Heck with the live trap... get a good dog!! For the year I had a Great Pyrenees/German Shepherd, even the deer didn't come near my open few acres in the middle of the woods. I slept like a baby. He ran perimeter guard all night while the chickens were safely cooped, and slept all day happily on a 75' zip line/20' tether.
The guineas would even play a little daredevil game where they'd semicircle around the big guy, creep in slowly and quietly until they were within a foot or two, then one would run over and peck him and turn quickly and run away. The others would all laugh, I swear. He would open one eye and give them the look and off they'd run, screaming with delight (as only a guinea fowl can scream).
Unfortunately, in early March my big guy was killed by a marauding teenager who swerved across the road and onto the shoulder
in order to run him over, 10' from my kids waiting on the schoolbus (he walked them down every morning because we have a resident mountain lion who creeps me out a little... running, giggling kids look a lot like mice to a 150 lb cat, I'd imagine)
Yes, incredibly unbearably unbelievably awful, for all of us.
Since then, I've lost 8 ducks to a daytime-feeding fox, whose kit I "surprised" at 5am last week, one chicken (my best layer, a Buff Orp named Buffy) to a neighbor dog, and one older chick to a red-tailed hawk.
We have a new pup now, Great Pyr/Collie, who has been hanging out with chickens since she was born. Soon she'll be ready to take over night patrol, and I'll be able to sleep again. In the interim, I keep one of the windows open (near the coop, though that may change soon given the ungodly smell lately) and the guineas keep guard. They conveniently perch in the tree outside my window, overlooking "their birds" so the slightest notion of racoon or fox sends them into hyper-scream and me out the door to handle the problem.
Actually, last week the guineas saved my little crested polish--a ridiculously brave guy, only 8 weeks old, who wanders farther than anyone and literally climbs the fence to slip out between it and the overhead mesh covering)-- from a redtailed hawk. I could NOT figure out what they were all screaming at, and when I looked where they were looking, I could see nothing. Suddenly, from the woodpile flew a young hawk, followed by the crazy polish running, squawking like mad, back toward the safety of home. Interesting little dance between those eight animals...
Long story short -- coop your birds well (yeah, right--I know how that goes
), get yourself some guineas, find a good Great Pyr pup. You'll be able to sleep again, and NEVER regret it.
