Rats or weasels

[newbyduckmom]

I know rats can steal eggs and kill chicks, do they normally harm adult ducks? It appears we have them burrowing under our smaller duck house. Rats or weasels maybe. The coops is floored with hardware cloth (1/2'). I know they weasels will kill adults ducks. Haven't seen any conclusive evidence of what it is burrowing, but guessing rats.

 

[FenDruadin]

Weasels will EASILY kill an adult duck. Maybe two or three. So it would be good to know who is doing it. Rats won't generally attack an adult unless they're REALLY hungry. They'd rather go for easier prey--ducklings, eggs, trash, leftover feed, etc.

There are all kinds of small rodents that used to burrow into my old duck house, but everything is now lined with wire mush underneath, so only very small critters would be able to burrow through. The rodents never troubled the ducks, though. But I know weasels will.

Good luck!

 

[4-H chicken mom]

How big are the burrow holes? Could it be a groundhog?

 

[dwhite]

I up to today (hopefully) had the same issue not with my ducks but my chickens, a huge rate had burrowed into the coop and was stealing the small eggs but not harming the birds, I didn't realize rats were as good at burrowing as they are. I believe the .22 round got him though.

 

[newbyduckmom]

Burrows are too small for mole or gopher (no hilling), too large for mice/voles. The duck house had a hardware mesh floor. Has since been elevated with a solid floor and so far haven't had another incident. (Mush tough to clean but safer in the long run). Had to be rats though. Oh goody. Hate rodents.

We now have two duck houses, one for hens and one for drakes....a lot of duck house cleaning. But they seem to be more secure, so hopefully no dead ducks.