I'm guessing mink.... (Graphic pics post #17)

[bobbi-j]

So going back to your original post, you mentioned dead birds found inside a closed up coop, then one missing that may have been outside the coop? So two different incidents, one inside and one out? Maybe the first birds at night and the second was lost during the day? If so, you may have two different predators. Seems odd after not having any to have two at the same time, but that is what it sounds like.

BTW, on the weasel/mice thing, that may well be the case. Fish and game folks claim that 90% plus of what weasels eat are rodents like rats and mice and maybe rabbits, and squirrels, etc. If so, it is possible they do not arrive looking to kill chickens, but are attracted to the coop area by the scent of rats and/or mice. So they go after any rats or mice in the coop or coop area, but being opportunistic killers, don't hesitate to kill the birds instead. It is instinctive for them to kill anything that moves. So they kill one after another and do so in the fastest way possible, which is a quick deep bite to the back of the neck at the base of the scull. So the aftermath is a pile of dead birds with bites to the neck. If they feed on anything it is the blood. Rarely would they take a bird and leave with it. BTW, the least weasels are said to be the worst and they can easily get through 2" wire openings.

In rereading my first post, I see I forgot to add a couple of details. (I can't type as fast as I think). The pop door to the attached run was left open at night. Where the coop and run meet, I had put wire on the ground and piled rocks. I also have a little shade shelter against the coop wall, but the boards are frozen down so I couldn't look to see if something had dug under the coop and got in that way. If that is the case, the missing chicken could have been pulled under the coop.

The chickens are mine, but I leave for work early in the morning so DH lets them out to free range when he goes out to his shop to work. He wouldn't notice if one was missing. So I don't know if the missing one disappeared that night, during the day, or decided to roost elsewhere. (There are a lot of hiding places for a chicken to go roost at our place. Trees, buildings, on top of machinery...)

I have a friend who was using an old trailer house as a coop several years ago. She started having chickens disappear one by one, (although I don't remember if she had multiple kills at once.) Anyway, one day when she was on the building doing chores, a mink came out from behind the old fridge that was still in the building and ran between her feet (I think she scared it as badly as it scared her). Somehow she managed to chase it out the door where her dog killed it. She didn't lose any more chickens in that building as they found where it had gotten in and closed the hole up.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hello sorry to hear about your birds I agree it's probably a mink or weasel. The trap above where there is a rat trap on a tree will work for both mink and weasel but a mink will usually not go into a weasel box (first video) and trust me the box works for weasels (pic of one I fought not long ago below). Make sure to use the bloodiest piece of bait or just a mouse and lots of feathers.

I've gotta say - they are kind of pretty. When they're not dead with their fangs hanging out...

I have had a couple Ermines around here.Evil boogers.My dad, um, took care of them but luckly it didn't get any of my birdies.Set out a Have-a-Hart trap, them, take care of it, you know what I mean.

Yeah, we don't "relocate"...

Many long years ago my tomcat brought a kill home that my mother called a "fairydiddle"....I didn't think much of it and figured it was some kind of ground squirrel I'd never seen before. Since then I've learned there is no such thing as a fairydiddle but the creature my cat brought home that day resembled a young lesser weasel. About 3/4 the size of an adult weasel, it had the coloring, the tubular body and tail of the lesser weasel in summer pelt. It definitely was not a young red squirrel, as many claim a fairdiddle to be.

Funny thing is, I was just talking about that fairydiddle to my mother last night and asking her if it couldn't have been a young weasel....looked them up online, looked at YT vids of them, etc. and THEN got on BYC to find this thread. How weird is that???

Fairydiddle - I love it! I wonder if they were called that for the same reason my step-dad called his old pickup "the deacon". When I asked him why, he said, "Because I can't call it what I want to in front of you kids."

 

[bobbi-j]

Dang! Lost another one tonight! I am in town on ambulance call for the night, and DH was taking care of some business in the house and didn't get down to lock them up until about an hour after dark. He walked in and found a "really fresh" dead hen. He saved the carcass so I can use it for bait tomorrow. If that's not interesting enough, DH has been catching fish so I can use some fish guts.

