Preston Family Farm
Chirping
Hi all. This is a bit of a long read but hopefully my story will help some others learn from our mistakes and help keep your own flocks safe. We also welcome any advice on hopefully helping our one injured hen recover.
Some of our flock including our beloved rooster Leonard who sadly was one of the weasel's victims.
Our egg laying flock was 15 strong up until the past couple of weeks. We discovered we have an Ermine living in the woods nearby our coop and over the course of about a week he/she gradually took our flock down to just two remaining hens. Since the initial attacks, I've gone to great lengths to try and predator proof our run including installing 1/4" hardware cloth top to bottom, installed a full roof, and a predator apron all the way around with more hardware cloth. I thought I had it all locked down before this last attack but unfortunately, I discovered that there was a tiny gap where I had run out of hardware cloth on one roll and then overlapped the next roll and carried on. You can actually see where the Ermine tried digging, hit the wire, and then moved over a few inches and tried again. They did this all the way along the perimeter of the fence until they finally found a tiny gap they could squeeze through.
You can see several spots along the bottom of the run here where the ermine dug down, hit the predator apron under the dirt and then moved over to try again.
A few days before this most recent attack I also took one of our security cameras we already have and installed it in the run to keep tabs on the chickens. I'm glad I did because while I was out at a 4-H event I got a notice of movement detected and sure enough, there was the Ermine attacking one of our two remaining hens. I called my wife, and she ran out from the house. She interrupted the attack, and the Ermine ran off through the hole it dug its way in through. This was the fourth attack in total over about two weeks and all attacks happened in the middle of the day, approximately 1-3pm. Our chickens always come in at night with the door closed to the run, so they've thankfully been safe when inside the coop itself.
Video showing the attack. The Ermine squeezed under a seam between two sections of predator apron that wasn't secured as well as it should have been. They then dug under and into the chicken run. The door was open to the inside the coop where two hens were at the time. This video starts as it is chasing one of the hens out into the coop. It might be visually disturbing to some so please watch with caution. Also, I've seen some folks think they only need to do hardware cloth around the bottom of their run to stop a weasel. I'm here to tell you that it is absolutely needed all the way up, even the roof if you don't have something solid like we do. If you slow this video down at one point you will see the ermine jump about half way up the wall as it chases the hen. These walls are all over 6' tall. Whatever distance it doesn't jump it could easily climb the rest of the way.
This clip shows the ermine releasing the hen once it hears my wife coming over from the house. Watch how fast it disappears back down the hole it dug under the predator apron. It even pops it head back up to take a quick second look before it ultimately ran back off into the trees.
Our one remaining hen is clearly scared. She is still eating and drinking water, but she doesn't like to be on the floor of the coop for longer than a few minutes and then she gets back up to heights. I am not letting her back outside currently while I try to get rid of the Ermine problem.
Our one remaining hen in the coop.
I've re-doubled my efforts on the predator apron. I overlapped more hardware cloth and made the apron itself wider. I found the last entry point and fixed that and even ran another apron on the inside of the run along that side. I think I have all the weak spots identified but I thought I did last time also. The problem I'm facing is the coop and run were pre-existing, and the building is very old. It is on a concrete foundation thankfully, so nothing seems to be getting into the coop itself. But I've had to retrofit everything onto our run. Ideally, I would have just built it right from day one but money isn't unlimited, so we are trying to make the best of what we have.
I've also gone to the length of building some weasel box traps and I've placed those out around the outside of the run and in the forest nearby where I think the Ermine must live. I've been checking daily for about a week, and I've only caught mice so far. I'll keep trying but I know weasels are notoriously hard to trap. This is maybe a bit over the top, but I've even gone so far as setting up one of our small Google speakers in the run and playing chicken sounds on a loop to hopefully make the weasel think hens are back out in the run. My hope is they'll come looking and smell the bait in my traps. I've only been doing that experiment since yesterday, so I'll have to report back later if that actually works.
One of my completed weasel box traps ready to be set.
Trap set with some raw chicken and fish inside for bait. My local market didn't have anything like chicken livers etc. which are recommended. I'll re-bait the traps once I can get some.
One of the traps in position and hidden beneath some grass and branches.
Lastly, our poor hen who was attacked most recently is badly injured. The weasel latched onto the back of her neck as they do. There were two small puncture wounds that we cleaned and they clotted up fine on their own. But she seems to have developed wry neck as a result of the attack. She holds here head at a weird angle and seems to have a hard time turning it to the side. She is still eating thankfully although it's a bit of a challenge for her to get her "aim" correct so we are trying to help her with that. She's drinking water a bit but same problem there. She also can't stand very well on her own right now. Her balance is off and she tends to just roll over to her side if she tries to walk. She can move her feet and wings, so she isn't paralyzed, but it seems like maybe there is nerve damage or something. We know we may not be able to help her fully recover but we are going to try our best for at least a few days to see if she has any improvement. We also don't want her to suffer so we know we may have to make a difficult decision here soon. If anyone has been able to successfully help a hen recover from such an attack, we'd really appreciate whatever tips you have.
My daughter comforting our friend shortly after the attack happened.
We used a small pet kennel we have to set her up with some food and water. She has spent two nights sleeping in here and we take her out during the day to do some "chicken physio" and help her eat and drink.
Total side note, of all the predators I've read about and tried to be prepared for I feel like a weasel has to be one of the worst/hardest ones to thwart. Fingers crossed we've done enough to protect our run for our next group of layers.
