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”
This is appalling. Just what you don’t need at your very busy time. I hope the trapping works or that the exterminator comes and is successful. Sending best vibes and hugs for all the farmy gardians and chooks.
A mink or a weasel! ? My heart is still racing and I wasn’t even there…whew. Didn’t expect that ! we don’t have critters like that here. I hope a solution presents itself soon.
Mink are shocking predators. But they do make a very nice coat lining for the winter. If the fur’s on the inside, hopefully the paint-chuckers will leave you alone. It’s horribly upsetting losing chooks, especially if you’ve become attached to them. I lost two consecutive lots to foxes in northern NSW when I lived there, and after that I rather lost heart. The fence was buried 30cm deep at the bottom, it was 2m high, and there were no gaps anywhere. I still have no idea how the fox got in and out again with my lovely Girls in his mouth… Good luck with the trap, I hope it works and very soon.
It’s too bad Boo can’t sleep in the chook house at night with them! Maybe you need a chook dog! A rat terrier or something like that to keep them little monsters away at night! 🙂
A friend in South Dakota had a mink kill several of his birds before he put his heeler in the pen at night. She got it the first night she was there. Finding a dog that will kill one thing and not everything else, though, can be a problem.
Hmm.. Boo could do it.. I think.. I have thought of it… hmm.. c
I simply do not like anything that would harm your chickens! Nothing at all!
“A long shiny dark bastard of a thing that had oozed out of hell…” HAAAAAAHAHAHA! That has to be the quote of the day! You are a strong one; I would have squirmed like a worm if I saw that devil.
I am so mad at that lousy miserable animal that I could throw knives at it. How ugly it must be to actually see it in the midst of choking one of your chickens.
Now I’m ready for the nightmares that will inevitably come to me tonight!
it is still running around in my head too..
i always poke holes in can of cheap fish flaver cat food with a nail, to release the aroma
that way it last several days. the more rancid it gets, the better it works for some critters
and, if possible several traps
the promise of free beer to person that gets critter, may get the whole bar on a mink hunt at your place
now that id a really good idea, too late for tonight but tomorrow , i have another trap coming..
If only you were about to have a visit from a New Zealander. The Dept of Conservation has developed all kinds of ingenious traps, including ones for stoats. I wish I could wing one across to you. Once you’ve got the right trap, you will be on a win.
oo, well done juliet, when I come over next i will check them out, I could pack my clothes in on and call it a suitcase.. c
Ha Ha. Good idea.
Whoa. I hate the little bastards. They are evil. Best of luck. The only people I know who have successfully battled weasels used a .410. Hope there is a trap out there that will take care of it.
I know, mainly I am focussed on sealing the chook house.. c
Whoever was able to shoot one of these on the run must have been an excellent shot.. they move like light..
Why would I take the trouble to go to the cinema and pay for an entrance ticket when such an exciting real-life story is unfolding right in front of my eyes 😉 ? I am thrilled by all the suggestions by members of the Fellowship! Hope one works! Ruddy weasely weasel – you deserve what is coming!!! Don’t know if you keep Easter and you sure do not have time for ‘holidays’ – so just a hug for all the best across ocean and sea 🙂 !
Some weasels can be as small as mice & still able to kill chickens. Weasels actually do not prefer chickens as their food pf choice. Their main diet is wild bids & rodents. Then they will go after eggs and finally if nothing else is available, they will kill chickens very similar to a fox’s killing pattern. Even the smallest of weasels will have no trouble ripping chicken wire apart easily with razor sharp teeth & claws.You have to consider that they can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime or a crack about a quarter of an inch wide. Like a snake their body is made to fit through the smallest of places. The fact that they have dragged chickens outside the hen house means that somewhere in your hen house there is a hole big enough for the chicken to pass through. So the weasel is coming & going as they please without any contorting. Very tiny weasels (size of a door mouse) can easily kill prey many times its’ size. Weasels are initially attracted to mice around the hen house, so you have to be vigilant about eliminating the mice to avoid attracting weasels. Be careful with your cats & dogs because weasels won’t hesitate to attack them. They kill the hens by repeatedly biting at the base of the skull until the chicken stops moving. I don’t think you want to put out any cat food to attract them until you have a snare/trap that can effectively catch a weasel. If a mouse can get through a weasel can get through
easier because of how stretchy its’ body is. I’d hire a professional, if possible, to catch the weasels as quickly as possible. Then you need to get rid as many rodents as possible from the property since that is what attracts weasels in the first place. Finally, figure out a long term plan for rodent control. Be very careful. Weasels are vicious killers & will attack without hesitation.
Thank you Ellen, I am doing the best I can at the moment until i can find someone who knows what they are doing. We have the cat food in a trap outside of the run. Our long term plan for rodent control is four cats.. we have had no problems of this kind in almost a decade, it is miserable when the balance shifts..
Good gosh! I remember as a child in Nebraska, that my folks had a helluva time getting ride of a weasel that was getting our chickens. For several weeks they did not know what was getting the chickens one by one, but they suspected a weasel as the neighbor’s had the same trouble just a couple of months before. Finally, one evening while Dad was out finishing up chores he caught the dark creature going in a very small crack in the hen house. He was able to shoot it. I think I would hire a professional to exterminate this killer. If you’re still trying a trap, please wear protective gloves… weasels are vicious little devils!
Our equivalent of weasels is quolls. Are weasels able to slink up trees? Our quolls do. We lost 4 mother hens in a week and a stack of small chicks to a quoll on the hunt. This country living lark does have it’s fair share of downs alongside the ups. Sorry you have been losing chooks 😦
i think you need to add some sort of terrier to your collection of dogs. I forget which one it is, but I have heard of a breed off terrier that was specifically used to hunt weasels and stoats in England. Good luck.