Something's killing my chickens

RN Pete, I'm going to put the nails in the traps this weekend. Your picture proves the point. Last night, when I got home, I had 4 of the 6 traps sprung with nothing in them. This morning, there were 2 more sprung.

Here's another thing, I have always been under the impression that they attack at night. Is this really the case? Do they sometimes attack during the day?

Good news is, I haven't lost another chicken since loosing the 4 in one night, but the weasels must be getting hungry by now.

Jay

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Single male, 41 Lt. brown hair, brown eyes, 5'9" 210#, living in CT. Nobody I date seems to be interested in the farm thing. Is Ms Right out there? Oh yea, that's my Nephew in the picture with me.

How about a hawk? I had that happen to me the other day had no clue what happened then I just sat back and watched my yard and noticed a red tailed hawk hanging out. Got the paintball gun out took pot shots at it and yelled go away!!! had to do that for a few days and I hope its now gone.
And for the record I was NOT trying to hit the bird I know it has to eat too. But paintball guns make popping sounds and it seems to be effective. Besides it was not even close enough to hit even if I tried I can't hit the broad side of barn with it anyways LOL

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You Know You Need More!!!
Crashy

I really have my doubts about the hawk setting off the rat traps. I have them set outside the fence, with plywood leaving against the fence over them, so my dog or the Banty's I have loose don't get into them.

Jay

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Single male, 41 Lt. brown hair, brown eyes, 5'9" 210#, living in CT. Nobody I date seems to be interested in the farm thing. Is Ms Right out there? Oh yea, that's my Nephew in the picture with me.

Hi Jay! I didn't read the rest of the responses, on my out the door but as I've had a LOT of experience with this type of thing, being a trouble shooter of sorts I can tell you this...and you can take this to the bank. No trying to trap the predator, no leaving out bait, no trying to shoot it or hire a trapper, no worrying nights about your poultry...simplicity itself and yet people don't approach it correctly for some reason.???

Make your chicken house predator proof. Period, the end. That's all it takes. If you pop over to www.poultryconnection.com you can get the right advice for this. Simply put, it's using wire around the sides that's has openings smaller than 1"X 1/2"(hardware cloth works in many cases....welded wire is better.). Putting a secure cover on it and making sure that where the sides meet the roof is nice and tight. Making very sure that any doorw or windows are snug and tight. And you And you don't have to "Bury" anything...just lay 48" wire right on the ground butting it up against the sides of the pen snugly and fastening it in place. No predator knows enough to back up and dig...every single one of them will go to the BASE of the structure and try and dig in. The wire will stop them...every time. Some people like to put 24" of the ground wire outside the pen and the other 24" inside, Up to you.

I've spent many years learning how to keep Predators IN and I know h ow to keep them OUTt I posted many times about this on the Poultry Forum..you can probably access the archives and get some good ideas from others too.

Some people have good luck with electric wiring. I stay away from this approach as I am ignorant about electricity and don't trust it. What happpens if you have a power outage for instance?

Good luck with things..I know it hurt to lose your birds. you don't have to lose any more though. Just get busy.

LQ

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" Live in the Sunshine,
Swim the Sea,
Drink the Wild Air"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing." D. Duck

Jay
I'm inclined to think either owl, weasel or fishercat. If it is an owl, it would be a young one - 'practicing' because owls will generally eat the entire head and upper chest cavity off a bird, not just pick at it. I'm not up to speed on fishercats, but the minimal research I've done would indicate that they (as well as weasels) would kill and eat what they wanted of one, then kill or maim more with the intention of returning for an easy meal. Raccoons will GENERALLY kill anything they can catch and then eat what they want - it's not pretty. Usually total or near total destruction of the flock.
LQ has part of the equation - appropriate housing. The balance of the solution may be to get a dog. My Pyrenees (by just his presence) keeps predators at bay. My neighbor has a problem with raccoons in his sweet corn every year - I never have. We have coyotes, possums, fox, raccoons, weasels, skunks, and I've been told fishercats (never seen one) in our area and I have yet to lose a chicken to any land-based predator (knocking on wood).

Pure nonsense. I have a very predator proof hen house. If you have mice in your hen house, you could have a weasel in your hen house. Please show me a mouse proof hen house. I've had a weasel squeeze through a hole smaller than a nickel.

Pete

I agree Pete. If there are predators around, sooner or later one will get in. I make my coop as safe as reasonably possible and then rely on a predator control program. I keep 2 live traps out all of the time, plus 3 snares. A shotgun handy for the airborn ones helps too.

And you And you don't have to "Bury" anything...just lay 48" wire right on the ground butting it up against the sides of the pen snugly and fastening it in place. No predator knows enough to back up and dig...every single one of them will go to the BASE of the structure and try and dig in. The wire will stop them...every time.

This part makes sense to me. Why in heck don't I think of these kind of solutions...<big grin>

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With all due respect Pete, I don't buy it. I've been testing out how to keep predators IN for many years and how to keep them OUT. I live on a river surrounded by forest and we do have every usual predator here commonly found in the USA(not the exteme southern ones, gators...or northern ones..wolverines etc.).

People who come to us with complaints that a weasel(or whatever)got into their birds were inevitably found to have non secure areas where the roof meets the sides, or, a door/window is not tight or more rare but it happens, they have rats that dig in from underneath and predators(snakes, weasels etc.) will follow the rat holes up. IF a person has rats around we tell them to cover the bottom of the poultry pen with hardware cloth etc. and put sand over it.

