Weasel - gruesome detail warning. Need ideas to catch?

[Ashdoes]

Whether I catch the weasel or not, my pen building skills get finer every year. 

I think that's the answer for most predator attacks....make your chicken's safe and secure. Good luck catching it.

 

[Gypsi]

*except the rats.

If the weasel is relocated to a city park, there are a few critters that will know it's there. They are nasty critters and carry everything from fleas to the black plague.

 

[Hamstery]

I've had chickens since spring 2010 and this is my first, and hopefully last, weasel attack.

I was shocked to learn we had them near us. Turns out they like 'wetlands' and that is essentially...my back yard.

 

[Greyfox Farm]

I use a simple "weasel box." It's just a wooden box about 8" square and 18" long, hinged on top, hardware cloth on one end, wood on other end with 2" diamater hole. Just inside the hole place a simple rat trap and place your bait (raw meat of any type) past the trap and a little bit on the trap trigger. The scent of the meat escapes through the hardware cloth attracting the weasel, who then investigates and sticks his head into the trap, grabs the meat on the trigger and is instantly killed. If you think that's inhumane, just look on You-tube for videos of " weasel killing (fill in the blank)". They are gruesome and powerful killing machines. I'll gladly kill every one that comes near my birds.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Euthanizing a wild animal for doing what it does naturally, when it could be safely relocated to an unpopulated area, seems cruel and unnecessary.
If it can be trapped and moved, why not?
~Ashley

Because there is virtually no place in the USA where there are not houses somewhere close by.

If you have an area where there is no house or farm within 100 miles in any direction, and you are willing to drive a couple of hundred miles to release an animal, then the animal you release is most likely going to die because it is unfamiliar with that location. That is not doing the animal a kindness.

 

[Gypsi]

Weasels are a blessing in the city, where rodent populations boom but chickens are few.

 

[Gypsi]

Well, the greenhouse is empty at last. My backyard coop no longer has openings a golfball will fit through, plus the dog smell has kept that part of the yard predator free for years. I have 3 dogs. They sleep in at night, but no predator has been brave enough to see if one of them might be outdoors and restless on a given night.

My old production red and barred rock are in a new, not terribly secure pen on the bee-lot. In the shade of a large elm tree. The bottom couple of feet of the run is quite secure, but at the moment the roof isn't on yet, and the top 3 feet of the heavy 2x4 fencing has 2x4 inch openings, plenty of room for a weasel. These hens don't lay much anymore, although I did get an egg today, and they were quite willing to peck my baby australorps, so off they went. Hope to get them a roof when it cools off this evening. And some more one inch chickenwire around the upper 3 feet. The run is apron-ed with it as well. I need some more landscape pins. But they have a cool spot in the shade, food and water, and they are expendable if something goes wrong. I set a rat trap under a propped up plastic tub a couple of feet from their pen, smells like the rat I killed last week I'm sure. And I sprinkled scratch around it. We shall see what comes to call. The lot isn't as well-fenced as my backyard.

Gypsi

 

[Gypsi]

Well the deaths have slowed down, but I lost another hen, in my main coop, on Monday night. Last time I brought my dogs in overnight was July 4th and I stuffed all the birds in the actual coop. I'd been over the run and didn't find openings, so I let the ladies stay on the perch in the run, it was hot. Cost me a hen. Probably would have cost me more if my dog hadn't needed to potty at 3 am.

So Tuesday night, my remaining 3 pullets and 2 hens went in the chick coop in the greenhouse at 10:30, and my biggest housecat and veteran street roaming hunter went in the run with a bowl of cat chow. He just loved it, got up on top of the nest box roof and reclined to wait. He hates being in the house, but the coyotes nearly got him a couple of years ago. I have watched him dismember a rabbit. I think the weasel will have a surprise. I will be moving my birds every night. Dogs deter the weasel, but I want more than deterrence. I will one day want more chickens. This weasel has to go.

I took the pet rat back to the feed store yesterday, he failed to catch the weasel. If it is live birds for bait we must have, well there are rat traps under the screen in the greenhouse, armed and ready for any night the weasel manages to push past the window and through the narrow screen gap. No bait. Just a landing trap.

I've gotten a lot less kind to wildlife through this, I've lost 14 birds.

 

[bruceha2000]

I suspect a house cat dismembering a rabbit isn't at ALL like picking a fight with a weasel. One is a prey animal, the other a predator with sharp claws, teeth and attitude.

I wish you luck, you have lost WAY too many birds. I have HOPEFULLY protected my chicks in their coop from anything likely to come by. All 1/2" plywood and 1/2" x1/2" hardware cloth, most of it over preexisting chicken wire or 2x4 welded wire.

But ... we all know that there is no such thing as 100% predator proof.

Bruce

 

[TeamChaos]

Oh Gypsi, I wish you the best of luck! I am still after my weasel.