This all started in August and thought I'd share as a means for everyone to be watch full of the feathered friends. I originally posted on another forum that I belong to and then realized I should have posted here also.
I realize some of you might get upset at the end but this is truly what I had to resort to to save my flock.
August 13
Went out to the pens after work and I got sick very fast. Something got into one of the pens and it was a massacre. My Lady Amherst Cock, my pair of Mandarins, 4 cortunix quail and one of my new young marans, Couldn't even find the bodies of the quail.
I thoroughly inspected the pen and could not find a point of entry. My pens are chainlink lined with 1" poultry wire. Only thing I could think of was a weasel or mink as they can squeeze into awful tight spots.
In case he makes a return visit tonight I have set several live traps and a couple of leg traps baited with a soft smelly dog food (the kind with gravy and comes in a pouch).
Also turned on the dusk to dawn light that is normally only used in the winter.
Hopefully he was only traveling thru.
August 14
Went out to the pens at 6 this morning all was well, Barb went out about noon and he got another pheasant hen.
But apparently as he left the pen when he couldn't get her carcass out of the pen he backed into a leg trap. He got the trap off the wire but he has to be sore as hell since he took the trap with him.
Set more traps tonite. We hope we get him or maybe we already got him.
August 18
As I was mowing the back yard this afternoon, I noticed a lot of flies. Upon looking closer I found my missing trap and what appeared to be a mink in it. He was starting to decompose and had lost a lot of fur, but I ruled out weasel as it was all black.
Note: After further research it was definitely determined to have been a mink.
As of today Halloween, no more predation problems so he must have been a loner.
I realize some of you might get upset at the end but this is truly what I had to resort to to save my flock.
August 13
Went out to the pens after work and I got sick very fast. Something got into one of the pens and it was a massacre. My Lady Amherst Cock, my pair of Mandarins, 4 cortunix quail and one of my new young marans, Couldn't even find the bodies of the quail.
I thoroughly inspected the pen and could not find a point of entry. My pens are chainlink lined with 1" poultry wire. Only thing I could think of was a weasel or mink as they can squeeze into awful tight spots.
In case he makes a return visit tonight I have set several live traps and a couple of leg traps baited with a soft smelly dog food (the kind with gravy and comes in a pouch).
Also turned on the dusk to dawn light that is normally only used in the winter.
Hopefully he was only traveling thru.
August 14
Went out to the pens at 6 this morning all was well, Barb went out about noon and he got another pheasant hen.
But apparently as he left the pen when he couldn't get her carcass out of the pen he backed into a leg trap. He got the trap off the wire but he has to be sore as hell since he took the trap with him.
Set more traps tonite. We hope we get him or maybe we already got him.
August 18
As I was mowing the back yard this afternoon, I noticed a lot of flies. Upon looking closer I found my missing trap and what appeared to be a mink in it. He was starting to decompose and had lost a lot of fur, but I ruled out weasel as it was all black.
Note: After further research it was definitely determined to have been a mink.
As of today Halloween, no more predation problems so he must have been a loner.
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