Please help me kill this ermine-nothing is working!

[1cock2hens]

The best way to get rid of it is to kill/relocate that little turd FAR AWAY until you can reinforce the coop properly.

relocation is never a good solution for getting rid of nuisance animals.. in fact its illegal in most states and many people will argue it is ver inhumane to dump a creature in another animals habitat where it will be lost in a hostile environment and most likely die

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I know you know this.... but you have to exclude it from getting in, more sealing up, more HW cloth no openings bigger than a quarter.

Good luck

Gary

 

[50-45-1]

I wouuld not recommend relocating your weasel.
You just move your problem onto some other chicken owner.

 

[mcclucker]

How is it getting into the coop/run?

I don’t know. There is a window - an actual double hung window- with hardware cloth covering the whole window on the inside. The top three inches of the window are open for ventilation but have hardware cloth over the opening. It must be getting in around the hardware cloth somehow. I’ve boarded up everything that looks like it might be an opening - the back of the coop/shed is inaccessible because the previous owners built it up against the property line fencing. We border forest that belongs to our town in rural Vermont. It might be getting in back there but I can’t get back there to fix from the outside. It doesn’t look like there are any entry points on the inside but that’s why I know we need a new coop that is fully accessible on all sides.

I think it is climbing over the run to get in. We ran out of time to put a roof on before snow flew but thought 8’ high hardware cloth fence would be ok for winter daytime without a full roof (just tarp for snow protection). Guess not. It attacked twice in the last two weeks in the run but they got away with minor injury.

Roof is going on as well, and new coop is being built in this run.

I’m feeling like this thing is smarter than me at this point

 

[mcclucker]

I wouuld not recommend relocating your weasel.
You just move your problem onto some other chicken owner.

Don’t worry, I’m not letting it kill anyone else’s chickens. It’s toast. I just can’t figure out how.

 

[mcclucker]

I killed mine by trapping it under an iced-over pallet, squirting ether under there to slow it down, then cutting its head off with a shovel. Kind of hard to replicate, though.

Lol.
I did my best to stab it with a hammer in one hand and a hatchet in the other. I’m too slow. Couldn’t get it to stay in one place long enough to trap.

 

[BantyChooks]

Lol.
I did my best to stab it with a hammer in one hand and a hatchet in the other. I’m too slow. Couldn’t get it to stay in one place long enough to trap.

They're quick little buggers. I sat by that pallet for quite a long time before I had the idea to use ether to slow it down so it couldn't pull back under every time I took a stab. I hope you get it, those beasts are completely devastating.

 

[mcclucker]

I cant tell from the picture of the size of that varment, but it looks like a weasel ( they are the size of a squirel.
Build a weasel box , ther are great plans and instructios for these on the internet.
View attachment 1649202
or use a haveaheart trap.
Wire a piece of bloody meat to the pan of a haveaheart and set the trap outside of your coop.
Here is a picture of the one i caught last fall. There winter coat will be white with a black tiped tail.
View attachment 1649201
Hope you get him!

Yep I did this in October. Built one of these and bought a have a hart, baited with chicken livers. These traps are totally buried in snow right now, but I will try to find them.

It’s a short tailed weasel which we call ermine around here. In October it was already turning white. Black tip of tail. Devil.

 

[kwhites634]

The best way to get rid of it is to kill/relocate that little turd FAR AWAY until you can reinforce the coop properly.

Relocation will only make the beast someone else's problem, until it decides to come back.
Click, click

 

[50-45-1]

They are very easy to trap.
The boxes work well and kill instantly. You can easily build one with some scrap lumber or barn wood. Bloody meat to draw them in..
I used a small haveaheart trap using a dead baby chick he had killed the night before. He went right for it. You must wire the bait to the pan so he has to work hard to get it loose. Test fire your trap several times to make sure it is not hanging up on anything, and set it hair trigger.
Set the trap level, certain angles lead to misfire or hanging up. If you dont have one of these traps borrow one, or most farm stores carry them.