Weasel Problems? (help me)

jackrooster

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I am having a weasel problem. So far he has killed 22 quails, 5 chickens, 2 ducks and injured 2 chickens pretty bad. I can't help worrying about the weasel getting the rest of my flock. The trap won't work he is to smart. Is there any bird or animal i can keep with my poultry and other birds to keep him away??
 
Its a 10 by 5 run probly 10 11 feet tall. The fencing is just chicken wire. I have been shutting there door buut i leave my other stall door open for my goats, and i thought he would be to scared to go passed my goats. But i guess not.....have you had a weasel problem if so what did u do to get rid of him??
 
Its a 10 by 5 run probly 10 11 feet tall. The fencing is just chicken wire. I have been shutting there door buut i leave my other stall door open for my goats, and i thought he would be to scared to go passed my goats. But i guess not.....have you had a weasel problem if so what did u do to get rid of him??
 
A weasel can/will go right through chicken wire. Won't even slow him down.
What you need is hardware cloth. Its a little more expensive but the holes are only a quarter inch instead of one inch.
A poisoned egg will get rid of him. Trapping is difficult at best but still do-able. Try different baits. If you have one of your dead birds, use it for bait. COVER the trap entirely, and use the proper size trap. If your trap is too big he probably won't activate it. They're pretty wiley so be patient.
 
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Secure your flock first no matter what. Then address predator issues. Could poison him. Take some 2" pvc pipe and a "T". Make a T with it and turn the T upside down. Pour poison bait inside the vertical leg. It will allow the rodent to crawl in either end to eat it, but chooks and pets cannot get it. For bait, soak dry corn in antifreeze, then pour blood over it before pouring into the pipe trap.

Another way is a death bucket. Get a 5 gal bucket and fill it to within 7" of the top with water. Take a soda can and drill a hole in center top and bottom. Poke a 3/4"rod thru it and secure it to center of top of bucket via two notches. Put some bloody remains of chicken on center of can and fix it to stick there somehow. Smear a little blood around the bucket top. When Mr Weasel comes a crawling, he will roll off of the can into the bucket to drown. Works for rats and mice too.

A 3rd way is a spring-type rat trap baited with bloody chicken parts. Strong enough to trap or possibly kill him.
 
I don't know if this would work with a weasel, but I had a 'coon that got "smart" on me and wouldn't go into the baited live trap I had set for him. I figured out how he was gettting into my barn to get to my feed. I dug a couple small holes so that my the tops of my steel traps would be at ground level when set. When that "smart coon came into the barn that first night he stepped right into the traps. If you can figure out the path of your weasel maybe you can do the same thing. Might we worth a try anyway.
 
Traps work, you just have to have the right bait. I had trouble with one, I know it was a weasle because he had pulled one of my girls to the fence but all he could get was the head. he just stayed right there and when he looked me in the eye it became personal. I guesss he just didnt want to give her up. I put me some chicken liver suspended on a treble hook in live trap so he would have to work to get it then when he set off the trap he could only wait till i got there. Then my trusty .410 did the rest. It took a few days before I got him, but I did get him. If you use a small live trap it should keep most other animals out. I bought mine at TSC in a set of 2 for $30.
 
You need to use "hardware cloth wire" instead of chicken wire, that is the most important thing because even if you kill one weasel, there will be another to take it's place (and another and another, etc. Also, you are allowing rats and mice to come and go into your chicken pens at will by using chicken wire, so in addition to a weasel you most likely have rats & mice. They can spoil food and spread diseases to you and your flock.

When you add the hardware cloth to your pen, make sure to dig down and bury the wire at least 6" below ground level and turned outwards another 6" at the bottom. That will reduce digging by weasels & rodents. It will aslo make tunnels they try to dig in the future easier to spot because they will be forced to start digging further out from your structure.

After that, you can go around your pen looking for any tiny gaps and fill them with insulation foam and/or steel wool. Mice & rats don't like steel wool. Make sure you look everywhere, a mouse or rat can squeeze thru anything they can get thier heads through.

You can try poison for mice, but it doesn't work for rats too long because they have sophisticated social systems in which certain rats are designated "testers". The tester rat tries new foods first, and if he dies, the other rats learn to avoid the food. We had some that would throw the poison out of the roofed area they infested by pushing it until they reached the entrance and shoving it over the edge where it would scatter.
 
first secure your flocks. in their coops.
2) get a snap or Jaw trap, add bacon greese to the tigger plate, secure the chain to a fence post. It only takes overnight to catch this way usually.

I caught mine the first night set! No lost chickens. I found his enterance at my gate, set the trap just inside that.

No more mink/weasel.

ETA: the only place in my run, not protected by buried Wire!
 
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