Good morning, I am getting back into trapping after a 10-12 year break. I am currently trying to catch red fox that are eating our chickens. I am trapping field edges along standing corn and cut beans. I am using duke #2os that are new but dyed and waxed. I keep having the bait (fresh squirrel or widowmaker) dug out and can’t seem to catch the fox but have picked up coon and even a bobcat. I have 2 sets at 6 different intersections all set on sign. I have the pans between 6-9 inches from the dirt hole or trench set. I am trying to remain patient but running out of chickens so any tips would be helpful. I have read all the archives on fox over the last few days and modeled have had my sets out since last Sunday.
Thank you

Keep at it a fox is not hard to catch make sure the traps bedded well and set on sign to get started.

Welcome, could be coons and even opossums getting the chickens at night, ask me how I know. Might need to lock them up at night to keep them safe and then keep working on the varmints. Nice Bobcat, so I assume you are in the southern part of the state. With other food sources running around the fox might not worry about digging up bait in a dirt hole. Figure out where they are coming from and snare them on the way in. Good luck!!

I will keep after them, I know it’s red fox as I have seen them and so has the neighbor who also has lost 46 hens in the last year. The fox are hanging out in the corn waiting on the flock to head that way. The corn was at 25% Tuesday so with the dry weather hope it comes off soon then the fox will have less cover to get up yo the barns. I am in the south east about 10 miles off the river.
Thanks for the replies

…. Sounds like you’re doing right and should have connected… stay at it…. Change a set or two to a flat set and just let the rest soak

… I think you’re a beautiful person btw

Try making a set or two with the jaw of the trap set right up close to the edge of the hole. Make sure you have a substantial backing for the set, such as a large clump of grass so that it can't be worked from behind.

This!!

Set closer to your chickens.

I had that problem last year. Ended up setting 3 traps. 1 in front of the hole and one on each side of that trap in a half moon up against a tree as backing. Ended up catching three red fox out of that set.

Savell if I hadn’t been lurking on here for a while I would think you were getting sweet on me, good thing I know you are just in probation. I will change up a set and make a flat set and also crowd the hole like others suggested as well.
Setting closer to the chickens might work once the corn is off but don’t want traps ran over when corn gets run and anything in my yard will be less 50’ from a state rd in a school zone so I think that would hurt trapping more then it would help me.
Multiple traps at a set has crossed my mind. I am running low on stakes would double staking 3/8 rebar hold if I end up with a coyote or does it have to be 1/2 rebar?

Thankyou again for all the help

X 3

I like to crowd the hole for red fox; trap jaw right up against the hole, which would put the pan maybe 2 to 3 inches back and I like to offset a little bit one direction or the other. I don’t use bait for fox, just lure and urine.

You might try some drags on 10 feet of chain, they are pretty amazing the way they hook up. Faster remakes on the set.

I use # 4 (1/2”) rebar because #3 (3/8”) bends too easily when hitting rocks. But if you can get two 18-inches in and crossed I doubt anything will pull them out.

Slick and quick. I like it!

Put your chickens in a coop where predators cannot get them. We have had chickens for 30 years without losing any to predators. We put extensive electric fence around the coop with a very hot fence charger.

Trapping - patience. Stay away from the sets when checking, unless you catch something.

We’ve had a small flock of chickens, 12 to 18 birds, for 20+ years now. We replenish the flock every two years. Over the years we have lost quite a few to predators. Foxes were the main culprit and hawks took the second most. We always had them in a 700 square-foot run attached to their coop.

Most of the losses occurred when we were free ranging them. But a lot were taken when they were inside the run by foxes that either dug under or crawled over the 3 1/2 foot fence.

A few years ago we took galvanized hardware cloth and ran it a foot up the fence from the ground and a foot out buried underground. That stopped critters from digging under. We also installed bird cloth over the run, that stopped the hawk attacks.

We now only free range when someone is home and the dogs can be out. Since we instituted these new policies, we have not lost a bird to predators.

Yep...^^^

Free range= bird loss

big covered Run outside for them = no losses

Nice set Hobbie . Can you send me some of that soil down here for me to trap in.

I locked all mine up and ran a hot wire with a fence charger 8" high around the outside of the run. Coopers hawks and great horned owls make blocking an aerial attack with chicken wire a must as well.