Need advice on weasel control.

[PoultryQueen12]

We had pest proofed our coop by putting fencing on the walls and the ceilings and coving any holes that we could find.

However, back in December I lost my 5 silkies because something got into the coop. It was like the scene from Alien when the creature comes out of the person's stomach. It was horrible. We think that it was either a weasel or mink because they could have been small enough to find their way in.

Any advice on how to prevent very small animals like a weasel or mink would be very helpful.
We are going to be getting some new chicks soon for my sister's 4-H project and we would like to get the coop to be safe again before her chicks are too big and have to move in there.

 

[bobbi-j]

We had pest proofed our coop by putting fencing on the walls and the ceilings and coving any holes that we could find.

However, back in December I lost my 5 silkies because something got into the coop. It was like the scene from Alien when the creature comes out of the person's stomach. It was horrible. We think that it was either a weasel or mink because they could have been small enough to find their way in.

Any advice on how to prevent very small animals like a weasel or mink would be very helpful.
We are going to be getting some new chicks soon for my sister's 4-H project and we would like to get the coop to be safe again before her chicks are too big and have to move in there.

Mink really aren't that small, so I would guess it was a weasel. They're tough, because they don't need much space to squeeze through - maybe an inch or so. You need to look over every inch of your coop and cover any space small enough for a weasel to get in. What kind of fencing do you already have?

 

[PoultryQueen12]

We had just typical chicken wire that was about an inch to an inch and a half sized hole. We have considered changing it to rabbit fencing that has much smaller spacing.

 

[19disbre]

Trap the weasel, they are actually quite easy to catch, use a fresh bloody bait like liver put it in a weasel box (just google it it is simple) with one hole guard that hole with a RAT sized snap trap with the big yellow pans or make a big pan yourself, or #1 or #0 sized long spring trap

 

[aart]

1/2" hardware cloth.