EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[BullChick]

In the ten minutes it took to get Duckling up... This fell down!

 

[BantyChooks]

In the ten minutes it took to get Duckling up... This fell down!

What is it?

 

[meltel]

At night it could not be hawk. And that is exactly the surviving of the fittest (or the smartest!

)

it's funny Benny-I got the 2 sebastopol geese and the attacks stopped and now everybody waits for me at the coop door at dusk. They learned the hard way or maybe the geese are rubbing their smarts off on the ducks! Or the realize its better being warm and safe in a coop then freezing all night swimming on a pond!!!

 

[Chaos18]

In the ten minutes it took to get Duckling up... This fell down!

Bummer

 

[Lucky Lemon]

In the ten minutes it took to get Duckling up... This fell down!

Oh no!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Local TSC doesn't have it.

I found this on my way out....down to 9 now, assuming none of the others got taken. What in the world would kill, in broad daylight (unless it happened last night before I put them up) and only eat the neck, leaving the rest untouched? Feathers scattered over a 10' area...one of my pullets.

That's the head on the left, mostly intact

That's much more damage than I've seen from a mink or weasel.

Quote:

My guess would be a hawk of some sort. Specially with the head still being attached and the neck picked clean.

That's what I would expect.

I think you're probably right; scared a hawk off carcass when I drove in.

There's your sign.

I despise weasels, how do you make a pen so tight a weasel cannot sneak inside? They can get in anywhere, they kill a whole bird and eat two tablespoons worth of food and drink the blood.


I am getting cats (barn cats) to hopefully control them.

Close off any hole larger than 1/2 inch. That requires hardware cloth and no big gaps.
A cat can kill a weasel but a weasel or mink can just as easily kill a cat. They're just as fast and maneuverable. To take down a larger predator, they'll first attack the rear end or tail to slow them down and then work around to try to bite the head or neck.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/64193/7-fierce-facts-about-weasels

I'm very anti barn cat.

Skunks are just as wasteful, not as hard to keep out though. Are you able to trap the weasel or is it too hard to trap.

Extremely difficult to trap in conventional traps.
You have to make a special weasel box trap using live bait and either a rat trap or better yet, a #110 conibear body trap.
A 1.5" PVC pipe buried at an angle with a mouse or other live bait in the bottom will catch the weasel and then they can't back out. They're adept killers, they're just not very smart.

 

[Chaos18]

it's funny Benny-I got the 2 sebastopol geese and the attacks stopped and now everybody waits for me at the coop door at dusk. They learned the hard way or maybe the geese are rubbing their smarts off on the ducks! Or the realize its better being warm and safe in a coop then freezing all night swimming on a pond!!! 

Or Maybe nobody wants to mess with a mad goose.

 

[kwhites634]

In the ten minutes it took to get Duckling up... This fell down!

What did it used to be? Chicken run, perhaps?

 

[duluthralphie]

What is it?

X2...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

People claim they can trap weasels, I am not one of them people. I have caught them by accident but never when I tried too.

http://www.trapperman.com/trapperman/The_Weasel_Box_Set.html
He uses a leg trap but IMHO, weasels are too light to set off even a #0 trap. A #110 conibear is better.

http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Weasel+Boxes/Freedom+Brand+Hinged+Top+Wooden+Weasel+Boxes