The Trap Nesting Thread

[AuroraSprings]

Has anyone tried trap nesting on ducks?

 

[galanie]

Success! I moved the nail to the inside of the face frame, cut out the door to fit around the face frame, and we have success. All but my biggest girl got trapped going in today. Now to keep an eye on her tomorrow and see how that's happening! I even made a log and hung the clipboard by the back door to celebrate! haha!

 

[MANOZ]

CONGRATS

NOW YOUR SET TO GO...

 

[MANOZ]

Sorry For The Late Comment But I Check My Boxes 4 Times A Day, I Feed Between 7 And 8 In The Morning, Then I Check Them Just Before 9 Am Again At 12 Then At 3 And Just Before Sunset. I Also Get Eggs At All 4 Times.

Since I Been Away From The Site For A Few Days [harvesting Bamboo] I Had No Problems And I Got A Really Solid Log On All My Birds.once The Trap Nest Is Made All Else Is Done,whats A Few More Trips To Your Birds,they'll Love The Attention Esp If You Got Some Scratch.lol

 

[galanie]

Trap nests helped me find my egg eater too. Only it was a rat. I'd never have figured it out if I hadn't been checking the boxes so often, though. The darn thing was waiting for the hen to finish laying and then run in there and eat the egg! I still have some fine tuning to do because sometimes one of them doesn't trip the door. I'd go in there and see a hen on the nest and the door still open, think about coming back in 30 min then forget for an hour and go back to see no egg! No trace of an egg, nothing. And different hens, not the same one. Only then did it click that I was seeing a rat in there during the daytime, which I never had noticed before. I surprised it a couple times now waiting hidden behind the other nest box that they don't use. So now we're de-ratting the place lol.

I pulled apart the contact cement that I'd used to make a 1/2 inch thick lower door, making it 1/4 again. The lighter door really works much better. And I've found too that having the nail directly under the hinge is the key to getting that part working right. It wasn't working at first because the hinge was effectively 1/2 inch or so in front of the nail. By cutting notches in the front corners of the lower door, I put the trigger point directly over the top hinges and now it works much better.

Another thing I did was make the top section of the door longer by simply using longer strings for the top hinge. It seems that having the door make a V like the Belgian Marans Club doors rather than more of an L is more effective in getting them to trigger it. This is because the hen's back hits the joint in the door rather than the front of it I think.

 

[cjwaldon]

You know the nests that are built on the outside of the coop with access from the inside, with the sloped roof? Has anyone turned those into trap nests? If so, I would like to hear of your success or pitfalls as I'd like to try this instead of rebuilding nest boxes from scratch.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
seems to me, you'd just have to make the door to it, and dividers between if they aren't already there, i would think...

 

[giggleboxfarm]

I just saw this thread today and it is very cool. I think we are going to have to build some. We have probably 15 layers and I got 6 eggs today. I know they are probably ready to slow down, but its been like that for a couple months now. I've been wanting to figure out who is actually laying. Thank you for sharing!

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
well my free range group i'm getting 1 egg a day, from 6 hens (not counting 2 broodies)... so i have no idea who's being a good girl and who's hiding them somewhere. i did find 15 eggs last friday, when i followed a broody to where she was hiding (glad i did, she didn't pick a good location - had a stream of freezing water going under the eggs, and ice clinging to her back from last week's storm).

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Try one of these on the front of you nest box they work nice,

There used for trapping homers in there loft and run around $25.00, you can get them at any good online pigeon supplies store.
Here is a link to Jedds
http://www.jedds.com/-strse-1506/JEDDS-Mfg./Detail.bok

Chris