Instead of riding, I've been doing this...

[GLV55]

UPDATE: We have only trapped one more of the smaller foxes and released it into the wilds with its siblings. I think the others might have moved on to other hunting grounds around here looking for easier prey. The neighbor might have had something to do with their dispersal - he drilled a hole in the floor of the shed under which the foxes were denned up and dropped in a large firecracker or four. We haven't seen any at night since this, so he might have sufficiently scared them off. Either way, I'm not spending a large amount of time setting/baiting/checking traps in the evening, so it's back to riding - finally! 

Of course, now that I can spend some time riding again, the County Highway District is chip-sealing all the roads around us. So now I have to take a 3 mile detour to get around riding on all the gravel they put down; in another week they will topcoat it with a layer of tar, so that will take another week to dry out and not be slick as snot. OY! 

[h2ou8n4]

We've got lots of red and grey fox here in the Texas hill country. I don't have any chickens so I let 'em be; they are great for keeping field mice and snakes away.

[ole two wheels]

A few days back I was working in my shop when I heard someone screaming bloody murder. When I looked I saw this huge red fox running across the road with something in it's mouth. Later I found out it was the lady two houses over. She caught the fox when the chickens went to making a lot of noise. She told me they had lost nearly three cage fulls of chickens. This all happened in broad day light. Hardly anybody around here keeps chickens anymore. My daughter who lives about two blocks from me has lost one puppy and two full grown goats over the last 3 or 4 years. She says it was coyotes that got her goats.. I guess they are all just trying to survive.

[h2ou8n4]

All my neighbors who have chickens, goats, cats or sheep keep a good dog to fend off coyotes and other predators. Heelers and Catahoulas are the prized breeds. My Sadie is sudden death for snakes!

[GLV55]

We've got lots of red and grey fox here in the Texas hill country. I don't have any chickens so I let 'em be; they are great for keeping field mice and snakes away.

Oh, I would love it if they only ate the mice and snakes in the field across the road, I would just let them go about their lives.  But they seem to prefer KFC. 

[GLV55]

A few days back I was working in my shop when I heard someone screaming bloody murder. When I looked I saw this huge red fox running across the road with something in it's mouth. Later I found out it was the lady two houses over. She caught the fox when the chickens went to making a lot of noise. She told me they had lost nearly three cage fulls of chickens. This all happened in broad day light. Hardly anybody around here keeps chickens anymore. My daughter who lives about two blocks from me has lost one puppy and two full grown goats over the last 3 or 4 years. She says it was coyotes that got her goats.. I guess they are all just trying to survive.

The same has happened here, too. Saw a fox about 3 weeks ago just strutting down the middle of the road in broad daylight with a chicken in its mouth. They were getting pretty brazen about it. They cleaned out approximately 30 chickens in our neighborhood in about a month. Luckily, we don't have coyotes this close to town, so the goats are safe for now.

[GLV55]

All my neighbors who have chickens, goats, cats or sheep keep a good dog to fend off coyotes and other predators. Heelers and Catahoulas are the prized breeds. My Sadie is sudden death for snakes!

Go Sadie! We have 4 dogs, but the Lab is over 13 years old and the other three are Chihuahua mixes that are about half the size of a young fox. Not much protection for the chickens, but they are a great early warning system, smelling the foxes whenever they come near and yapping their little fool heads off.