DISASTER!!!!!!!!!!1

[aran]

so tonight I have just set up a kill trap...i hate to be involved in the death of anything but its either the birds or this critter and i love my birds so here we are. I have set a conibear 110 up with chicken giblets as bait. I have made a den trap covered in undergrowth with only one way in ...through the death trap. All the girls are locked away for the night, the ducks away in their coop, the cats and dog locked safely in the house. I hope this works and this trap affords the animal a quick and painless death. Cross your fingers.

 

[speckledhen]

Sure hope this resolves soon, Aran. You need some sleep!

 

[aran]

hehehe you are not wrong! I fired up the bator today...its only been running for a few hours now...its dry ( about 25% humidity at the moment in there) and one of the thermometers has crapped out so I will need a new one...there are 3 in there now but 2 of them suck...the one electronic medical thermometer is the only one worth having really...i will pick up another one or buy one over the internet.

i have 6 eggs from my girls now...after collecting tomorrows eggs if the bator is working ok I will set some of these eggs.

I almost feel guilty about having that trap out there you know...poor bloody thing is not going to know what hit it.

 

[aran]

the sneaky jerk didnt go near the trap last night...i set it off this morning myself with a stick just so there is no chance of a cat/dog getting injured during the day.

I will set it again at MN when I get home from work tonight.

 

[ozark hen]

so sorry, keep trying!!

 

[aran]

well its 130am and i just got in from work...too tired to mess with the trap tonight...maybe tomorrow.

 

[patandchickens]

Regarding your electric fence:

1) You may not have a good enough ground. Check that the wire connecting it to charger is very tightly and cleanly connected both to charger and to ground rod; get out hose and water the heck out of the area around the ground rod for a while (this can really help sometimes); and it is possible you need more or deeper ground rods, although I'd be a little surprised if it were that for such a small installation.

2) Turn off fence. Disconnect charger from fence wire. Turn fence back on. Put tester on the charger terminal that fence wire was connected to (w/other end of tester on the ground of course). If tester shows no charge, your problem is almost certainly with your ground... see above. If you DO show a charge, your problem may still be a weak ground (see above) or it may be a problem with your fence wiring.

3) Commonest problems with fence wiring: loose or grimy connection to charger terminal, or fence wire accidentally being touched by ANYthing that isn't a plastic insulator, or wire inadvertantly installed on one or more insulator in such a way that it runs very close to the nail and arcs a short. If these are ceramic insulators, it is possible one is cracked. If they are the 4" plastic insulators that use long nails, there can be problems shorting to the nail just b/c of design (4" ones w/short nails don't have this problem). And if they are the stubby 1" plastic insulators, there can be problems with wire arcing to other materials (like the metal pen mesh).

Another theoretical possibility is that your metal pen mesh is creating too much resistance for your charger. I have never seen this happen but I know it can in some circumstances. Solution would be to set electric wires out a couple feet from pen (recommend t-post corners with fiberglas line push-in posts from farm supply store, use gloves when handling fiberglas line posts)

Swearing helps too. i expect you've already tried that, but keep at it

Very best of luck with your Evil Predator. FWIW it does sound like a weasel to me.

Pat

 

[aran]

i think you may be right about the weasel thing although what I saw would be a really big weasel! Anyways I still have had no luck with the electric fence. I did buy a 10foot ground pole and bury it to within 18inches but still no good. Anyways a quick update:

1. No more deaths/injuries since we have been locking everyone away at night...a bit of a pain in the butt but no injuries is worth it.

2. The darn weasel/stoat whatever it is is freakin taunting me. It goes in and out of the havahart trap happily eating everything i give it. ( no i cant bring myself to poison before anyone suggests it...i want a fast humane end for this creature). It goes nowhere near the den trap I made when the conibear is set, yet when it is not it goes in, has a meal and climbs back out again. I didnt set it last night because one of our cats didnt want to come in the house and today the food is all gone from the trap. I guess that may have been the cat perhaps though. Anyway I just got the cats in,splashed a little mink master lure around the dentrap and reset the conibear for the night so hopefully the little buggar goes in there and gets dead tonight.

 

[Windy Ridge]

Good luck--this must be so frustrating!

 

[ivan3]

If this beastie continues to vex you, try modifying your havahart. Using a little duct tape, a wooden shim and a small section of cardboard it is possible to triple the area of the trigger plate (can't step over it). This, in addition to tying the bait with a long twisty tie in the back/inside top of trap, might just get the devil.

Duct tape two short sections of shim (a couple of inches apart) to the trigger plate so that they extend back into the trap about two thirds of the way, make a couple of sticky side out cylinders of tape and stick those to the tops of shims, then place a section of cardboard on the shims and press down until it's secure (cardboard shouldn't touch sides, or back of trap). Preferable bait would be something with a bone in it (try to pull the bait out that much harder).

Set off trap a couple of times to make sure you've got good clearance and nothing catches. Then set the trap so that the trigger catch is barely riding the plate.

Don't know how effective this will be with a smaller, quicker, beastie, but it worked with a full grown Red Fox (had to pull its tail in after itself - lot's of hair where door meets the frame). I had watched this fox step into trap before and it stepped right over the trigger plate as if it knew what it was.

Good luck!