Earthworms for teenage chicks? Ermine also lurking...

[sarastamand]

Is it okay to feed my (almost - few days away) 6 week old teenage chicks earthworms? They love crickets, mealworms, and wax worms but I wanted to introduce them to something new.

I’m hoping to get them in their coop soon, but we have an ermine lurking around! We’ve been trying for weeks to capture it. It loves the chicken livers we are using as bait. I went down today and all 6 baits were going with no traps gone off. We have a rat trap that we dangled meat in front of thinking he would HAVE to step on the trap, but somehow he got the bait anyway. We also have several mouse traps and two different sized havaharts. We also have a box with traps in it and the meat was dangling. The box was open and on the ground this morning with no bait and no traps gone off.

Any helpful suggestions? I’ve called fish and game and done everything they have suggested as well. I NEED this thing gone or I can’t let my babies out!

 

[GC-Raptor]

Is it okay to feed my (almost - few days away) 6 week old teenage chicks earthworms?

I don't dig up worms for my Chickens, but if I find one on the ground, I will toss it in the pen.
My Hens are let out to Free range an hour before sunset daily, weather permitting. They dig through leaf piles and find them I'm sure. .
My latest Chicks also found worms in their new pen at 6 weeks. . GC

 

[roosterhavoc]

Is it okay to feed my (almost - few days away) 6 week old teenage chicks earthworms? They love crickets, mealworms, and wax worms but I wanted to introduce them to something new.

I’m hoping to get them in their coop soon, but we have an ermine lurking around! We’ve been trying for weeks to capture it. It loves the chicken livers we are using as bait. I went down today and all 6 baits were going with no traps gone off. We have a rat trap that we dangled meat in front of thinking he would HAVE to step on the trap, but somehow he got the bait anyway. We also have several mouse traps and two different sized havaharts. We also have a box with traps in it and the meat was dangling. The box was open and on the ground this morning with no bait and no traps gone off.

Any helpful suggestions? I’ve called fish and game and done everything they have suggested as well. I NEED this thing gone or I can’t let my babies out!

Attach the bait to the trap trigger or pan of the trap. Dangling bait is better for the cages so they have to work to get it out and are more likely to fire the trap and close the door.

 

[Molpet]

dental floss is great to tie bait to the trigger

 

[Chicka_deee]

I mean, I fed my about 3-5 day old chicks 2 earthworms and they were fine I just plopped it in their brooder, it was fun to watch them run around

 

[Fishkeeper]

Chicks raised outdoors by a hen would be finding worms and eating them pretty much from birth.

For the ermine, can you just make your coop and run ermine-proof?

Make a long, thin box, with an ermine-sized hole in one end, just wide enough to fit a trap in it. Put food at the other end from the hole, and put a trap in the middle. It may take awhile to get anything, the scent has to wear off, but the ermine will have to go over the trap to get the food.

 

[sarastamand]

Chicks raised outdoors by a hen would be finding worms and eating them pretty much from birth.

For the ermine, can you just make your coop and run ermine-proof?

Make a long, thin box, with an ermine-sized hole in one end, just wide enough to fit a trap in it. Put food at the other end from the hole, and put a trap in the middle. It may take awhile to get anything, the scent has to wear off, but the ermine will have to go over the trap to get the food.

Thank You!
We have resecured the coop in the meantime so that he cannot get inside. I would prefer for my chickens to free range during the day though. He seems to be smart; I don't know if that's a trait of their's or if perhaps someone has trapped him before. We have been putting the trap in the box right under the bait, but we will move it to the middle of the box. We also typically wear gloves when setting the traps to hopefully not leave behind as much of our scent.

 

[Kiki]

Earthworms can be a carried of roundworm eggs.
Which means if you feed your chicken earthworms they could get roundworms.

 

[Fishkeeper]

It's generally best to worm periodically on any chickens with access to the wild. The general assumption is that they're going to get worms eventually if they're exposed to places where other animals (including wild birds) have been. Could earthworms give them parasites? Sure. So could most other bugs they find while running around. So could any bugs that get into their coop or run. I'm not inclined to recommend avoiding earthworms because of parasite potential. Grasshoppers can carry tapeworms, but I don't tend to see anyone worried about their free-range chickens chasing hoppers.

For the garbage can, look up how to build the trap. You need a ramp going up, then kind of a little diving board structure that will tip down under weight, so that the ermine will climb out along the board and then fall off, landing in the can.

 

[Molpet]

Does anybody know if these ermine weasels are smart? Or am I my typical unlucky self

Very smart
Weasel box is your best bet
You can make or buy them