm after some advice from anybody ?
Just had some birds delivered today at 6 am , all ok but on evening check of the birds tonight a fox was seen in the pen !!! 3 birds dead but birds all still in there .
Checked the wire all good and no obvious holes all looks good !
We have walked the pen several times and no sign of it !
I waited at one end thinking it might show but no sign !
Ok what do we do ??? I will go back at dawn and stalk up to pen to see if any sign ! Any old tricks or plans worth trying ?
Thanks
tom
 
Dawn may be too late,if there is easy pickings charlie will be back tonight. Secure the dead ones out and nail him with the lamp or however you do it...
 
How high is the fence? Ive seen them go over the top before. Get some snares down round the outside of the pen.
As for tricks ive heard of peeing into jars and putting them around the pen no idea if it works or not.
 
Fox will climb chicken wire fence. We have elevtric fence around our pen, about a foot away from the chicken wire
 
We have an electric fence around the pen , someone has gone out with lamp but pen is very thick . I think I will sit with rifle in morning and see if he shows by perimeter ! If not in with shotgun then terrier !!!!
Never had this happen before !!! Pain in the ass !
 
Find the earth, so you know where to focus your efforts, also worth checking ivy covered trees that have thick cover... Had one in a pen that would come down from a tree somehow, caught him on the trail cam doing it! Another thing to be mindful of is badgers will kill birds if they're trapped in a pen... Although not as affective as a fox we've had it happen before!
 
Keep us updated.

I would suggest a high seat and put some bait in a clear area and wait. You have to get it as it will kill for fun if it gets a chance
 
As said earlier, foxes are very competent climbers, I have seen one in full daylight with designs on a woodie sitting in a hawthorn tree, and also had a pair of eyes go from around six inches off the the ground to over seven feet, returning to ground level, before identifying as a large dog fox.
 
No fresh kills this morning , been through the entire pen and. Am sure he's not in there !
I have found a hole that he could have gone to ground in but doesn't look like it's been disturbed and no smell at all .
Birds are settled and don't seem stressed which is something !
No holes in the wire must have gone over top !
Will be back tonight with rifle in high seat !
 
You have to get it as it will kill for fun if it gets a chance

You demonstrate a complete lack of even the most basic understanding of animal behaviour. It will certainly kill again having found a ready supply of food. In the fox's world quarry is not meant to be confined so it will kill, and any other nearby quarry will make good it's escape. which it can't do if penned. As an opportunistic hunting carnivore it is biologically programmed to take quarry as the opportunity presents itself. It is not out for fun. Do you thing food shopping is fun? Is buying a bogof a real giggle? The basic issue here is that the pen has been proven inadequate for it's purpose. The solution is to build an adequately fox proof pen. Shooting is not the best option as there are going to be other like minded foxes waiting to fill a slot. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
 
You demonstrate a complete lack of even the most basic understanding of animal behaviour. It will certainly kill again having found a ready supply of food. In the fox's world quarry is not meant to be confined so it will kill, and any other nearby quarry will make good it's escape. which it can't do if penned. As an opportunistic hunting carnivore it is biologically programmed to take quarry as the opportunity presents itself. It is not out for fun. Do you thing food shopping is fun? Is buying a bogof a real giggle? The basic issue here is that the pen has been proven inadequate for it's purpose. The solution is to build an adequately fox proof pen. Shooting is not the best option as there are going to be other like minded foxes waiting to fill a slot. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I have seen what foxes do to a pen. And they will just kill 20 or 30 for fun.
 
You demonstrate a complete lack of even the most basic understanding of animal behaviour. It will certainly kill again having found a ready supply of food. In the fox's world quarry is not meant to be confined so it will kill, and any other nearby quarry will make good it's escape. which it can't do if penned. As an opportunistic hunting carnivore it is biologically programmed to take quarry as the opportunity presents itself. It is not out for fun. Do you thing food shopping is fun? Is buying a bogof a real giggle? The basic issue here is that the pen has been proven inadequate for it's purpose. The solution is to build an adequately fox proof pen. Shooting is not the best option as there are going to be other like minded foxes waiting to fill a slot. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


Shooting is the needed option one, number two is ongoing repairs / modifications, as to your view on fox having fun, maybe it isn't fun for the fox, what it will look like to the average person is unnecessary slaughter, they will kill as many as possible for future consumption, although this will not always be carried through, I have also seen two cubs along with mum being shown / demo'd how to make kills in a pen.
 
Our birds went in last Wednesday night, a slight storm meant some branches had fallen by Thursday am.
Walking around we found the electric fence tripped and 12 dead birds inside the pen, some had been partly dug. Thursday we waited, herd the birds get agitated and we must have scared it off.
Friday night I waited, bang on 9:45 I saw the eyes, didn't get another chance to kill again.
We got off lightly with the loss considering we put down 450 birds in our little shoot, that's a days bag potentially gone.
 
Has it gone in through pop hole return grids, try double electric fence and pee near pop holes.sit with 22 rimfire at dusk. it will come back.the only good one is a dead one.had a cub in pen once kill 240 poults(before we used electric fence)
 
My shooting partner and I are specialists in shooting foxes with NV and thermal imagers - if you'd like us to come over and have a go at sorting your problem out, we'd be happy to do so, taken that you aren't too far from us. As a measure of our efficiency, we had 355 last year, and may beat that this year!
 
Are u sure it was a fox? And it was in ur pen?

Sounds daft but at this time of year ur mind can play tricks on u, also know of a syndicate shoot when prepping the pen 1 member seen a fox 'in' the pen, went to get other guns (in other pens) when they all came back to get it, turns out he had left gate open anyway but after crwaling/driving pen out and wasting an hour or so they got him to point to where he seen it and it was outside the pen anyway.:doh:

I find it hard to believe a fox was inside ur pen and u only found 3 dead (i take it the 3 were killed by a fox and not a hook beak or even stress from the release?) and the rest see settled and not stressed, esp after the 1st night when they will all be jugging on the ground. It's a recipe for carnage so hard to believe u haven't suffered more damage if its still inside or able to get inside.

The other problem u have is if u let a terrier lose it may do more damage than the fox, most terriers i know would have a field day running around in a pheasan pen esp if ur asking it to flush/hunt
 
Shooting is the needed option one, number two is ongoing repairs / modifications, as to your view on fox having fun, maybe it isn't fun for the fox, what it will look like to the average person is unnecessary slaughter, they will kill as many as possible for future consumption, although this will not always be carried through, I have also seen two cubs along with mum being shown / demo'd how to make kills in a pen.

Exactly Steve lost three hundred in one night when a vixen decided to teach her cubs to hunt in a pen.
 
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