Squirrels biting through hawk netting

[homeschoolchick]

Hello all,
How do I keep squirrels out of the chicken yard and out of the feed? They keep chewing through the hawk netting.
The chicken yard is too large for me to afford covering the whole thing with hardware cloth. I will try to add a photo.

 

[Sic]

Dogs, traps and guns.

 

[azygous]

Do you know what species of squirrel that is causing this problem? That can give us a clue to how to deal with them.

Squirrels have been my biggest wildlife problem, and I have bears and bob cats and mountain lions. Squirrels are a bigger challenge than any of those.

Recently, I used traps, and that was successful, but relocating the critter many miles away was futile. It just found its way back. Then I took away all water sources, and that seemed to have encouraged the squirrel to move on.

But I'm afraid @Sic is right. Shooting them is about the most efficient approach.

 

[homeschoolchick]

They are Eastern Grey squirrels.

 

[azygous]

Ah! Now we can use their habits to either shoot them or trap them! Your choice - .22 rifle or a live trap.

If you wish to shoot them, set yourself up at sunrise with your loaded weapon. Or at dusk, two hours before sunset. Those periods are their highest activity.

If you wish to trap them because you can't bear to kill an animal with big soft brown eyes and a fluffy tail, although they are rodents every bit as disgusting as rats, (sorry, my bad attitude comes with being fed up with them), set the trap at their point of entry into your run. Bait it with whole dried corn or peanuts. But you need to remove all the chicken food from the run or they will keep focusing on what they've been after all this time, which is their lazy way to easily obtain food to hoard.

These squirrels are compulsive hoarders. They will gather huge amounts of food, far more than they will ever consume. It's their reason for existence, their fun and joy, their compulsive habit. This is why putting out rodent bait will not work. They just stash it in their many food caches.

But if you trap the squirrels, and you don't wish to kill them, you will need to relocate them in the next county. Or state. They are persistent about returning, and will cover many miles if they have to. Your local county laws may prohibit relocating them to keep disease under control, so best to check on that.

 

[homeschoolchick]

Thank you for your reply. I had to giggle about, "your bad attitude ". I am pretty fed up with them destroying the netting and consuming large amounts of feed.
I just wondering if this will be a never ending battle, since I live in the woods. Shooting them may never end.

 

[ChicNmom]

Great chicken yard!

We've had to shoot a lot of grey squirrels. Several times they were just chewing on our windows. But they move a lot so it's hard to get a clean shot sometimes.

I've used these:

https://www.amazon.com/Large-Powerful-Rat-Traps-Pack/dp/B07FWMLW79/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=36OXK9NS4B5VJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BcdxujA6gSmf5HwZCgaV9JtRv09ClnRmb3ToVECQnh96qneyZ3dFej7_6M3bZ1opj2t1kDZ5G4IPv6VXakVDs3NBKWGeUwir5HE7DaTxVrcMnI0REWJ1MexmR_Nw7urVsAb-5qdAFtN47cRFCNdi6UFmqJ0X46uiVyeylfiT0BK6wMGmy44nqrVdVCF74H7zCkvHRxTz-NwORL3znmiZNeAkEb1uRhvir90rNvdWRg9rZBgxlzxPgQLYIJ9yoUNtKPXriYjT8vo8KXSuFCKOMmI3yBNSWb8EN4joaaweKUI.1DMpivqB_uCP8pLg_E1msjtu5XtYlybUFxEwd44OUr8&dib_tag=se&keywords=spring+loaded+rat+trap&qid=1724718457&sprefix=spring+loaded+rat+tr,aps,104&sr=8-3-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1


I bait with peanuts. The whole unsalted ones. I put them in a box with a squirrel size hole for entry. The trick is putting something on either side of the trap so they have to approach and grab the bait from the front. I used bricks.

Be prepared to also get some chipmunks in the traps.

We have had less of a squirrel problem when I stopped feeding the birds all year.

 

[azygous]

Yes, like all rodents, there is a never ending supply of squirrels, unfortunately. But you can change things to discourage them. They are taking advantage of the feed always being available for the chickens. You can switch to fermented feed and only feed the chickens twice a day. Chickens do not need to be constantly pecking away at feed. They do just fine as long as they consume the proper amount of calories per day.

I have a big bear problem, or I used to before I got them all trained to stay away by inviting them to engage with a 10,000 volt hot wire around the runs. Food in the run is an invitation to bears. I have been fermenting my feed for many years, it's very easy, and the chickens love it, and it has added health benefits such as natural probiotics.

Laying hens will usually consume one cup of fermented feed per day. I feed half a cup per chicken twice a day, and they consume it within thirty minutes. The feed is wet, so even if there is some left over, the squirrels won't find this form of food suitable for their purposes.

In time, the squirrels may decide it's more worth their time to go back to earning an honest living than to be hauling off wet chicken feed.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Dealing with squirrels is harder than rats or wild birds but the same advice is valid, when you stop feeding them they go away.

You need a treadle feeder with an inward swinging door and at a minimum two springs providing pre tension on the door to prevent them from just pushing the door open to chow down. The treadle needs to be far from the feed and narrow. At least three to four pounds of spring tension, only one feeder on the market does this. The only other feeder with an spring tension maxes out at 1.5 pounds.

What will happen is one of two things. The feeder will defeat the squirrels outright, too few in number and too weak to push the door open, or they will quickly start trapping themselves behind the inward swinging door. Most will figure out it is dangerous and not come back, some will. So when it happens, lift up the feeder off its hanging cleat, dump the feed into a container, shaking out as much as you can. The squirrel won't be able to get out through the main feed hopper so you might have to shake the feed out, sit the feeder upright and then shake the feed behind the door back up the angled hopper. Once you have as much feed out as possible dunk the feeder in a barrel of water for at least a half hour. Then either fish the dead squirrel out or remove the top cover and door to get it out.

Of course this means you need mostly full size birds able to operate the feeder at three to four pounds. Or whittle the herd down when they trap themselves.

 

[homeschoolchick]

I like the trap idea, but we have a "barn" cat that visits us and catches mice. I wouldn't want to injure him.
My chickens are batams, so I don't think the treadle will work.
Switching to fermented feed might do the trick! I will have to try that.

Thank you to all for the suggestions!
Thank you for the compliment on the chicken yard, it is a work in progress.