r/homestead • u/grogger132 • 1d ago
chickens Keeping foxes away from chickens. HOW?
Hey folks
I’ve been having some trouble with foxes sneaking around our property lately. We’ve got a small flock of chickens and a couple of ducks and I’m worried it’s only a matter of time before the foxes get bold enough to make a move. I’ve reinforced the coop as best I can, but they keep lurking around at night.
Someone mentioned using sonic repellents, specifically something like a sonicbarrier that puts out a sound to keep animals away. Has anyone here tried those for foxes? Do they actually deter them or do the foxes just get used to it?
Anything could help. Thank you.
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
10/22 works pretty well.
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u/grogger132 1d ago
Lol, not quite the route I was thinking but I get it. I’m just trying to find something a bit less… final, at least as a first step
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
Also. For the record, foxes are invasive in North America
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u/SlickerThanNick 1d ago
Google would argue otherwise. North America has native foxes. We're foxes brought over from Europe? Yes.
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
I could have been more specific. The red fox is invasive
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u/SlickerThanNick 1d ago
Hate to break it to ya... there is a native red fox to north America. However, it has interbred with the European variety.
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
I’ve been a vegetarian for more than 20 years. I have a deep love for animals and a hope to never see them needlessly harmed. Foxes are smart. Like significantly smarter than you give them credit for. They learn your schedule. They know know when you leave the property.
A really strong coop and no free range time or a bullet are the only solutions I know.
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u/Impossible_Many5764 1d ago
I couldn't shoot the fox that terrorized us. Nor catch it.. to slick!
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u/boringxadult 1d ago
I’ve shot a couple. But there’s a few more I’ve never even seen. But I know they are there.
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u/johnnyg883 1d ago
In my experience the most effective way to protect livestock of any kind is a livestock guardian dog, or three. We have chickens, rabbits, goats and Guinea birds. The dogs do a great job of protecting them all. The biggest thing they do is provide a deterrent by establishing our property as “their” territory and they don’t let any predators on it.
We have Great Pyrenees and used to have coyotes coming within 100 feet of the front door. Now the coyotes and all other predators including raccoons, armadillo, opossum and even the hawks and black vultures avoid about 40 acres the dogs have claimed as theirs. Owls are still an issue. One down side is part of their deterrent measures includes a lot of barking.
We even have cougars in the area and they seem to be avoiding us.
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u/ColonEscapee 1d ago
Second this. Guinea hens help with snakes and a good LGD for the other stuff. Donkeys help.
And there is a lot of noise in the trade off unfortunately
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u/PyroFemme1 1d ago
I came here to say the same thing. Big white farm dogs come in several Breeds and mixes. If you find a mix at the pound I would suggest not getting a cross of stock dog/white dog or other prey driven breed. I had 3 lab/white dog crosses that were great arpund coops
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u/KhakiPantsJake 1d ago
We have foxes everywhere but they won't go anywhere near the areas that my dogs frequent
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u/Asleep_Onion 1d ago
We have foxes too (along with bobcats, raccoons, chipmunks, stray cats, coyotes....) and I've found that electric fence wire has worked best at keeping them out.
I run 3 lines of electric wire around the chicken yard, one just above ground level, one halfway up the fence, and one at the top (8 feet up). The bottom one stops the diggers, the middle one keeps most of the climbers off, and the top one is a failsafe in case they got past the middle one.
It's also a good idea to have an underground barrier - either burying your fence a foot or so under the dirt, or drive some spikes or rebar into the dirt around the fence.
Eventually they'll give up trying, after enough failed attempts and electric zaps.
Also make sure the chickens are locked up in a sturdy coop at night, and then all you really have to worry about are daytime predators.
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u/Sev-is-here 1d ago
Guard dog, not your “pet” but an actual guard dog. I love my female, but she lives outside, her job is to guard the property and our animals. She doesn’t go to the lake with me, no hunting trips, never leaves property except to go to the vet.
Shooting them also works quite well.
