how do you catch a weasel?

[chicka pucella]

I am going to do just that. My rooster is suffering so e severe depression. Is been lasting over a week. I have read that they get over it in a couple of days, but he has yet to kick it. Any advice?

 

[chicktender]

I haven't lost chickens, but it steals my eggs. I have shoveled in the hole under the wall daily, and between noon and 4 it comes to dine. I am trying to figure out a way to catch it without the chickens getting into the trap. I saw it's weaslie little foot prints in the snow. The live trap is to large to get where it is going in and out of. I want it to die a slow hard death. It steals several eggs, and throws the nester ceramic eggs out of the nests. It taunts me and I'm tired of it. I have baby chicks 4 foot away, and couple month old chicks sleep in that corner where he comes in. I gotta be as sly as he is. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[blucoondawg]

I have never heard of weasels stealing eggs they generally prefer bloody meat. The best method we have used is large wooden victor rat traps, build a box with about a 1 inch hole for the vermin to enter, they love crawling through small holes into dark areas. Place the rat trap in the box baited with a nice bloody piece of liver, wire it to the trigger if you must to keep the weasel from stealing it. We have also fastened the traps to the trunks of trees a couple feet off the ground but then other things can bother them, I prefer the box method

 

[chiknhurder]

I second the suggestion about using the trap. If you catch a cat, it will more than likely only happen once.

 

[chicktender]

If it is not a weasel I'm at loss. The tracks certainly match pictures for one, and it tunnels under the wall of the hen house, even when the door is open. I'm new at all this so whatever it is is getting eggs and most of them.

 

[chicktender]

Whatever this varmint is is hurting my egg gathering. LOL It has to GO.

 

[Rach123]

Sorry to hear about your hens We get more stoats than weasels here, but i've always been told if you have dry stone dykes you'll have stoats... so that being said the best method iv'e heard of is to make a small tunnel or box with a trap in it (live or snap) and lie it close in beside the wall. They're shifty wee things so like to hide, and a tunnel with a trap inside lay along the the bottom of a fence, hedge or wall with a trap in it should do the trick. A friend of ours had an old stable as a coop for her flock and would get stoat attacks all the time, she bought a rat trap that was enclosed in a box type thing with a whole at each end only a couple of inches wide and set it near where she had seen the stoat, she did eventually catch it Good Luck!

 

[chicktender]

My neighbor brought me a rat trap today, so I'm in the process of getting it into a box and placing it in the hen house at the tunnel and we will see..... Thanks for your response. It seems that everyone has about the same thought.. a trap. I am curious as to where this sly little creature is living. His tracks in the snow were around the front of my house and my wood pile. I hope he is not in my house.

 

[blucoondawg]

Wood pile is likely but could be any little hole

 

[chicktender]

I kept all the eggs gathered hourly yesterday so he didn't get any. I now have a trap and will get it set today where the chickens cannot get to it. Hopefully he will not be sly enough to move his entry hole to another location! LOL