Chickens ate chick.

Can of tuna. You can even use just the fish water from the tuna. Or canned catfood. Really stinky canned catfood. They love stinky, meaty smells. If you do shoot it, don't do it in the barn; they can spray even in death. MAKE SURE YOU COVER THE TRAP before you move it. All that bad stuff you hear about skunk spray? Pretty much true. If you relocate it, you will need to go pretty far away or it might come right back for the chicken buffet. You won't likely be able to discourage it. If it were a fox, it likely would have eaten the whole chick in one go and not leave leftovers like muskelids do.

Since you don't know what it is, it is really hard to suggest a bait. I’ve got a lot of raccoons and possum by putting a spoonful of peanut butter in a paper towel and tossing that in the trap. Never caught a skunk that way though. When I make chicken broth I use carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs. I save those as bait, again wadding them in a paper towel. That works really well for possum and skunks, I’ve got some raccoon with that too. I’ve even caught songbirds. Other people have their own preferences for bait. Some people really like sardines for raccoons, they might work for a bobcat or mink. I don’t know. A fox would probably require a living animal as bait.

It’s probably illegal to trap and release an animal, but not everywhere. You can call your animal control and see what they say. They might even take it off your hands but a lot of places won’t. If you do release it, which I don’t, make sure it is many miles away from your place. Some of them can have tremendous homing instincts.

If it is digging in, my main suggestion is to put an apron around your coop and run. Lay a trip of wire maybe 18” wide flat on the ground and attach that to the bottom of your run or coop. You don’t have to bury it, just lay something on top of it to keep it down, but taking the top two inches of turf off and putting the wire under that works really well to keep it down and out of weed whackers and lawn mowers. The idea is that a predator goes up to the fence, starts to dig, hits the wire, and does not know to back up. This can be really effective stopping digging predators.

minichicks05 said:

It came back again why won't this stupid animal leave us ALONE!! So now we are putting out a trap for this animal. Anyone know food to lure it in?! Should we shoot the animal after or realease it some where else? What happens if it's a fox I would kind of feel bad to shoot him/her? Any suggestions?

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When I had something taking my pullets from a run I used boiled egg and sliced ham. I would think that sardines, something smelly, would work. At any rate,

the eggs and sliced ham as bait in a live trap caught a black mink within hours.

nchls school said:

When I had something taking my pullets from a run I used boiled egg and sliced ham. I would think that sardines, something smelly, would work. At any rate, the eggs and sliced ham as bait in a live trap caught a black mink within hours.

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So glad you caught that mink!!! They are the worse!!!!!

Nothing came but we but pepperoni,peanut butter,berries,ham,sardines,and some hard boiled eggs, but this animal is smart... It got some food out from the other side. I think we are going to set out a security camera

Darn varmit!!! Hope you get him soon!!

Yeah! I hope so to!

A security camera is a great idea. It gets a lot easier when you know what you are dealing with.

There were 3 animals.... 1 a fox, 1 skunk, 1 small animal.
We caught all of them and moved them over the course of 3 days.
There was one small animal that we couldn't catch but scared away. It looked almost like a rat/possum.
So hopefully no more animals come!
I will let you know if anymore do come.
Thanks for the help couldn't have done it without you guys,
Kate

Awesome!! Glad it's getting fixed!