Mongoose?!

[fatimastic]

Mongoose has been lurking around our area for months now!
We had 4 chicks and he ate 2 of them and the other 2 escaped.
Since then we wired the cages and kept chicks inside our home.
While we let our adolescent chickens free range, he used to lurk around but we drived him away.
Now our 5 hens are nearly all laying with 4 chicks.
We let them free range in a wired area but somehow a huge mongoose got in!!
We saw him in time and he went away.
Was he here for the eggs or did he want to harm our flock?!
Luckily no one was hurt but do we have to be alert for 3-4 hours outside while we let them free range?

 

[nuthatched]

I wouldn't be free ranging until you figure out how to deal with it.
Also, if you haven't already, use hardware cloth, not chicken wire to predator proof your run.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Can you get and set up a live trap?

 

[fatimastic]

I wouldn't be free ranging until you figure out how to deal with it.
Also, if you haven't already, use hardware cloth, not chicken wire to predator proof your run.

We use hardware cloth.
Maybe we will make a big tunnel (sort of) giving them a huge price of land with hardware cloth all over and metal pipes.

Can you get and set up a live trap?

Do we make a trap using eggs to lure the mongoose in?

 

[cmom]

We use hardware cloth.
Maybe we will make a big tunnel (sort of) giving them a huge price of land with hardware cloth all over and metal pipes.


Do we make a trap using eggs to lure the mongoose in?

You can since it was after the eggs but it will kill your birds too. Do you have pictures of where it dug and how you are set up? That may help for a solution. Good luck...

 

[fatimastic]

You can since it was after the eggs but it will kill your birds too. Do you have pictures of where it dug and how you are set up? That may help for a solution. Good luck...

It was on the roof of the coop.
The coop is sealed from the bottom too, with hardware cloth around it. So the only time our flock is in danger is when they free range.

 

[roosterhavoc]

It was on the roof of the coop.
The coop is sealed from the bottom too, with hardware cloth around it. So the only time our flock is in danger is when they free range.

A cage trap with eggs inside might work.

 

[CNJ]

I had a mongoose go through my 2 x 4 inch wired spaced fence. He killed two Bresse chicks and tried pulling them by their necks through the fence, but their body was too big. When I came outside I saw them stuck in the fence, so I set a trap that I bought from ebay with one of the dead Bresse chicks and caught it. I threw the trap into my pond and drowned the mongoose and then buried it. That was the only one around. I solved the problem. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Squirrel-Cage-Live-Trap-16-x5-x5-Trapping-rabbit-Squirrel-Chipmunk-Rat/133414970276?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

[fatimastic]

I had a mongoose go through my 2 x 4 inch wired spaced fence. He killed two Bresse chicks and tried pulling them by their necks through the fence, but their body was too big. When I came outside I saw them stuck in the fence, so I set a trap that I bought from ebay with one of the dead Bresse chicks and caught it. I threw the trap into my pond and drowned the mongoose and then buried it. That was the only one around. I solved the problem. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Squirrel-Cage-Live-Trap-16-x5-x5-Trapping-rabbit-Squirrel-Chipmunk-Rat/133414970276?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I am so sorry for your lose.

We don't really have places to buy mongoose traps from so I suppose we might make one by ourselves.

 

[cmom]

You can order one online and have it delivered. I noticed you are not in the US but there must be ways where you are.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=live+trap&ref=nb_sb_noss
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=live+trap&_sacat=0