12 
BULLETIN 1350, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
As dressed fish must be carried or otherwise conveyed to the smoke- 
house, distance is an item to be considered. The size of the house 
depends upon the quantity of feed required. The one shown in Fig- 
ure 11 serves an island on which are 40 pairs of foxes. 
Foxes should not be killed and pelted in the building where feed 
is stored or prepared; if necessary, a special shed should be built 
for the purpose. Such use of the feed house would not be sanitary and, 
in addition, it would favor the chances of transmission of disease. 
Structures 6 for temporary occupancy, such as are required for 
injured, sick, or newly purchased foxes, may be comparatively small. 
The st}de and method of construction will depend upon the location 
and lay of the land. A temporary pen used for the purpose may be 
10 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 6 feet high. A frame of 2 by 4 ma- 
terial is entirely covered by Xo. 15-gauge wire netting of 1%-iiich 
mesh, with a small door in the 
front. As the pen rests di- 
rectly on the ground, it is well 
to cover the floor wire with 
sand or fine gravel and earth. 
This material should be re- 
moved frequently and clean 
dirt substituted to prevent 
contamination. A small nest 
box should be placed inside 
the pen, or outside and con- 
nected with it by a chute. 
TRAP-FEED HOUSES 
Trap-feed houses should be 
erected at various points, the 
number and the distance apart 
depending on the size and 
topography of the island as 
well as on the number of foxes 
ranched. They provide a 
place where foxes may eat un- 
molested by eagles, ravens, and 
crows; and where they may be captured uninjured for marking or 
examination, and when prime (fig. 13). They may be built of 
material at hand on the island; but dressed lumber makes a neater 
job, and houses so constructed are much more easily cleaned. These 
houses should have a floor measurement of at least 6 by 8 feet and 
be high enough to permit a man to stand upright. 
There are two types of trap-feed houses. In one the foxes enter 
through a trap chute and eat on the floor of the house. In the 
other they eat on an upper floor and fall to the ground floor when 
they spring the trap (fig. 14). 
Figure 15 shows the first-mentioned type of trap-feed house with 
the trap installed. This trap, however, can be made to fit a house 
of almost any size or shape (fig. 16). A detailed drawing of the 
B24724 
Fig. 12. — The five-tiered smokehouse illus- 
trated will smoke and store about 5,000 
salmon 
6 Information which will be helpful to those constructing pens for raising- blue foxes 
is contained in U. S. Dept. Agr. Bulletin No. 1151, " Silver-Fox Farming."' Blue prints 
of plans for constructing pens and dens may also be obtained free on application to U. S. 
Department <>f Agriculture, Washington, D. C 
