how do you catch a weasel?

we've had 4 attacks in the past few days, I have SEEN the weasel, last night one of the cats went under the coop, the weasel shot out, this was at dark, but I could tell by the shape what it was.

this thing has been having a field day, or days..all attacks have been DURING the day, and the total has been 5 birds, one of our brahma/EE crosses, one of our older mutt hens, and just today, two of our golden comet pullets, yesterday it was a young barred rock cockeral, all of the birds had the same exact wounds, skin ripped off the back or front of the necks, from the shoulders to the top of the head, and that skin eaten, I guess, no feathers with strips of skin., except for the BR cockeral who was small and always feathered out wierd, it didn't have a head from the shoulders up

we can't try livetraps,because of cats, or poison bait for the same reason, I don't own a gun so we can't shoot it,

I'm hoping that it'll be like last time, someothing got two birds the same day, then this is the second ever attack at this scale.

it might help mentioning that the birds are all going through a round of URI's so are abit weaker that normal, could that be why they're such easy pickings?, oddly enough none of the chicks, or the young ducks that were out were bothered, and never have been.

I'm not sure if this is the same weasel I had seen before, I know one of the cats cought one once, and the attacks stopped until now.

I have been told to use a rat trap.

I would try a live trap anyway. You can always release your cat.

Is there no way to put the cats in for a day to prevent them from being caught?

I have never seen a weasel around here. Are they a regional pest?

URIs?

we tried to catch one that killed one of our babies. the wild life place gave us this rat trap and then a little container-ish thing that had a hole in one side and then and isle and an opening to the other side of it(it was like split in half). behind the opening the rat trap was placed and then on each side of the rat trap you could put bait, so it would have to walk over the trap to get the bait and then SNAP! you'd have yourself a weasel. sadly, none of them tried.

eta: injuries sound just like what happened to my baby girl. i hope you get the little demons!

I had terrible and tragic problems with a weasel until I managed finally to get as sly as he was. Here's (briefly as possible) what I did: used a live trap and baited it heartbreakingly with a chicken killed by him the previous night. I spent hours lining up the trap so there was truly only one narrow way in--used hay bales, bricks, whatever I could find. 'Baited' with a few tiny chicken tidbits in a line--but not too much. Wedged the dead chicken under the trap tightly so she could not be pulled out or reached any other way but from right inside the trap. It took me a long time to set this up and get the trap door set. I was truly rewarded the next morning when I found Mr Weasel in the trap. I could not bellieve my eyes. His head was hardly bigger than my thumb. No wonder they can squeeze in anywhere. I knew that my poor dead hen had served her sisters well.
M'egg
Ontario, Canada

I hide my traps for a weasel .
Under a junk pile is good . they are sneaky and I find that hiding the traps in the hiding areas works great.

In the fall with snow and fresh tracks,,,,, they are very easy to kill.because weasels kill ,,day and night nonstop..

thomas

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Upper respretory infection, like what cats get, sneezing, sniffling the whole nine yards.

seems to happen alot, someones always got it LOL

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oh i am so sorry about your hen i know how heartbreaking it is too lose one, but thankfully you got the little devil and he can no longer get your babies.

I think you are lucky only loosing 5 in two attacks. A weasel slaughtered all 9 of my daughter's silkies in one night, eating nothing from them, and leaving them in a pile where they roost. A few nights ago we heard a commotion in the henhouse (different from Silkie pen), and found a weasel about to kill his third chicken. He waited nearby while we made hasty repairs to the outer wire and removed the dead. But he came back the next night, I don't know how he got in, and killed 7 more. We have set a trap but so far nothing. We barracaded the chickens in their shed and haven't lost any more. This is the first time ever, loosing chickens that were roosting inside their coop. I hope we catch that SOB is all I can say.