Feeling like a total idiot

[Tre3hugger]

I feel like a total idiot. After posting last night about successfulI outdoor brooding Iwoke up this morning to a massacre in my guinea keet brooder. Apparently 1\2 inch HWC is not small enough to keep out weasel hands. It's so small! There were two dead in the brooder with heads and limbs missing. Another was missing one leg and wing and was stuck in the HWC alive. I obviously put it out of its misery. It has been a whirlwind of emotion. The weasels must have stood on a plastic tote I have underneath storing wood chips. Then did their dirty work. I feel so guilty. BEWARE OF WEASELS. I got too comfy and they rocked my worlkd. I added plastic tiles to the bottom of the broode r and removed the tote. Hopefully that can keep them out. They killed my only pied keet and 2\3 lavender. Hard hard lesson.

 

[Yep I Talk To Chickens]

I feel like a total idiot. After posting last night about successfulI outdoor brooding Iwoke up this morning to a massacre in my guinea keet brooder. Apparently 1\2 inch HWC is not small enough to keep out weasel hands. It's so small! There were two dead in the brooder with heads and limbs missing. Another was missing one leg and wing and was stuck in the HWC alive. I obviously put it out of its misery. It has been a whirlwind of emotion. The weasels must have stood on a plastic tote I have underneath storing wood chips. Then did their dirty work. I feel so guilty. BEWARE OF WEASELS. I got too comfy and they rocked my worlkd. I added plastic tiles to the bottom of the broode r and removed the tote. Hopefully that can keep them out. They killed my only lied meet and 2\3 lavender. Hard hard lesson.

You have to catch it. It will continue to come back until all your birds are dead. Trust me. Bait a box trap or foot trap with chicken livers from the store. Make the trap look like a dark tunnel.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don't have the firepower to responsibly dispatch it so relocation it is. There is a state park nearby should be perfect.

I'm sorry, but that is SERIOUSLY unethical and may additionally be illegal. Giving your predator problem to someone else is simply NOT RIGHT.

If you can't dispatch it, don't use live traps. Period.

I'm sorry if that comes off offensive, but as a person who lives out in the country where people could be tempted to drop off animals "in the woods" I don't need other people's predators eating my chickens.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I'm sorry, but that is SERIOUSLY unethical and may additionally be illegal. Giving your predator problem to someone else is simply NOT RIGHT.

If you can't dispatch it, don't use live traps. Period.

I'm sorry if that comes off offensive, but as a person who lives out in the country where people could be tempted to drop off animals "in the woods" I don't need other people's predators eating my chickens.

I am not offended and appreciate your input. I agree this wasn't ideal but I had to do something last night to protect my birds. Period. I got off work at 6 pm and borrowed the only trap I could get my hands on...it worked.

I too live in deep woods, nestled in 13000 acres of protected forest land that has a state park in it. There are only four residents in a five mile radius of me. I brought this raccoon deeper into the woods, farther away from people. My birds are safer, no animals lost there life, and it is farther from humans than it was before. I fail to see how this was "seriously unethical"...as far as the law...

If I lived in the burbs and dropped it off at a playground I would fully concur with your conclusion, but in this instance I believe I did what was best first for my animals. I will most likely continue to set the trap for a few nights in case it comes back.

That being said...I NEED A .22 BAD.

 

[Tre3hugger]

They just may be spending the night in the shed!

 

[Tre3hugger]

You have to catch it. It will continue to come back until all your birds are dead. Trust me. Bait a box trap or foot trap with chicken livers from the store. Make the trap look like a dark tunnel.

Dam I work til 6. Idk if I can get a trap tonite

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Hope he picks the wrong direction to go - raccoons can have a foraging radius of 10 miles and can travel 18 in a day.

And they are a menace too, and they keep coming back over and over. Realistically the only way to get rid of a coon problem is to build something strong enough to exclude them.

My chicken coop has chains on the nest boxes, a bar on the pop door, hinged latches with carabeeners on them top and bottom, and a rooster that will fight them to the death (saw him try once) and they STILL try to get in at night.

I'm really sorry for your loss.

 

[Yep I Talk To Chickens]

Do you have a tractor supply near you?

 

[Yep I Talk To Chickens]

Yes!!

They should sell box traps get a small ish one. Do you know how big it is? If not start lf with a small one then get a bigger one if that doesn't work after a while. They are tricky to catch. I will post a pic of the trap I used. I would set up a game camera as well. Also you can get prededer light its a red light. Prededers don't like it. Could it be a rat? Rats eat there feet and they will eat chicks/ keets heads of like weasels. Rats will come around not because your nasty but because of the chicken feed. I have had one before. If it is a weasel get this size trap. If its a rat get poison.

 

[rmcbride]

I was just checking out the Henry Survival .22! Breaks down and all fits in the stock, Pretty cool. There seems to be a decent range of options in my 300 dollarish price range. Thanks for the recommendation!

Cheaper way is to fill your garbage can with water, insert trap with raccoon, wait twenty minutes and dispose raccoon in your trash pickup.