We thought it was a rat, but...

[DivaHick]

We hatched 13 muscovy ducklings, and are now down to 7. They just disappear! So we moved the coop to the other side of the yard and stuffed rat poison down the old holes. (The block kind that we can tell was nibbled on) Last night, in the middle of the thunderstorm, we went to shut the chickens up and in the chicken pen there was a dead rodent. Because of the rain we couldn't tell what it was, but it didn't seem to have a tail. We also couldn't tell exactly how it died. DH put it aside to look at today but it was gone this morning. This AM, we noticed we went from 8 ducklings to 7 and there are two fresh holes under the duck coop and one in the chicken coop where we NEVER had one before! So the duck coop, which is up on skids, got rat poison shoved down the holes (ducks can't get at it). But the body we found last night didn't look at all like a rat, it was too small and didn't have a tail. We thought it was a mole or vole? And when we moved the duck coop there was a series of tunnels underneath and the bodies of three ducklings but we couldn't tell to much since they'd just been run over by the coop.

What do we do?

 

[kagedgoddess]

good luck on figuring this out. i wish i had an answer for ya.

 

[isabrownmom]

Can you post a pic of your predator?

 

[DivaHick]

No it's gone.

We're thinking a barn cat is the way to go, but I'm so allergic to cats...

 

[wjallen05]

We're thinking a barn cat is the way to go, but I'm so allergic to cats...

lol, two of our cats would team up and catch and kill/eat my baby chicks, so they had to go.

I have no idea what is could be... crazy! A friend had "something" killing of all of her bantams, I think we finnaly figured that it was a weasle.

Might want to try a live animal trap?​

 

[al6517]

That is a puzzle, keep us posted and don't give up you could help many others who may have the same problem as you and also are perplexed about the cause. stay vigilant good job.

AL

 

[pringle]

Im pretty sure what you saw was a weasle.They will tunnel and eat you birds.The best thing to do is set some rat traps baited with meat but make sure you dont let the chickens or ducks out!!

 

[Holly O]

Please ... Do something else with the ducks.. for now ... dog crate them in the evenings or bring them in the house. You do not need to loose any more!!!

 

[DivaHick]

Well, we shut them up in the raised coop everynight, it seems to be happening around late afternoon to early evening. However, we can't bring them inside because we're foster parents and the state doesn't allow poultry in the house, we could lose our license. (We asked. We can't even do an incubator inside.)

 

[insiderart]

Hmm.. I'd like to know what it is when you find out. A very similar thing happened to us. But I'm not sure if the holes are for the predator or just anecdotal.