Hey Michigan Chicken Folks!
I am not on this board as often as I should be. I am always away for a bit and then come back and realize all the nice people I've been missing. Anyhow! I need some help!
Over the course of two days last week I lost 7 pullets/hens. I knew it was a weasel (bodies in piles, heads gone), but I did not know how it was getting in, or where it was living, I had several live traps out, but to no avail. Last saturday I decided to go to an animal swap in St. Louis and pick up some pullets to replentish my numbers and get my egg production back on track.
So I bought 5 nice looking birds and put them in my quarantine pen until i got them adjusted to the new surroundings and other birds. The quarentine pen happens to be a fences in area 12ft x 16ft, that connects to the back of the chicken coop. It is secured with chicken wire and welded wire on all sides and the top, and the sides are buried in 18inches. It is my fort knox for the chickens.
2 hours later I cam back out to find all 5 new chickens dead. I am as furious as coudl be at this point. I then notice that one chicken is stuck halfway underneat the chicken coop in a hole I never noticed. The stuck chicken sacrificed himself so that i may know the location of the predator.
I immediatly got this little engine I have, hooked a hose from the exhaust to the floor a hole I dug underneath the chicken coop and sat outside in a lawn chair with my shotgun waiting for the critter to come out. 15 minutes later, a dizzy stoat (very similar to a weasel but with a black tail) comes out and immediatly losses his head. I asl managed to make a large hole in the side of my chicken coop (no birds were in it at the time) but I figure it was worth it.
Anyhow! I have no lost over half of my layers to this little stoat and I need replacements. If there is anyone in the mid-michigan (Midland) area that has some pullets they would like to sell, please let me know, I need more and there are no more small animal swaps, at least not until next year.
Thanks to anyone that can help!
-Tyler