War has been Declared (Graphic Pictures)

[Painted Calls]

Ferrets and dropbears

 

[rsmith1109]

This is a thread to document my journey to taking it to the enemy

Prefacing this story with the comment that we have very few predators here where I live.

All my runs are covered and I have a variety of different style houses for my chickens.
The coop in this story was built on skids so it could be towed around to fresh grass etc. I dont have the room to be moving it around regularly so I have built a fixed run onto the end. With the coop being on skids there is a 2 inch gap underneath the coop that something could get into if it really wanted to.

after having this coop set up for about 10 months and no sign of anything predator wise.....

I arrived at the coop to find 3 dead birds (point of lay Leghorns) They had been tried to be dragged out of the gap underneath the coop.......... necks had been cleanly slashed then chewed upon.

Spent the rest of the day digging down and boarding up the gap.

2 weeks later exactly the same thing.... 3 dead Leghorns tried to be dragged back thru holes dug under and around the boards I had put in... this time when I checked it was 9:30 in the evening and I had no time to do anything apart from put rocks and pieces of wood in the holes and think about how I could fix it the next day.

The next morning 2 more dead Leghorns.... exactly the same scenario... necks cleanly slashed, and tried to drag out another hole dug.

WAR!

 

[rsmith1109]

This is a thread to document my journey to taking it to the enemy

Prefacing this story with the comment that we have very few predators here where I live.

All my runs are covered and I have a variety of different style houses for my chickens.
The coop in this story was built on skids so it could be towed around to fresh grass etc. I dont have the room to be moving it around regularly so I have built a fixed run onto the end. With the coop being on skids there is a 2 inch gap underneath the coop that something could get into if it really wanted to.

after having this coop set up for about 10 months and no sign of anything predator wise.....

I arrived at the coop to find 3 dead birds (point of lay Leghorns) They had been tried to be dragged out of the gap underneath the coop.......... necks had been cleanly slashed then chewed upon.

Spent the rest of the day digging down and boarding up the gap.

2 weeks later exactly the same thing.... 3 dead Leghorns tried to be dragged back thru holes dug under and around the boards I had put in... this time when I checked it was 9:30 in the evening and I had no time to do anything apart from put rocks and pieces of wood in the holes and think about how I could fix it the next day.

The next morning 2 more dead Leghorns.... exactly the same scenario... necks cleanly slashed, and tried to drag out another hole dug.

WAR!

I lost my entire flock of 11 ISA Brown hens to a single mink. I know it was a mink because I baited him into a live trap using one of my dead hens. Minks are vicious and ruthless, biting my hens necks and drinking their blood, seemingly for the sheer thrill of the kill. He came back the next two nights to feed on his kill. I trapped him on the third night.

 

[bill3607]

I lost my entire flock of 11 ISA Brown hens to a single mink. I know it was a mink because I baited him into a live trap using one of my dead hens. Minks are vicious and ruthless, biting my hens necks and drinking their blood, seemingly for the sheer thrill of the kill. He came back the next two nights to feed on his kill. I trapped him on the third night.

Did you drown his ***?

 

[bill3607]

Did you drown his ***?

Know someone that will do it for you.

 

[ChookieG]

View attachment 2576762

Oh boy I didn't think that DROPBEARs would become sensational!

 

[ChookieG]

I lost my entire flock of 11 ISA Brown hens to a single mink. I know it was a mink because I baited him into a live trap using one of my dead hens. Minks are vicious and ruthless, biting my hens necks and drinking their blood, seemingly for the sheer thrill of the kill. He came back the next two nights to feed on his kill. I trapped him on the third night.

Errr.. how did you know it was drinking their blood? Damn were you watching the whole time!!??

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

Errr.. how did you know it was drinking their blood? Damn were you watching the whole time!!??

Minks and weasels drink the blood of their prey. I think that they also eat some of the meat, but they definitely drink the blood, as well.

 

[bill3607]

Oh boy I didn't think that DROPBEARs would become sensational!

Well, yep, when you unleash a thing that has the crotch rot jumping out of trees ripping peeps faces off and stuff it has a tendency to do that.

 

[BecaHawaii]

We have mongoose (biggest ego disaster in HI) WHY are ferrets running around? Aren't they exotic pets?