What animal is tunneling under our coop? Photos

[MrA123]

Within the past three weeks I noticed something burrowing around my coop and run. At first it resembled a mole, which we have an abundance of here in MO. And they are big! Some of them will be close to 6 inches in length and they have a bit of an attitude about them. I didn't think much about it until I noticed the tunnels had breached my chain link fence and there were exit tunnels....a lot of them. Okay, rat alert. I started stuffing bait down tunnels and covering the exits with wire and or metal so the chickens and the dogs couldn't access them. More tunnels, more exit holes.

Determined little so and so. I spent a week setting out Tom Cat Bait holders at night and picking them all up in the morning.

This went on for another week. Suddenly I found bait missing. Okay, mr or ms rat is getting greedy. Score. Three more days of diligent bait trap placement, work with a shovel collapsing tunnels and FINALLY. Last week I started smelling something dead. Very dead. I looked around but couldn't find anything obviously belly up in or out of the run. But today I was doing some clean up around the run and once again got a whiff of dead raton. No more new tunnels, no more exit holes. Battle over, at least till the next time.

Good job @77horses. Not stay diligent.

I've read that if you sprinkle a few sunflower seeds on top of a bucket filled with water, rodents will fall in faster and drown. They have no depth perception and suspect that they don't see the water level or that there is even water in the bucket.


Interesting though and something I wanted to pass on. I was wondering where the rats were coming from. We have what we thought were mole tunnels all over our pasture and in some places, yard. Okay some are moles. Our dog occasionally bring us us a gift mole home. But some are rats. Of course maybe a lot of them are rats but at least I know what and where the enemy is. I'm going to put out bait holders over the winter months when the ground finally freezes and there is snow on the ground so the vermin are hungry. Hopefully I can lower the census a bit before spring.

Well hopefully your dog cat chicken your child doesn’t get a hold of that poison.

 

[TOR]

Do weasels ever hunt during the day?
We haven’t had anything get into the coop, which is closed up entirely at night. Even if something gets into the run at night , as it has, there’s no way into the coop- unless it can chew through a metal-plated door!
So the only way a weasel would be able to get to the flock would be during the day.
Thanks for the reply!

yes weasel will hunt in daylight

 

[Aunt Angus]

Y'all, this thread is 2 years old.

 

[TOR]

yup i just posted and looked at date dummy me lol

 

[Aunt Angus]

yup i just posted and looked at date dummy me lol

I miss the date waaaay more than I care to admit!

 

[TOR]

I miss the date waaaay more than I care to admit!

I am guilty of this before should have known better

 

[Louie81]

Do weasels ever hunt during the day?
We haven’t had anything get into the coop, which is closed up entirely at night. Even if something gets into the run at night , as it has, there’s no way into the coop- unless it can chew through a metal-plated door!
So the only way a weasel would be able to get to the flock would be during the day.
Thanks for the reply!

Hey listen man, I am in a very similar situation, except I didn't run mesh on the ground, and today, this morning, I found 5 dead chickens and 2 dead guinea hens. I couldn't for the life of me understand how it happened. I had to go to school, so i disposed of the corpses and went off. When I got home and was cleaning up the mess, my wife noticed a hold about the size of a forearm, and (looking back on it this wasn't smart) she fit her whole ass arm up to her elbow in there. It was a legit tunnel, and there were feather and shit in there. If you find out what is doing that in your coop, you may answer what did it to mine. I hope that whatever did it never gets to your birds, cause it got to mine and murdered everything except the 2 ducks.

 

[Titania207]

Are there any updates on this? I found similar hokes and a tunnel into the coop - no harm to birds yet. I also live in Maine

 

[TOR]

This thread is dated, old. Rats tunnel, gophers, weasels. Weasel is the 1 to really worry about. Weasels will also use other animals tunnel system.
Rats are also damaging.
Set up a game camera.
If you have problems I would suggest start a new thread.

 

[Thechezman]

its a RAT.... I have them too ...