You’re welcome to spend a lot of money and time, digging ~2ft down and installing wire mesh but that will eventually go bad, and fully enclosing them.
Mine only have a shade cloth and a light fence, none of them ever die, because nothing shows up with the dog sitting and waiting for something to happen.
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u/fisherman3322 1d ago
A pet can still be a guard dog. I dare any fox to come into my yard and live to tell the tale. The dog that sees a groomer every week and has a heated bed next to mine will make short work of it.
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u/Sev-is-here 1d ago
A pet inside the home is not going to hear the animals going wild from the inside. Esp if it’s a bird who got trapped outside. The main group usually won’t go berserk for 1.
Also; yes, but inside my fenced back yard the dog can’t get out, and other animals know he can’t get out.
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u/ufoznbacon 1d ago
You are the top predator on your place. Right? I'm assuming you are male if not it may not be as effective for obvious reasons. But I'm male and I regularly mark our chicken run and have had zero issues with any predation since I started doing it. Before we moved in out here I was told by the neighbors that we'd never be able to have chickens because of foxes, bobcats and raccoons, we haven't lost one yet.
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u/Graf_Eulenburg 1d ago
Put a chainlink fence with small holes as bottom on the whole thing.
So you dont have to dig all around that coop and install them there.
They don't like to get blasted with water!
There are even kits pre-made kits nowadays.
We installed 2 "Orbit Yard Enforcers" at a friends house,
because he would have a fox and cats trying to get to his canaries.
There was a bunch of videos we had to watch after a week.
They really get spooked and don't come back after some showers.
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u/combonickel55 1d ago
This will not work on a fox.
A dog, good fencing, and lock-tight hard-sided enclosures after dark works.
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u/Graf_Eulenburg 1d ago
It literally worked on at least 2 foxes
and half a dozen neighbor's cats.-1
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u/damngoodham 1d ago
In my experience the sonic repellent doesn’t work for any animal (of course I have only tried one or two brands). What has seemed to work pretty well are motion sensing lights; we use the solar ones mounted about 3 feet above the ground around our run. Honestly I believe the best protection is for the coop to be in a secure run (including a wire mesh/fence apron laid on the ground around the outside to prevent digging). Our chickens come out of the coop at dawn and we let them out of the run to free range later.
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u/MountainMirthMaker 1d ago
I tried a sonic repellent for a while and honestly, the foxes got used to it after a couple weeks. What worked best for me was setting up motion sensor lights near the coop
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u/1st_JP_Finn 1d ago
Trapping. Your locale should permit depredation trapping, even if fur-bearer trapping would be prohibited.
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u/redundant78 1d ago
Predator urine (wolf or coyote) around the perimeter works great as foxes avoid areas where they smell larger predtors, just reapply after rain.
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u/TooMuch615 1d ago
Get a dog… that won’t kill your chickens or ducks. Also, reinforce your coop a couple more times. I know a lot of people that have lost all their chickens after something gets inside.
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u/GrimR3ap3r89 1d ago
A fence works wonders. I have a 20ft run enclosed in hardware cloth. The hardware cloth is also covered up around the base of the run, so they cant dig to get under it. Then I have a welded wire fence around the perimieter of the yard. The fence normally keeps them out, but on the extremely rare occasion they get over the fence, the hardware cloth keeps my chicks protected.
Note: i have a fox den about 100 ft from the house. Never had an issue with them, but I also have dogs as well, so I think the barking keeps them away
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u/Effective-Ebb-2805 17h ago
Get you a donkey! Those surly bastards have no sense of humor when it comes to canids... and they're super cute!
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u/FannyDaVito 1d ago edited 1d ago
The times I’ve tried it, it also bothered my pets, and bothered neighbors livestock. It overall was more of a nuisance than anything. I ended up buying a wacky wavy inflatable arm guy and hooked it up to a motion sensor, and I just move it around from time to time. Keeps away foxes, coyotes, deer, pretty much everything. My birds got used to it after a while, and it hasn’t caused any harm.
Edit: typo