Squirrel or Rat?

[SnowyChickenMomma]

Never seen a mink or a weasel but then again I had never seen a rat outside of a pet store til now and I am 31. Lived in Maine my whole life too lots of wildlife here

 

[Howard E]

If you live in a part of the country that has minks weasels, etc., having a rodent problem in your coop should be a BIG concern. State game agencies tend to discount the threat of weasels, minks, etc. to chickens, and they do so based on the fact that something like 90% plus of what these predators eat is rats, mice, gophers, moles, etc. In short, furry rodents. In this regard, they are one of natures most lethal weapons in the war on rodents, along with skunks, snakes, owls, cats, foxes, coyotes, etc. All are attracted to large populations of rodents.

The problem comes when you have a large population of these rodents in your coop. It is the rodents, not the chickens, that attracts the weasels. But they often will quickly make the transition from killing rodents to your birds and kill them instead. They kill the birds in the exactly the same manner as the one shown killing the large rat did. And they keep on killing until just about everything in the coop is dead.

So that is a very good reason for some to be gravely concerned about rats in your coop. The other predators that are attracted to rats that move on to killing your birds instead.