I am new at trapping, although I have been wanting to trap since childhood. I am trying to trap coyote and red fox that have been eating my chickens and they seem to walk right past the traps without a glance. Back ground, the property where my chickens are is 100 acres of partially wooded and open grass. 2 sides are adjacent to suburban neighborhood, one side is a creek with train tracks and last side is a forest preserve (road divides us). I have placed a half dozen traps thought out the property for the last month. I have had trail cameras and seen foot prints in the snow for years and know the movement of the animals. The only signs near the traps was a coon that dug up one trap. I have been reading everything on the forum I can and applying the things I have learned. Most of the sets are dirt holes and flat sets. I do a variety of them. Bait and lure is Cavens Pred bait and Caven's Hiawatha Valley Predator Bait and Fox urine. I vary my bait/urine and set style. Traps are bedded firmly and blend them in well. I have used sheep's wool, feather from my chickens in the dirt hole, tried a tire set (only a cat worked it). Pans are level and pan tension is around 3lbs. Traps dyed and waxed. Try to keep my sent off all my traps/tools. I have a trail camera on one of my sets and almost every night i get 2 coyotes and 2 fox walk with in 3 feet of trap without them noticing anything. 2 months ago, I put a partial deer carcass out with a camera on it and the coyotes and fox visited every night to eat dinner. I have watched almost every YT video I can. I have plenty of hunting friends, but I don't have anyone who traps that I can learn from. What am I missing?....other than experience LOL

Can you use snares. They must have trails coming and going through your area some where especially if you had a deer carcass out. It doesn't take much lure to get them to come. Welcome to trapping, using your trail cameras can help a lot. You can see how they are reacting to sets and bait and lure smells.

Get rid of the cameras over the sets. theyre the kiss of death for predator sets. there are ways to set them up to lessen impact but usually the involve climbing trees.

second whats your wind doing?

I can not use snares, too many unwanted pets from the neighbors. Cats don't seem to know property lines...I only have one camera on one set. Camera stays there for any unwanted people using the property.

Personally I wouldnt worry about a trail camera. I keep cams out 365 and have more photos/videos that I can count of yotes and fox that have no idea of their presence. Even when monitoring sets.

Bet you could call them in with a predator call.

Like Bruce T said, try calling them. MFK makes good calls. Can also try to ditch the bait altogether and just use some gland lure and urine. Make a pee post. They may not be interested in bait if they already have chickens to eat.

It depends on the camera. I had to tried over a half dozen models before I found some that didn't alert the coyotes. And pics and videos of coyotes passing by is much different than them working a set.

You didn't answer Sniper's last question. If you walk your dog up the road on a leash he will pull you over to every spot another dog peed or pooped on the upwind side of the road. He wont smell those on the downwind side (until the wind switches direction).If you have a steady prevailing wind and your traps are on the downwind side they simply may not be smelling your attractors?

The critters told you what they want when you said they visited the deer carcass for dinner .if you can find a deer carcass bring it in and get em coming back.Then set up on the incoming trails.

Would it be possible to use the deer meat that they are already eating or chicken meat if they are eating your chickens? Any chance you can get a set in right where there walking past the others? No lure or urine, just the meat they are already eating and a little hair or feathers.

If they're killing chickens set right by the coop

No snares in Illinois unless at least half the loop is under water at all times. Feathers fall under exposed bait and footholds so be careful that they’re not visible. Hope you get them.

Wind is factored in. They come from the east and all my sets are on the west side of were they enter the property (wind is mostly coming from the west). I have not tried again with the deer meat, but that was a thought. In Illinois we can not have exposed bait or lures with in 30ft of a set so the deer carcass won't do me much good. I don't want to put a set near the chicken coop because it is in sight of the houses and they will complain. I don't want to deal with them. About every other day the fox and coyote walk with in 3ft of 5 sets. Only one set is in view of the camera. They don't react at all to the bait and the other sets have tracks right past with out stopping, turning or circling. When I had the deer carcass out, I had the camera right on it. The coyotes didn't care it was there. The fox did, but after a few passes it stopped to eat.

I know this property is not the ideal location to trap because of the closeness to residential houses, but I'm trying to gain experience and stop a nuisance. I have a 350 acres that I can trap on next year but it is 4hrs away and it will only be weekends. I can't figure out if I'm doing something wrong or maybe they are well feed before getting on my property....

I have a camera on a old set with no trap just to see what's going on. I have fox and coyote coming in and working the set. Its been there for weeks and they still come back.

…. They should have worked the sets …fox are fairly curious and simple to catch using the techniques you stated

… I have no idea why you haven’t caught them

.. only advice I can give is to move your sets right in their tracks and use a curiosity lure

I just checked my traps and cameras this morning. No fox, coyote or racoon was in the area. A couple of traps where worked by a stray cat ( I can tell by the paw prints left behind). Cat doesn't trigger the traps but sometimes digs them up. One set I did notice urine from the cat was on it. Would this deter coyotes and fox? Also yesterday I saw a muskrat in the creek. First time in 10 years I have seen one. Maybe the coyotes are well fed by them? Now I have to dig out my muskrat traps that I bought when I was a kid but never had a chance to use them.

Where is your set in relation to those pics?
If that’s just “your” road, get as close to the 2 tracks as possible. You can see they’re walking the path of least resistance in your pics. Looks like you can “make” then walk where you want.
I’d have to relearn everything I know if we had snow like that, lol. Fox are generally hard to keep out of a set. They are naturally curious like bobcats.
As far as cameras, I run Spartans and they don’t spook predators. I’ll monitor as many sets as I can with cameras to keep from spreading scent and driving to them. If I suspect a deer has tripped one, I’ll check it out, but other than that it’s leave’em be.

The set is a tire set just to the right of the coyote pic. That tire has been there for years and I thought that would make a good set.

Finally caught something last night....I caught a mouse in one of my DP. Guess I can use him as bait. I am thawing out some venison and tomorrow evening will put some right in the path and see if they notice it.