Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[Cindlady]

Hi All!

Wow CC Hope you can figure out how to weasel proof your coop!

Birdman... hope you get that coon!

I know my coop needs some work, too may holes right now.

Nothing else I can think of.... Night All!

 

[JustJohn]

gee, maybe you could eat a few of them ??
maybe just the ones without names ..

You're telling me. DH found a weasel in the coop today. Thankfully he only got 1 bird, a rooster. Whew! But I am sure he will be back for secondzies.

Can you live trap the Weasel/Coon using the dead roo as bait? Then, the SSS method works great I hear.

Coonhoundmomma87 Howdie neighbor! They don't come any souther or centraler in WI than me.

NPIP is no big deal to become certified. The drive was harder than the class. We have found on this thread that the testing serum can be shared to reduce cost, and you could get to know some of peeps from here by sight instead of typing style, or trolling tendencies.

Fingers cramping from all this typing.

JJ

 

[birdman55]

morning everyone....my thoughts on the broilers....cross was if i were to raise my own and breed them so i have a bigger bird...so to speak for meat...instead of buying them all the time...i was just under the impression that you shouldnt breed the broilers....ive never had them so was just curious....

what coon....YOU MEAN RAY RAY THE RACOON......




we are at 22 chicks and one hatching late...just right now its zipping...so well see we are just under 80 percent hatch so far with this one will be 82 percent...not to bad....but still need to get better....wanna see them numbers high
have a great day every one

 

[Celtic Chick]

Weasels are notoriously hard to trap. They aren't attracted to dead bait.

Just looking on the cameras, the chickens look ok. That doesn't mean that there isn't a bloody corpse underneath the cameras though.

As for the creature, I think we really got lucky. Going off DH's description of it & its behavior, I think it is a mink. Most, but not all, weasels turn white in winter, or have a white underside. This one was entirely dark brown with a bushy tail (weasels tails are skinny). And minks don't kill everything at once like most weasels do.

Per Wiki:

The American mink differs from members of the genus Mustela (stoats and weasels) by its larger size and stouter form, which closely approach those of martens. It shares with martens a uniformly enlarged, bushy and somewhat tapering tail, rather than a slenderly terete tail with an enlarged bushy tip, as is the case in stoats.[10] The American mink is similar in build to the European mink, but the tail is longer (constituting 38-51% of its body length).

Males measure 13–18 in. in body length, while females measure 12–15 in.

The winter fur's tone is generally very dark blackish-tawny to light-tawny. Colour is evenly distributed over all the body, with the lower side being only slightly lighter than the upper body.

The American mink may pose a threat to poultry. According to Clinton Hart Merriam[31] and Ernest Thompson Seton,[32] although the American mink is a potential poultry thief, it is overall less damaging than the stoat. Unlike the stoat, which often engages in surplus killing, the mink usually limits itself to killing and eating one fowl during each attack. Studies in Britain indicate poultry and game birds only constitute 1% of the animals' overall diets.

Trapping:
One Native American method involved using a bait (usually a slit open chicken carcass filled with fish oil and oysters) tied to a rope and dragged around an area laden with traps. A mink would thus follow the trail into one of the traps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mink

 

[coonhoundmama87]

Can you live trap the Weasel/Coon using the dead roo as bait?  Then, the SSS method works great I hear.

Coonhoundmomma87  Howdie neighbor!   They don't come any souther or centraler in WI than me.

NPIP is no big deal to become certified.  The drive was harder than the class.  We have found on this thread that the testing serum can be shared to reduce cost, and you could get to know some of peeps from here by sight instead of typing style, or trolling tendencies.

Fingers cramping from all this typing.

JJ

Hi JJ wouldn't mind a few local contacts. Just always find anonymity easier I've felt very overwhelmed and intimidated by all this but I'm dealing.
I've only ever encountered one weasel in all my years. Guess I'm lucky. It did kill a hen but my dogs scared it into a woodpile. DH tore it apart with them but never saw it again. Never came back either which was ok by me! I know they are hard to trap tho. Maybe a pass through box trap might work? Catch it running along the coop? I've gotten rats that way. Just a thought.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote: anonymity is good, but after you come to the bash, you will see that this is a bunch of people that you don't have to be afraid of.. there might be a couple that you might want to tippy toe around, but they are harmless, mostly ..

 

[coonhoundmama87]

I generally avoid internet communities I guess you could say. Always see it bring out the worst in people. Lots seem to think its a free pass at saying anything no matter how hurtful. I'm kind of a private person I guess. Hope its still ok if I hang around a bit

 

[jvls1942]

I generally avoid internet communities I guess you could say. Always see it bring out the worst in people. Lots seem to think its a free pass at saying anything no matter how hurtful. I'm kind of a private person I guess. Hope its still ok if I hang around a bit

by all means, hang out here all you want,,

 

[BayBay Peepers]

Coonhoundmomma87 Howdie neighbor! They don't come any souther or centraler in WI than me.


JJ

We're semi-neighbors too. Same county, different end

 

[bigzio]

Sunny Afternoon To Everyone.

Dang Robin....hope Steve can catch the culprit before he strikes again! The mink is a fur bearer and worth a few bucks...I know Steve has a trappers license, so have him freeze that baby whole and sell it to a fur buyer for some beer money if he catches it.

Justa hatching away, eh birdman. If the weather improves a little more here, my egg numbers will pick up enough that I can collect for a trial hatch here. It is so nice to be seeing Winter in the rear view mirror.

bigz