Yesterday morning I found the chewed carcass of another murdered chicken where John had parked his truck overnight. Something had eaten it under the truck in the dead of night. Plus another was dead in the run. Something bad was in the chook house again. Something hungry. So far it has killed and eaten seven chooks. And we still did not know what it was. 
The Breeder had a large live animal trap in her big red barn, so last night I set out to put it in the chook house run. I wanted to put it in the little hatch doorway as ron suggested, but all the chickens were sitting about looking so Pluckable and so deeply Dopey that I could not bear for the trap to fall down, or slip sideways, leaving the door open for the varmint and all his brothers to walk straight in. So the trap and its can of cat food was in the run, close to where I think the chicken eaters were getting in. I left the big light on in the chook house and they were absolutely locked up. 
If anything got into the chook house I was going to be very surprised. The dogs and I worked for hours yesterday covering every hole in that colander of a shed and securing all the doors and windows. Boo has a good nose for holes in the walls.
Boo, the junk yard dog ,took himself to the barn at bedtime. His chain puts him between Poppy and Tima. So he is happy to be there. Much to my surprise. He is their protection. But the chooks are in a seperate building, The Rat House, so Ton and the Big Dog were roaming.
At One in the morning I was woken by the dogs barking. So I grabbed my dressing gown and my long heavy red torch, rushed outside and stepped into my bare feet gumboots. I could hear a caffuffle coming from the chook house and at a run followed by Ton I let Boo off his chain. (I have no rifle at all so I was not sure what I was going to do if it was big animal in there because there sure was something in there terrifying the birds.) I threw the boards and bricks away from the door and opening the outer door remembered I had tied the inner screen door shut to keep it sealed, Boo hurled himself at the door barking madly, the chickens were is full panic inside, and I could see through the screen that there was a mink, a weasel, a long shiny dark bastard of a thing that had oozed out of hell, curled around one of my chickens dragging it across the floor by the neck. I did not have a knife in my dressing gown so I cursed and worked at the stupid knot bashing on the door to try and scare it off the bird. Shouting, banging, dogs barking chickens screaming but it was at her neck and ignored us. Finally I got the door open, stepped in and threw the torch as fast as Boo leapt and we both missed the mink. It shot into a corner of the chook house and disappeared.
I picked up the chook, prepared for a broken neck and she blinked at me, shook her head and screeching leapt down and ran back to the others. A calm slowly descended and the chickens picked their way back through the chaos and panic and began to climb back up to their roosts. Ton herded them gently back into order and Boo paced and sniffed at the corner where the Mink had disappeared.
The dogs and I dragged the trap round the back of the building, found the hole (minute.. he had got in through an old repair in the wall), closed the gap and put the cage in front of it, tlocked the chook-house up again firmly then back to bed we went. There was nothing more all night though I have to admit I did not sleep well: one ear trained on the open window but all was quiet.
So I suppose now I need a small animal trap. What the hell do I do about this animal. They are so small they can get in through impossible spaces.
Time for me to go out and get ready for the milking. I will check the trap on the way and see if we have caught anything. But I doubt he is heavy enough to spring it. Dawn is coming.
I hope you all have a lovely day. I really do. We are half way to solving this anyway. Finding out what we are dealing with is an important piece in the puzzle.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
75 responses to “The trap”
a weasel? have you ever seen one around your place before? they are just so…weasely! yuck! i hope you catch the bastard.
Damn! Well at least you know what it is now, but with something that size and shape even if you had a gun it would be difficult to shoot, especially with other animals around. It might be easier to trap it, though that could be hard without killing it. Good luck.
What if you leave the gap open and put the trap inside on the other side of it so that the varmint squeezes in through the gap as usual and waltzes unawares into the trap. Would that work? Mean little critter, huh?
You’ll have a very expensive scarf when this is all over.
Not that you’d want to wear it in public for fear of being doused in red paint 🙂 Laura
My thoughts exactly! 😉
you might have better luck with a very small snare trap set up for that hoe or even setting up one or two carefully planned “new” weak spots. because you have the kitties and the dogs, it will need to be made weasel size and done right, so no one but the weasel. you can order a kit with very clear instructions just for this critter, and as its a snare, it will take care of “what and how to deal” with it.
You made a huge discovery; found a big piece of the puzzle. A trap will probably be the best plan. I’m on pins-n-needles with you, again.
I read somewhere I think that minks are pretty mean animals and sometimes even kill just for fun. I’m not sure if that is true or not. If all else fails, you might call an exterminator in your area. We have one or two down here that specialize in getting rid of macro-pests like your mink as opposed to micro-pests such as insects. However, I am sure with your usual ingenuity it won’t even come to that and the mink has met its match.
Nancy
http://www.workingmomadventures.com
P.S. I love your laughing lamb picture!
Nancy
http://www.workingmomadventures.com
Oh, wow! Hope you catch him!
You’ve solved the whodunit, now for swift (hopefully) justice!
We have a “Wildlife Trapper” here in my area south of you….he traps everything from raccoons, groundhogs, snakes to moles. I had a terrible time with moles 2 yrs ago…he trapped 29 in my yard over 2 months and only charged $150.00…I don’t know if he’d travel to you, about 2 hours away, but if you think he could help here is the website: http://www.BatesWildlifeControl.com…..I know they do a lot of work in Springfield so they might come up your way if needed. Good luck! 🙂
Thank you Nancy, I will give him a call, at the very least he may have some advice.. c
The DOW has a wildlife hunter and Trapper that will come out and get the predator that is killing your livestock (in our area of the western part of the USA). They have gotten rid of mountain lions, bears, wolverines, coyotes, and bob cats here.
✿♥ღLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Wolverines???
Yep! Rare but still around.
Oh, I an having visions of Foghorn Leghorn in my head right now….. dang weasel… they are disgusting and vile.
Knowing what is killing your chooks is a big part of the puzzle! We had raccoons take a dozen of our young chicks last year and several guineas before we invested in a trap and caught it. Wishing you the best of luck in catching that rascal!!! xo
ah yes i remember that, I have someone picking up a smaller trap today, something ate the cat food i left in the big one last night but did not flip the trap. But at least we did not lose any chickens last night.. that is a plus.. c
All around the chicken coop, the monkey chased the weasel… Now I cannot that song (my version) out of my head.
I am so sorry, C. Just trying to lighten the mood here. Hope you catch that hellish creature.
Send me that monkey!! morning Audrey, just another part of farm life.. c
Ask around at the tavern that you pick up the goodies for the animals. Surely someone there knows who is a trapper in the area. Explain why you want to know as most folks are quiet about their trapping because some people get really rude about it. The big trap will work if a cat can set it off. Tuna is a good bait or canned cat food but you run the chance that you will catch one of your cats instead. Minks are fierce so if you catch it you will have to be very careful. Wonder if it moved in along the ditch and has made a den there as they like to be near water.
Good thinking Jeanne, I have found that many useful people enjoy a beer on a friday!.. c