Send Me Trapping Vibes!

[Wolf-Kim]

Well it was a rough day today. I went to feed my flock and noticed I was missing about half.

All my younger flock members had gone missing, almost all of this seasons hatching.. I grab a scoop of grains and begin walking while rattling the scoop. Nothing. Round the 5 acre horse pasture once, twice, now up the middle. It was while walking up the middle of the pasture when I found the telltale black mottled feathers.. My season's babies had been eaten and they would not be coming home to roost..

All this Springs hard hatching, gone, diminished to a scattered pile of black mottled feathers. Ugh. My next generation of extremely rare Mottled Java gone.

Well, neverless, we went to Gander Mountain and picked up a leghold trap.

So everyone, send you trapping vibes my way!

I got the 1.5 size trap. We set it right next to the chicken pen, hoping that whenever whatever it is paces the fence, it would hit the trap.

What do you think?

-Kim

 

[ivan3]

That sucks, and it has fox written all over it. Yes, if it has had free run of the area for a while it might be brazen enough to come in close.
I've had good luck with 1.75 sets but with all this rain... went out to clean up after first storm last night and there was a fox looking back at me - me with nothing but a bow saw in hand to cut downed branches

Our foxes almost always follow the fence lines/drainages on the way in and out (when they don't just saunter down the middle of the road) so that is where I usually place the sets. I've had snares out (also along fence line) but have only taken one with them.

They've wiped out our neighbor's flocks twice (ducks/SLW's). Two foxes took 13 SLW pullets in the space of 15 min. and left nothing but a few feathers on the lawn. I found the cache in the woods a wk. later (13 piles of feathers).

That said, I've shot more than I've trapped.

Best of luck. You might be able to find the den and/or cache.

P.S. : I got my `training' in this from Foxtrapper Steph on YukuBYC (see her stickies at the top of the pred/pest subject line).

 

[nnbreeder]

Good ol' Victors, God love 'em! Ok the main thing is to not let anything get under the trip plate, you can cover the plate with a sheet of paper and then you can comoflage the trap without worry of the plate hanging up. Another thing you can do is to afix the chain to a 4x4 or something that will move instead of nailing them solid. That way the animal won't pull free from the trap. Hang bait around three feet off the ground directly above the trap, when the critter stands on it's hind legs it will step in the trap, I always used a circle iof 4-6 traps around the main holder so that as the critter moves it gets hung up in more than one, further keeping it immobile.

 

[Mahonri]

Shucks, sorry for your loss, I hope you trap him and send him back to his Maker.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Darn. I wish I had posted this earlier today! We've already set the trap. It's attached to something immobile(our barn) and we only got one trap!

The only bait is a caged chicken inside the coop(the animal can't get to it), but I'm hoping it would keep the animal in the general location of the trap.

We'll have to reset it your way tomorrow night, with bait and a moveable anchor. What makes the best anchor? How big of a piece of 4X4? Would a large cinderblock work the same?

-Kim

 

[ivan3]

I anchor with rebar or hickory stakes. I'd be thinking about scent (they can be pretty sketchy when they smell something that makes them nervous - human).

 

[FisherMOM]

praying your trap catching the thief! hmm maybe you shoulda dug a big hole!

 

[nnbreeder]

I wouldn't worry about scent, after all their place is covered with their scent already. I used to use cinder blocks when I was trapping Coyotes and it worked very well. In a wooded area a 4ft 4x4 works good too but there is usually some tracking involved.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
Nope! That's where the poetic justice comes in. Whatever it is, will be chopped up and thrown into larva buckets to feed the chickens. *evil grin*

-Kim

 

[FisherMOM]

Quote:
Nope! That's where the poetic justice comes in. Whatever it is, will be chopped up and thrown into larva buckets to feed the chickens. *evil grin*

-Kim

oooooooooo velly velly nice!!!