Tiny little weasel. Help!

[boundtogoboogie]

Sorry if this has been covered, but after sifting through a lot of posts and not finding what I needed I decided it was just easier to ask. My Ameraucana girlies are fledged and I was looking to introduce them to the stall that will serve as their pen when i got word from my landlady that she had seen a weasel in the barn. That was yesterday. This morning when I went over to feed I saw said weasel. It is a tiny thing, not much bigger than a chipmunk. In fact at first I thought it was a chipmunk. It was rather bold and curious and turned back to look at me long enough that I could look back at it. It is, indeed some little variety of mustelidae. I think it must be a baby, and where there is a baby, there is a momma. So now what do I do? I have kept pet ferrets in the past and I know they are very able to squeeze through tiny spaces. Pretty sure this one could fit through the mesh on 1 inch poultry wire. Not sure I can make the stall that tight. According to my landlady this one was carrying a mouse when she saw it, which tells me it is hunting. It was about 7 in the morning when I saw the little varmint. I thought they were nocturnal. I don't think this one could kill the bigger girls, but my comets are still pretty small, and if there is a larger one around even the ams are not safe. Anyone had any luck with repellants? Any other suggestions? I'm getting very attached to my birds and will be extremely upset to lose any of them.

 

[Tuhmu]

As far as I know, using hardwire cloth is one fool proof way of keeping them out. You could also try trapping it.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

Oh, to add to my post - Would something like a snake repellent, heavily laced with clove, be an appropriate deterrent? Since they are so close to the ground I was wondering if this would be a sufficient irritant if spread around the perimeter of the pen. We also have goats and a donkey and I don't want to risk causing harm to any of them.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

As far as I know, using hardwire cloth is one fool proof way of keeping them out. You could also try trapping it.

Trapping it was my first thought, but it is so small ( I think, after some reading, it may be a young "least weasel") I figure there are more where that one came from, and where could I drop them that they wouldn't just return to the farm?

 

[jetdog]

Google "weasel box trap"pretty simple to make and shouldn't catch anything else.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

Thank you

 

[farnorth]

little tiny weasel dug it's way into a stall in my garage where I was keeping a hen and 9 chicks. Weasel took every single chick and roughed up the hen. It's not a baby it's just a small breed of weasel called a Least Weasel and they can and will kill full grown chickens and even rabbits if hungry enough. Usually though they go for smaller prey and they find chicks quite tasty. I would not risk it. We even had buried wire and it dug until it found a way in. Also if you google "least weasel" you will see that they kill more than they can eat. If it gets to your chicks it will try it's best to kill them all if it can. Do not lets it's small size fool you.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

I found the weasels in Google yesterday. As I said in my first post, it has been seen caerying mice, so I know it is hunting. I have had customers come in devastated because a weasel had gotten in and killed their whole flock. Not planning on risking my babies.

 

[aart]

1/2" hardware cloth 'envelope' is what I built for my coop inside a shed. Weasel can't get thru a 1/2" hole.

 

[blucoondawg]

The weasel will kill the chicks and is very capable of getting the adults as well. You need to trap the weasels and not with a live trap and relocate philosophy, the best way is a rat trap like a large wooden mouse trap, build a box it can go in and have room enough to go off and have a 1" hole in the box, bait the trap with a piece of fresh liver from your grocery store, weasels love this setup, they tend to be cavity dwellers and love to go into these boxes especially for a piece of bloody liver.