Trapping weasel help, please!*IT CAME BACK!**

[lengel]

I'm horrified and feel like I'm going to start to cry.

It gave birth. And they seem to be teenagers.

We cornered a gray/black medium sized weasel which seemed smaller than what we've been seeing in the yard but it's hard to tell in the dark.

We just caught this.

It's way too small. And brown. And the black thing in the back of the cage is my dead hen.

I saw the big one heading for the woods earlier today. I think it was mama and took off to leave it's babies to fend for themselves.

So how many offspring do these things spawn?

 

[redhen]

ooh mygosh! you got it though!...i think they can have alot of babies!....youre in trouble like me...

 

[Pumpkinpup]

I feel for all of you dealing with this. I wish I had some ideas to add for the weasel problem

I can however add that I had coons getting in my corn patch and I baited with honeybuns and caught 8 of the suckers!!! They must love the sweets

 

[LynneP]

We have fisher cats here (pine martens) which are huge members of the weasel family and exceptionally agressive, even to humans. . We can't harm them in any way as they are part of a restoration problem. If we tried to relocate them not only would we be fined in excess of $2500 but we might end up in jail. BTW, you probably know that weasels are fierce, and that your hubby might have been attacked if he'd cooped the original one. Glad his instincts were on high alert. They often enter overhead, check eaves. Rat snakes do that too.

A friend down the hill lost her last 4 chickens to pine martens, and two of the victims were mature roosters. When we built our coop/roofed run last year we had to cope with the idea that it had to be predator-proof. I'm sure a bear could get in, but reasonably certain we're okay otherwise. If you think my page can assist you in making barriers, I'll be well pleased. Just click on my BYC home page.

No problems yet- we have weasels, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, stray dogs, feral cats, bobcats, eastern cougars, black bears, owls, eagles, hawks and much more...

It's quite a challenge. In part I think we have been okay because a few others still try to free-range and the predators take their birds. Eventually, though, they may eye ours.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-ThinkWeasel

 

[Indiana hens]

OH MY!!

Well done! KILL IT!!!

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I think that's a mink not a wessel. It looks like what I had. weasels are very small, just bigger than a rat. They are a lot harder to catch than a weasel. Very smart. They will take one bird at a time. Where a weasel will kill everything all at once 'blood fever'. the only time a mink keeps killing if they can't get the kill out of the fence. Then some will stack dead birds like cord wood. YUK

 

[mountain gma]

Sorry, I know how upset you are. If I understand you right, there was no trap or cage and the weasel got into the coop through the door. I use a humane cage/trap for the raccoons on the mountain (who think they're my pets). The only legal way to dispose of wild predators in NC is to shoot them. It seems unfair to trap and then shoot, but if the critters are really so destructive then it's your interests or them. For stray dogs I use a modern day sling shot. I've become pretty lethal with it. At least they don't come back around after they've had a steel nut in the butt. Weasels are way more aggressive than raccoons and I think you'd be better to trap and shoot than use poison. I started with 25 Buckeyes last May and am down to six. Good luck with the rest of your flock. Oh yeah, and forgive your husband.

 

[redhen]

thanks for all the advice guys!!

still nothing in the trap!!!

but tonight we are going to add tuna fish to it..i hope that works!!...also, IT CAME BACK AGAIN this morning at around 11 am....it managed to crawl through the origional fencing but then got stuck in between the fencing and the new chicken wire my husband put up yesterday....so..again... hubby tried to whack it with a shovel through the fencing....and it squeezed back through the outside fence and took off again!..

..SO, its 3 times now we had the sucker and it got away!!!!!...

why wont it just go in our traps!????

 

[chickenboy95]

personaly i think he is just getting lucky.

 

[jhm47]

That's an immature mink. It is likely part of a litter that was recently weaned. They will kill all your birds if given the chance. A weasel is usually white at this time of year, while mink are dark brown.