Do traps work?

[cmom]

I hatch all of my chicks. When I first put them in a grow-out coop and pen I shut them in with food and water for a few days then I open the pop doors. They are a little apprehensive about going out of the coop at first but then get used to it. I feed them in the evening and they go in to eat. There is a light on in the coop. At first I use feed pans. They get into the habit and I rarely have to round them up to get them in the coop. Eventually I switch over to hanging feeders and keep it full of feed. They go in their coop like clockwork. I do shut the pop doors at night even though I have electric wire around the coop and pen. Several months ago around the same time my Gladys was killed by the fox, I had a Rhode Island White pullet and a White Leghorn cockerel both killed with only piles of feathers outside of the pen and coop. I didn't close the pop doors and my best guess is either a fox or coyote got the gate opened. The predator killed the two birds and knocked down the post next to the gate with the electric wire on it. It may have gotten shocked or would have killed more birds. It was kind of foggy that night so I didn't get the breach on camera. I wired the gates shut and something had again tried to open the gate but didn't succeed the following night. It was foggy again that night so no pictures of the gates. I did get pictures of a coyote and a fox checking it out now and then.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

depends what you call a success. (to note i am a fur trapper so i trap just for the sake of the fur as well as the protection of my animals so i am a little biased)

now if your plan is to keep everything out then no trapping does not work, for a few reasons. to spare time for everyone reading i will share the biggest thing. where i live i can trap any predator any time of the year with one rule. it has to cause damage or attempt damage first. so you can't (in most places) just set out traps every day all year long. now there are exceptions to that. for example where i live there is no season on raccoons or coyotes i can have traps for them all year long.

for where it does work? pretty much when i took the trapper course, my government recommends us trappers to work with land owners and farmers to deal with problem animals. now if a sheep rancher has a issue with a few foxes that have a taste for blood, trapping and killing them is the best defense. also not all animals have the same requirements as chickens for fencing and housing. i will give two examples on that. both are pretty much dealing with top line predators, either bears or wolves and them attack calves. long story short trapping is the best way to remove large amounts of these animals and save there live stock.
now the farmers am talking about have miles of land (one was like 8-16 miles of land)

 

[cmom]

We are loaded with coyotes. Nothing here will prey on a coyote but they will prey on other critters including bobcat and fox, livestock, dog and cats. Most night when they roam here, I see them on at least one of my cameras. I have several cameras on my property.

 

[sciencegrrrrl]

I'm so sorry you had to go through that! We live out in the country too and our place had been vacant for a few years when we moved in with our hens. There were far more raccoon and possum here than I ever could have imagined- we also have fruit trees and several berry bushes so everyone had gotten used to coming here for food. I lost 4 hens and a roo that first year . Roosting outside isn't safe, as someone mentioned, owls can reach where the other predators cannot. We had to fortify our coop and run extensively and still have a motion light out there to alert us. Even free range is monitored thanks to hawks and coyotes. Possum and raccoon both love smelly snacks in a trap, and peanut butter will catch you mice/ rats as well. We got a very large trap and run it after the last pear falls in November all the way through March- the lean times here for wildlife. No break ins since 2 years ago (one close call with a possum that I had to end mortally).

 

[fawnda]

Possums rarely actually kill a chicken or duck, but often get the blame after something else already has killed whatever because they eat carrion. Predator proof your pen rather than try to kill all the predators in your area, which is always a losing battle. If something as big as an Opossum can get in, you can bet a weasel or something actually lethal is getting in and killing your flock. 1/4" hardware cloth around the bottom of the pen, get a roof over the run(?) and shut them in at night into something that predators cannot get in. A bad pen is worse than no pen at all, as they become trapped in there by a predator. Possums are awesome to have around, they're not killers, they eat ticks, carrion, and things that are easy.

https://www.cwrescue.org/predatorproofhousing

 

[cmom]

Possums will kill a bird. I had one killed and didn't know what killed it. The predator dug under a fence and killed it in a pen. This was many years ago when I was working. I worked graveyard and slept during the day. I left the dead bird in the pen and put a trap in the pen and the next day when I went out there was a possum in the trap. I'm pretty sure it killed the bird because it was inside the pen and went under the fence in the same spot.

 

[cmom]

I learned my lessons the hard way from losses to predators. I fortified my pens with welded wire fencing with chicken wire too. I used hog rings and hog ringed the two fences together. Nothing is getting through it. I have electric wire around all of my coops and pens. There are some places where I dug a trench a good foot deep and put wire in the trench and hog ringed it to the bottom of the fencing, nothing is going to dig under the fence. I put heavy duty netting covering all of the pens, 200 feet X 60 feet and concrete under the gates, all because of breaches from fox, bobcat, coyote, hawks, owls, skunk and possum. I have seen other predators including stray dogs and cats on my game cameras but as long as they leave my birds alone I leave them alone. We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipients of other peoples catch and releases, including a baby goose that was dropped off in our driveway. I learned my lesson and had not lost a bird in years until this year. One was my failure but I fixed the breach and my favorite bird was killed by a fox during the middle of the day which was my fault for letting her out while I got distracted. I should have left her in her pen. Live and learn...

 

[rwkick]

Electrified poultry netting should stop all ground based predators. Won't help with the avian ones, though. Even stopped my neighbor's dogs.