People keep weasels(rescues) IN with 1/2 " hardwarecloth (but not mice....they use 1/4 " for these littie pests. Yuk..I hate mice around!

In almost 20 years now not a single bird(dry land poultry and water fowl) has been lost to predators here in the valley to those who follow the Wildlife Rescue Guidelines....not one. And for what it's worth, no species of wildlife has escaped either, of those being kept by rescuers who follow the self same guidelines( it amazes me what some people will rescue! One lady does just Porcupines!!!! Whoa! LOL). I would think that most any Wildlife Org would have much the same guidelines that they give their people.

I always put in a disclaimer when I am talking about "predator proofing" and as I haven't posted much for awhile I will say it again....nothing we, the average person can do, will keep out a determined bear. They make their own laws! It's rare that they get interested in poulry houses but it happens. Lots of experiece with THAT too! A whole 'nother post! Oy Vey! LOL

I would suggest another look at your poultry house. You can't call it predator Proof if a weasel got in. I stand by my statement and hope people give it a try who are having trouble...and let me know how you do if you would. Been really busy lately but I do get back here when I can. Or, e-mail is good too.

We don't have to kill off the predators that keep vermin like mice and rats under control. We can just keep them out. Just my 2 cents....

LQ

__________________
" Live in the Sunshine,
Swim the Sea,
Drink the Wild Air"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing." D. Duck

I've had problems with weasels twice. Once in my coop, the first time in my HOUSE. Granted, my house is not a brand new perfectly insulated and sealed house, but it's not exactly a rat infested hovel either. I do have the odd mouse problem, a couple traps usually takes care of them. That said, I had a weasel in my house. It was eating the cat food when the cat was outside for the night. It would come from the basement, up through the hole where the drain for the kitchen sink went through the bottom of the cupboard. It would walk across our pans (rattle rattle, clink clink) then squeeze through the hole where the supply line for the dishwasher ran through the side of the cupboard (pictured below). It would squeeze out under the dishwasher and fill up on cat food.

I have absolutely no idea how this animal got in my house and walked in and out at will. It is unlikely your coop is weasel proof. They have a low population density, probably only one for three square miles. It is far more likely one has just never found your coop.

Pete

No weasel yet. I changed the trap sets this weekend, two like Pete called for with the nails, and 4 verticle sets that I found on the internet. This called for putting the traps 6 inches or so off the ground nailed to a verticle board, and the bait pan located at the bottom. So far, Pete's set caught a rat, but the weasel hasn't been back since Friday night when he got two more birds. I'll keep the traps baited with fresh bait, and see what happens. Thank you all for the ideas. I'm a little up in the air over the predator proof chicken pen. I mean, I understand it can probable be done if you had an unlimited budget, but most of us don't have that.

I have spent a bunch on my pen already. I burried the fence in the ground, all the way around. I poured concrete under the doors. I have the entire pen covered with chicken wire, and other than the weasel being able to fit through the fence, I haven't had a big problem with loosing birds. I do keep a trap set as often as I can outside the pen, to catch what ever might be trolling around, but that only usually catches a few skunks here and there, with an occasional coon.

I'll keep you all updated on what's happening.

Jay

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Single male, 41 Lt. brown hair, brown eyes, 5'9" 210#, living in CT. Nobody I date seems to be interested in the farm thing. Is Ms Right out there? Oh yea, that's my Nephew in the picture with me.

Don't know if it will work with weasels but I've had a lot of luck keeping things in (horses, pigs, dogs) and out (deer, coons, dogs) of things using electric fences. You'd have to sent the first wire close to the ground for a weasel but one good shock would probably send him looking elsewhere.

How about the big brother of the weasle, The fisher. Real nasty cat sized thing that looks like a ferret ( brown female) Black male. Females are the size of a big house cat, males the size of a very big house cat. Nasty, kill about anything they feel like thats not too much bigger than they are. I had one clean out all 5 of my cats before I knew what it was and I never saw it. I finally killed the bastard in a #2 kill trap set on a 45 degree pole. They are pretty dumb when it comes to trapping though so it doesn't take much imagination or expertise, just a kill trap and some stinky bait and a few nails. They are really making a comeback and still enjoy a very linited trapping season and very low fur prices so they thrive and kill everything in sight while doing it.
You seldom if ever will see one. The thing to look for is when all the squirrels, rabbits and quail ect are gone. Then they start moving in on your pets and poultry. and they have no qualms going into your yard in broad daylight to kill something though they prefer night. There was an article about them in last years Old Farmers Almanac titled "Your Kitty's Worst Nightmare". It cited one coming right into the house via a torn out screen to kill a woman's cat while she was home. They roam like a wolf living temporarily in trees with holes and places like that. Males roam large distances 10 miles or so, about a third of that if I remember right and they like cedar and pine forests. They will happily kill small dogs as well. Some of the farms around here have had major problems with them in Northern NY.
Keep putting out the Havaheart using the stinkiest stuff you have, the rottener the better. For something so crafty and bold they trap easily. Just don't use the pole set where any one's cat will get into it.

Today at the gas station a neighbor was showing off his captured mink, it killed all but a few of his chickens, all with neck damage and only neck damage.