The chicken bandit strikes again, I need trapping ideas!

[daniel-delarosa]

First day was my bantam roo. There was a bird eating on him that I barley caught a glimpse of. I thought I had a hawk problem. Next day one hen and one roo dead inside the coop. Hen missing a head and roo appeared untouched. This morning one hen wedged under the fence and insides ate out, her head was inside the coop and hollowed egg laying on the floor. It wasn't cracked in half or smashed, it was just opened up on the end. I narrowed it down to a night time predator since I was out feeding my rabbits late last evening. BTW, My chickens and rabbits are in the same building. Rabbits have been untouched. Im going to get a live trap and try to catch whatever it is. What type of bait do I need to use???

 

[loanwizard]

Cat food catches just about everything. Sounds like a coon. Mine were missing heads and I trapped 3 coon and 3 possum. I moved my coop from the edge of the woods and away from any trees.

 

[coonhoundmama87]

Could be a coon, possum, or a skunk. Canned cat food works great, my husband will use canned cat food when he does his normal trapping and it works great. Also maybe throw an egg in there since it went for eggs. I've used the carcass of a dead chicken and that works too (although I'm sure not everyone would do that but I figure atleast they didn't die in vain and chicken is what the predator wants afterall). Hope you get the little SOB!!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

You may want to work on securing the area where your chickens sleep, and provide a predator-proof run.

 

[daniel-delarosa]

Got a trap and some cat food. Gonna set it out after the girls go up for the night. Hope it works!

 

[welasharon]

Quote:
X2 otherwise more will be coming and you won't know until they kill more. It's better to predator proof their area as a protection.

 

[daniel-delarosa]

I got their sleeping area secured today. As for the securing the run, there's not much I can do. Can't really put a top on a 25x40.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts about using cat food as bait. A friend of ours was at a local donut shop awhile back and a customer was talking about someone catching skunks and releasing them down the road from us. I killed at least a dozen skunks during that time. I caught one trying to get into my younger birds yard and when I went up close to it (with my gun) it stomped it's front feet like it was trying to scare me off so it was bye bye skunk. Put up an electric fence. I have an electric fence around my coops and yards and nothing gets in then.

 

[Mattemma]

I have caught my coons with apples and carrots.The cat food got a lot of ant action in the summer.Hope you get it and take it for a swim.

 

[domino7]

I have found, from a post on this forum, that an egg is great bait for trapping raccoons. They're free, and seem to work better than anything else I've tried.