 

[BantyChooks]

So sorry! Hope you get that beastie soon.

I got the one terrorising my flock gone using a shovel and a can of ether.... Had to improvise as I had it trapped under a pallet and didn't wish to let it get out enough to use a trap on it.

 

[bobbi-j]

So sorry! Hope you get that beastie soon.

I got the one terrorising my flock gone using a shovel and a can of ether.... Had to improvise as I had it trapped under a pallet and didn't wish to let it get out enough to use a trap on it.

Good for you! If you're in a position to get rid of a varmint, do it!

 

[aart]

Bummer Bobbi-j!!
Hope you catch the batlikerastard.

 

[bobbi-j]

Bummer Bobbi-j!!
Hope you catch the batlikerastard.

Going to set traps today. We have a full sized live trap that I want to set inside the coop right in front of the pop door, making it so if (when) the critter comes back, it just goes right into the trap. We'll use the latest chicken victim as bait for that trap. And I thought we could put fish guts in the squirrel sized live trap in the run in case it's something smaller like a weasel. (I'm trying to cover all my bases ) The chickens won't have access to either trap.

 

[bobbi-j]

Posting pics for educational purposes to help others not make the same mistake I did. The top three photos are where the attached run and coop meet. I had piled rocks along the edge of the coop, and for several years had no problems. Those holes between the rocks had other, smaller rocks blocking them. I thought that would be enough, but apparently my recent night time visitor was able to push them out of the way. The chicken you see there had indeed been dragged from the coop to where the varmint had come into the run. That a full grown barred rock had been dragged off, I am more convinced that the culprit is a mink. In looking at the carcass, I see areas of what looks like fresh meat - pink and moist, not dried up, black and crusty - so I'm sure it's been eating off her for a couple of days. I took the carcass to hopefully lure it into the trap baited with walleye heads and skins.

Last summer I had put some plywood up on stumps against the coop wall, and leaned another piece in front of them for a place for the newest flock members to get away from the hens during integration. I hadn't gotten around to taking that down, so I didn't notice that the rocks had been pushed aside. (I also haven't been home much the past few days so didn't have a chance to investigate until today.)

The bottom picture is the live trap wedged into the pop door. There is about an inch or so of space between the trap and door, so hopefully it can't get into the coop. If it does, I do have that part of the coop closed off from where the chickens will be. They will only be separated by chicken wire, though, so I hope it doesn't go through that if it does get in the coop.

 

[bobbi-j]

We win! When I went out to do chores today, there was a young mink (probably a year old) in the trap. Given the size of the animal (about 14" long from the tip of her nose to the base of her tail) and the size of the BR hen she dragged out of the coop, it must have been quite a job for her. Now that we have that taken care of, coop security will begin ASAP.

The best part of all this? DH, who was an avid trapper for many years, said it would never work because mink are too smart to be caught that easily. He was thinking that the human smell on the trap would scare it away. My thinking was that it would be used to the smell because we're in and out of the coop every day. Plus I took away its food source - the hen it had been munching on - so it would naturally go back to where it found its last easy meal. My coop smells a little minky now, but that's better than skunk.

 

[aart]

We win! When I went out to do chores today, there was a young mink (probably a year old) in the trap. Given the size of the animal (about 14" long from the tip of her nose to the base of her tail) and the size of the BR hen she dragged out of the coop, it must have been quite a job for her. Now that we have that taken care of, coop security will begin ASAP.

The best part of all this? DH, who was an avid trapper for many years, said it would never work because mink are too smart to be caught that easily. He was thinking that the human smell on the trap would scare it away. My thinking was that it would be used to the smell because we're in and out of the coop every day. Plus I took away its food source - the hen it had been munching on - so it would naturally go back to where it found its last easy meal. My coop smells a little minky now, but that's better than skunk.

Grats!!
I figured if it was gonna work it would work right away.
So... pics of the little rascal?