Decapitated chicken, how to trap predator

[CJreef]

My favorite little Bantam was decapitated and I found her uneaten and stuck in a hole that seemed to go nowhere. I am devastated. This happened during the night.
Until now we never had anything get in the barn. The chickens and two guineas are locked in one of the stalls at night. I had made sure that any visible hole between the stalls was patched. Whatever got in must have been very small like a weasel or a mink, perhaps a fisher. Can anyone tell me how I can trap those predators? I have a small live trap, what bait should I use?
I put some chicken safe rat poison around the base of the wall on the other side of the coop (stall) in the hopes the predator would eat it and die. Anybody think that will work?
Thanks for your feedback.

 

[ChickenyChickeny]

Rats eat the chickens head and pull their head down a hole... you have a rat problem

 

[ChickenyChickeny]

The chickens safe rat poison is a good idea

 

[Birdsong 82]

That’s what I would go with. I don’t know how they make it chicken safe but somebody apparently found a way to go. Which is great. It sounds like it would be a rat problem but even if it was a different small animal I think maybe the rat poison would go ahead and take care of whatever small animal that’s what I would go with. Even if it was a different small animal it would probably take care of that too.

 

[ChickenyChickeny]

Oh ya
Put the poison where your hens cannot get at it
Even if it is chicken safe,
Better safe then sorry

 

[Birdsong 82]

I do find it odd that it’s chicken safe because I’ve never heard of chicken safer at poison. But you’re right even though it’s chicken safe it’s probably not good if the chickens got into it and ate all of it. So I would definitely keep it away from the chickens to

 

[CJreef]

Thank you all.
Here is a link to the information about RatX, the safe rat/mice poison. It actually is not a poison but it does kill them.
I don't know if weasels and minks have the same digestive system. I will have to call the university to find out. If anybody knows please post.

http://www.wildlifeservices.org/RatXBooklet 2.14.pdf

 

[Howard E]

It could have been a mink, weasel of one of the cousins. Except with those, they often kill a whole bunch of birds and not just one. So another possible culprit would be coons.

But if weasels, you may want to make a weasel box. A weasel is small enough to use a standard Victor wooden rat trap in your box. A mink is larger, and while you use the same sort of box, trap for a mink now becomes a body grip along the lines of a 110 or even 120. Box gets modified some to handle the springs.

You can google Weasel Box and Mink Box for ideas and instructions on how to build the box, set the traps and what baits to use. My only advice on the Mink box is to find something other than Duke body grip traps. The Dukes are mass marketed and easy to find, but are not as well built as others and the triggers not nearly as good as many of the others. Traps like BMI.

If coons (read that as plural, as in more than one) then use the dog proof traps. The DP traps cost about 1/4th what a good live trap runs and are more effective on coons. So for the same money, you can buy several and nab a bunch of coons on the same night.

 

[Howard E]

BTW, if you can setup a game camera to monitor the action around the coop, you will find out who dunnit and trap accordingly.

 

[CJreef]

Thanks for the info Howard. It couldn't be coons. It had to be something very small that found a tiny hole I might have missed between the coop (a converted stall) and the next stall. Nothing big can get in our stone barn at night when the doors are closed.