FOX-FARMING IN CANADA 47 



not to approach the ranch premises on pain of being fined for trespass. 

 In New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec, laws have 

 been passed making it an offence punishable by a heavy fine to approach 

 near a fur ranch.* 



The keeper should move cautiously and quietly about the pens 

 when feeding. He should have a post of observation from which he 

 can see the pens and yet not be seen. A dark chamber with a hidden 

 approach and a small window to look through may serve. From this 

 post an experienced breeder can ascertain when mating occurs. At the 

 earliest, whelping will take place fifty days after mating, though it may 

 be fifty-two days, or, in rare instances, fifty-three or fifty-four days, 

 especially with the first litter. Fifty-one days is the usual period of 

 gestation. 



If the keeper plans to remove the male, he should have the 

 the°Male^ pens built in such a manner that the male may be shut out 



(away from the female, though with only a fence or double 

 wired fence intervening) without a suspicion on the part of the foxes 

 of design in such a removal. The action of some breeders in entering 

 the pen and catching the dog with tongs or catching box is universally 

 condemned as very dangerous at this period. If the male is kept close 

 by, he will watch and warn whenever he fears danger and, moreover, he 

 takes an interest in the rearing of the young— frequently carrying his 

 food along the fence, apparently with the intention of giving it to the 

 female and the young. 



It is not usual for parent foxes to kUl the young 

 ExcTted^Mothers intentionally, but, when they become nervous, they 



sometimes remove the pups to another place. A mother 

 will frequently become greatly excited and, dashing into her nest, will 

 carry out the pups one by one and bury them in the snow or mud. 

 This frequently occurs and is the great fear of ranchers in the spring 

 months. It is difficult to tell what to do in such an emergency, except 

 to see that the foregoing preventive measures are taken. The measures 

 suggested in the following paragraph have been successfully carried 

 out in more than one instance. 



A crate of chickens or rabbits should be kept near at hand so that 

 if a mother carries her young about, a live chicken or rabbit may^ be 

 put into the pen to attract her attention and turn her from her im- 

 pulse of hiding the young elsewhere. One breeder says that he stopped 

 one mother with an egg which he threw in front of her from outside 

 the fence when she was carrying out her pups. 



*See Appendix VII. 



