Anyone ever made Weasel Sets? *Descriptions a little graphic*

[HennyJenny]

I've got a fricken weasel. In the last two days I've lost seven of my four month olds. It has to be a weasel. Last night it killed six in one night. The babies got chased out of the big coop and were sleeping in the old little coop. I didn't think too much of it. It just has a piece of wood that "kind of" covers the pop door but leaves about a one inch gap. He killed one the night before last and tried to drag it under the coop. I thought it was a coon so I didn't think much about the door gap last night. It laid out all my pullets side by side and chewed up their necks and then ate the head and crop off the last one in the row. So I've spent the afternoon putting an apron on the run and on the coops themselves but I don't want that little weasel here. I'll never get a moments rest. So I bought rat traps to make weasel sets but the whole weasel set thing seems - well - too easy. Are there any tricks? I'm going on the assumption that even though it got all of the babies in the little coop - that it "knows" there are bigger gifts in the big coop and that I just need it removed permanently from the premises. My plan is to put the sets in the little coop (assuming that he'll return for the others that he killed).

It dug about a one to two inch hole under the back end of the big coop and into the run on the other side to get in - so I don't think he's much bigger than 10 to 12 inches. Of course if he is - or if it's a mink I suppose I'll have to change my trap plan.

Anyway - anyone with weasel trapping advice - or if you disagree about what predator I think this is - please chime in!

Thanks!
Jenny

 

[aprophet]

google weasel box the first coupla links are good examples on how to do it safely we do not have that many here but I trap a few for the mink lure I make

 

[HennyJenny]

aprophet - I did just that to find out about weasel sets

- I think I saw your post on another thread when I searched. So there's no "trick" to it? Does the rat trap act as a foot trap or does it work like a rat trap? I guess what I'm asking is - will it kill the weasel - or will I have to do it?

ETA - Oh - I just saw pictures of a successful one

- I see.... Thanks!

 

[woodmort]

Need a small havaheart and one of the dead chickens for bait. I got mine in less than 12 hrs after I set it.

 

[HennyJenny]

Woodmort - what did you do with it after that? That thing looks huge in the pictures! How big was it?

 

[77horses]

Ugh. Weasels. I've had issues with them before.

Hate hate hate hate them!

They are the sneakiest and they WILL come back for more the next night/early morning until the food source is completely gone. If you don't get rid of it now, it will find a way to get the rest. They can squeeze through tiny spaces, climb, dig, and chew through soft wood and other materials. Back in 2007, the last time a weasel attacked, it killed my first flock of chickens I ever had except for two roosters, who were in a different coop. It killed the two hens, and then came back for the rooster the next night. The two young roosters who were in the other coop were perfectly fine. It's because it had been actually burrowing right under the coop without us knowing, because there are a bunch of chipmunks and squirrels that live under there, and it climbed up to the small chicken door and chewed a small hole in the door to get in. Just like your description, all of them had been decapitated. That is most often what weasels do when they kill their prey.
We set up a box trap with raw liver meat inside, but for some reason, before it could get caught, the weasel disappeared and never came back. Once we found out where it was hiding (under the coop), we managed to scare it out. Our dog chased it out one day and it never came back, so I never found out how well the box trap worked.



But like I said, get rid of it ASAP. Either by getting a live trap and relocating it somewhere far far far away, or killing it yourself somehow. Of course, me being a Vegetarian and liking animals so much, I would not kill it. That's just my preference. Although relocating it may be moving the problem to someone else, and if it's not far enough away, it might find its way back.

A live trap that I've heard of that works every time (besides those Have-a-Heart traps) is you take a large water jug (the one that you usually see at offices, like this:

), put raw meat in it (such as chicken, liver, etc.) and then bury it in the ground up to the hole at the top, so it looks like a hole in the ground. The weasel will find it, and slip right into the hole. And while they can jump/climb very well, they won't be able to get out as much as they try because of the slippery plastic surface of the water jug and the curved shape.

 

[aprophet]

the bloodier the bait the quicker you catch them I like some type of liver the snap type rat trap kills them pretty much instantly. sorry I am not on as much trapping season is getting going here I am back to almost a dark to dark existence LOL alot of the other baits given above are good as well with the liver try a little anise flavoring from the baking department at your local grocery

they are kin to skunks mink and otters {families of Hyanidae, Mustielidae} if you ever have to kill one and they spray you will not forget the smell

a lot like a mink