best way to unweasel one's self....?

[Al Gerhart]

I can understand you not wanting to kill an animal. I was a vegetarian for eight years. But you must understand that you will have to be absolutely determined to defeat the weasel if you don't want to kill the it, and you'll probably never be able to relax your vigilance.

Oh, and we should tell you that weasels can chew through plastic zip ties. They won't keep your cages secured if one gets in the coop. Call me crazy but I'd secure them with padlocks. Also I've read here at BYC that if the mesh isn't small enough (say 1/2" X 1/2") the weasel will, if he can, reach through the wire and pull out whatever part of the bird he can grab to gnaw it off. Many people have lost birds hideously that way. I'd also worry that, if the mesh size is okay but the cages are not large enough for the birds to get away from the critter, he may be able to gnaw off tiny parts. But I'm a newbie at chickens so I don't know much. I've just learned from BYC not to be complacent about weasels.

If you can, I'd suggest using non-galvanized hardware cloth (zinc used in galvanizing is toxic to birds) with a 1/2" mesh to cover any areas with gaps. I'd nail it over outside corners of the coop, too, to keep his buddies from chewing their way in. I'd nail it around the edge of the door and the door frame. I'd go nuts securing the coop. Then I'd use more of the hardware cloth for the run walls and an electrical wire or two around the run fence that you could flip on at night or when the birds are in the coop.

What I've read at BYC has convinced me that weasels are smart, persistent and can squeeze through nearly any gap. Gosh, I hope you don't lose anymore animals to the critter.

Zinc isn't toxic, it is an essential element for nearly all creatures. The galvanized hardware cloth is fine.