We have about two dozen chicks set to hatch this week. With only one hen in the coop currently I'm wondering if I can introduce them earlier than I normally would after they're done in our brooder setup. I just don't want her to be sad on her own. Hopefully our other hen heals up and can rejoin her also. I welcome any thoughts on this.
Some of our flock including our beloved rooster Leonard who sadly was one of the weasel's victims.
Our egg laying flock was 15 strong up until the past couple of weeks. We discovered we have an Ermine living in the woods nearby our coop and over the course of about a week he/she gradually took our flock down to just two remaining hens. Since the initial attacks, I've gone to great lengths to try and predator proof our run including installing 1/4" hardware cloth top to bottom, installed a full roof, and a predator apron all the way around with more hardware cloth. I thought I had it all locked down before this last attack but unfortunately, I discovered that there was a tiny gap where I had run out of hardware cloth on one roll and then overlapped the next roll and carried on. You can actually see where the Ermine tried digging, hit the wire, and then moved over a few inches and tried again. They did this all the way along the perimeter of the fence until they finally found a tiny gap they could squeeze through.
You can see several spots along the bottom of the run here where the ermine dug down, hit the predator apron under the dirt and then moved over to try again.
A few days before this most recent attack I also took one of our security cameras we already have and installed it in the run to keep tabs on the chickens. I'm glad I did because while I was out at a 4-H event I got a notice of movement detected and sure enough, there was the Ermine attacking one of our two remaining hens. I called my wife, and she ran out from the house. She interrupted the attack, and the Ermine ran off through the hole it dug its way in through. This was the fourth attack in total over about two weeks and all attacks happened in the middle of the day, approximately 1-3pm. Our chickens always come in at night with the door closed to the run, so they've thankfully been safe when inside the coop itself.
Our one remaining hen is clearly scared. She is still eating and drinking water, but she doesn't like to be on the floor of the coop for longer than a few minutes and then she gets back up to heights. I am not letting her back outside currently while I try to get rid of the Ermine problem.
Our one remaining hen in the coop.
I've re-doubled my efforts on the predator apron. I overlapped more hardware cloth and made the apron itself wider. I found the last entry point and fixed that and even ran another apron on the inside of the run along that side. I think I have all the weak spots identified but I thought I did last time also. The problem I'm facing is the coop and run were pre-existing, and the building is very old. It is on a concrete foundation thankfully, so nothing seems to be getting into the coop itself. But I've had to retrofit everything onto our run. Ideally, I would have just built it right from day one but money isn't unlimited, so we are trying to make the best of what we have.
I've also gone to the length of building some weasel box traps and I've placed those out around the outside of the run and in the forest nearby where I think the Ermine must live. I've been checking daily for about a week, and I've only caught mice so far. I'll keep trying but I know weasels are notoriously hard to trap. This is maybe a bit over the top, but I've even gone so far as setting up one of our small Google speakers in the run and playing chicken sounds on a loop to hopefully make the weasel think hens are back out in the run. My hope is they'll come looking and smell the bait in my traps. I've only been doing that experiment since yesterday, so I'll have to report back later if that actually works.
One of my completed weasel box traps ready to be set.
Trap set with some raw chicken and fish inside for bait. My local market didn't have anything like chicken livers etc. which are recommended. I'll re-bait the traps once I can get some.
One of the traps in position and hidden beneath some grass and branches.
Lastly, our poor hen who was attacked most recently is badly injured. The weasel latched onto the back of her neck as they do. There were two small puncture wounds that we cleaned and they clotted up fine on their own. But she seems to have developed wry neck as a result of the attack. She holds here head at a weird angle and seems to have a hard time turning it to the side. She is still eating thankfully although it's a bit of a challenge for her to get her "aim" correct so we are trying to help her with that. She's drinking water a bit but same problem there. She also can't stand very well on her own right now. Her balance is off and she tends to just roll over to her side if she tries to walk. She can move her feet and wings, so she isn't paralyzed, but it seems like maybe there is nerve damage or something. We know we may not be able to help her fully recover but we are going to try our best for at least a few days to see if she has any improvement. We also don't want her to suffer so we know we may have to make a difficult decision here soon. If anyone has been able to successfully help a hen recover from such an attack, we'd really appreciate whatever tips you have.
My daughter comforting our friend shortly after the attack happened.
We used a small pet kennel we have to set her up with some food and water. She has spent two nights sleeping in here and we take her out during the day to do some "chicken physio" and help her eat and drink.
Total side note, of all the predators I've read about and tried to be prepared for I feel like a weasel has to be one of the worst/hardest ones to thwart. Fingers crossed we've done enough to protect our run for our next group of layers.
We have about two dozen chicks set to hatch this week. With only one hen in the coop currently I'm wondering if I can introduce them earlier than I normally would after they're done in our brooder setup. I just don't want her to be sad on her own. Hopefully our other hen heals up and can rejoin her also. I welcome any thoughts on this.
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Way back in the day when I was a young kid, I had almost 100 rabbits. One winter, a mink or weasel got into our shed and started killing my rabbits. We did not have the money to predator proof the rabbit house against a weasel, so that was pretty much the end of me raising rabbits. Sad thing is that the weasel, or mink, just don't kill only one animal for food. They kill as many as they can, it seems, just for the fun of it.
Hope you catch and eliminate that weasel(s).
