Trapping Chicken Killers

[JJSS89]

Nice!

 

[JJSS89]

Trapping Chicken Killers:

Who's ever had something killing their flock that they thought it was one creature but turned out to be another?

I had a situation where something had ripped into my pen at night and ripped apart two d'uccle hens. I was so sure it was a raccoon. I set a large cage trap at the entrance and eagerly checked the next morning. It was about a 60 lb pitbull mix crammed into that cage trap!

 

[enola]

The only predators that come in pairs around here are dogs.

 

[JJSS89]

Dogs are pretty infuriating. *Nothing wrong with cage trapping them in my opinion*

Photographic evidence of what the neighbors "sweet puppy" is doing at night tends to help keep that dog off your property.

*DISCLAIMER* Nothing wrong if you don't worry about your relationship with your neighbor

 

[Country SLP]

Hi all,
So I'm relatively new to this forum.  I have been raising poultry for 15 years.

I have been a licensed Wildlife Control Operator since 2009 and I've been trapping nuisance wildlife and for commercial fur for over ten years.  If you want to bash that, please do it via PM so we don't derail this thread.

I would like to answer questions about trapping and dealing with specific predators and obviously others can chime in too.  This is designed for people to learn how to effectively remove problem animals.

**DISCLAIMER** every state has a unique set of laws, it is up to you to act appropriately.  I will just give advice on what works and you are responsible for acting legally and ethically.

We've just been attacked by what we believe was a weasel. We lost two of our ducks. Both had blood everywhere, & they were torn at the necks. Any advice on how to dispose of the weasel(s)? I've seen how-to's on weasel boxes with rat traps & blood/chicken livers, but I wondered if anything else should be done? Are weasels pack animals? We live in SE Michigan, so I'm not certain of the type of weasel it might be. I just want to get rid of that evil little devil immediately. Our final duck is now living in the pole barn until further notice.

 

[CarioFarms]

I posted about two weeks ago about a similar thing happening with our chickens. We lost five (we thought seven, but two turned up in later counts) to what we thought was a weasle. They were all headless, but there was very little blood in the coop and their bodies were otherwise mostly undisturbed.

My husband was able to make two weasle traps using instructions we found on YouTube. It was pretty simple, took him about an hour to knock them out. We used chicken liver as bait and rat traps inside the boxes.

No weasles ever turned up.

But, we'd also set a large live trap that we baited with a chicken carcass and wrapped in a blanket. That caught us a VERY feisty male mink. (We live in SW PA) After we disposed of him, we left the trap out thinking there'd be more. We caught an opossum, but after that the trap went empty for days and days. At this point, I think we're in good shape, though we have continued to close the door between the run and the coop at night, just in case.

Weasle traps are pretty easy, but keep in mind it could be something larger.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

wet cat food is good bait

 

[aggiemae]

You mention deer ruining your crops and fish...... What are the deer doing to your fish????

The heron ate the fish last year we rigged up some crazy overhead string thing that they don't fly through but they do sit on top of the shed and watch the pond.

The deer keep away because of our obnoxious dogs but they to get into the side yard garden where the berries and fruit trees are.

 

[ChicKat]

This guy had gotten into and out of the trap a couple of times according to the game cam -- without springing the trap. I put some WD-40 on all the moving parts - and last night threw in a part of a can of the cheapest dog food in the grocery 59-cents - and I put two eggs that a broody had abandoned after a couple of days -- and I hadn't disposed of as yet.

Earlier I had gotten another raccoon -- smaller 8.5 pounds.... I hope this is the last one. I guess others will move in -- but this big one knew how to scale a 6-foot chain link into the courtyard of my pens, and then dig under THAT interior fence...(pretty strategic - scary how smart they are) -- and terrorized my Isbars and killed one that is entirely irreplaceable -- not just a case of 'oh you can always hatch another one'. Earlier an Isbar had disappeared of course - free ranging -- could have been this guy -- could have been something else.




So remorseful now:



Has anyone taken a raccoon for taxidermy? There is a nature center that I could donate it too -- (unless it could be a decoy and keep all future raccoons away forever lol) I have heard costs around $350 - but I'm afraid that my gun will mess it up too much -- any ideas for a way to kill it and have the remains in good shape if I go that route? I guess I could ask my friend to come over with a .22 -- Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks. And thanks to the OP for starting this thread........and everyone who has put in ideas. I never used eggs as bait before.

 

[teamjessie]

Has anyone taken a raccoon for taxidermy? There is a nature center that I could donate it too -- (unless it could be a decoy and keep all future raccoons away forever lol) I have heard costs around $350 - but I'm afraid that my gun will mess it up too much -- any ideas for a way to kill it and have the remains in good shape if I go that route? I guess I could ask my friend to come over with a .22 -- Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks. And thanks to the OP for starting this thread........and everyone who has put in ideas. I never used eggs as bait before.

We used a .22. My husband used subsonic, hollowpoint rounds. Our main concerns were the noise (subsonic sounds like a loud balloon pop - not disruptive at all!), and the hollow points make sure the bullet doesn't, uh, go through the animal, and damage your trap.

There was a time when I might have been more sympathetic to raccoons, but after I saw what it did to my chicken... never again! It found a way through the ROOF of our run, six feet up, and got up into the coop from there. All it wanted was the eggs, but on the way out, it just casually pulled the head off one of my olive eggers. I've lost two to hawks, and as awful as that was, at least the hawks ate them. The raccoon just did this for the hell of it.

We did not have the animal taxidermied, but my husband now has a raccoon skin hanging out in his workshop. Eggs are great bait, BTW.

I'm really sorry to hear about your chickens! When you've got an animal going over and under fences like that, you've got a menace on your hands. It's time for it to go.