I have returned from a week's vacation to hear my chickens' caretaker tell me that there was a "murder in the coop"...I always lock my hens in at night just for such a reason. One of my best laying hens was killed and nibbled on and one of my pullets escaped, but her entire right flank is plucked of all her feathers and has scratches...I haven't caught her yet to see what other damage this predator caused (she now walks with a slight limp but eats and forages as she always has)...I am assuming the murderer was an opossum as they don't usually finish their job nor carry victims off (but I know that we have raccoons nearby, as well) ...does anyone have any ideas for catching the beast(s)? It will be donated to the local university for medical/anatomical experiments (rendered to its skeleton) as they always need study specimens of small mammals. I've baited a hav-a-hart trap for it but no luck so far. My viking ancestry has me girded for battle!

Could it have been a weasle? I had a problem with one a while back. I'd shut my flock up for the night, but the weasle was getting in through cracks in the walls. I don't know if weasles leave their victims or not, because fortunately none of my chickens were injured during the "weasle season". Just make sure that all the cracks in the coop are plugged up. (I've heard stories of rats attacking chickens in the night also!)

Ah, that's possible. Our neighbor who had raised chickens in the past had weasel troubles. How would I go about trapping the critters?
Also there is a large yellow cat (next door) who has eaten a chick, but has up to now (3 years) never attacked my hens...would I find an ally in this cat to catch the weasel?

I have absolutely no idea on how to go about catching a weasle other than live traps. Keep in mind tho that weasles are very intelligent--if they escape a trap, or even suspect anything fishy, they'll avoid it and all other capture attempts in the future. I don't think a cat would help for a weasle problem--weasles are pretty vicious (one actually cornered my dog into submission!) But then again it wouldn't hurt to try.
best of luck!

I found some info on predators. I am definitely dealing with an opossum. Weasels and minks eat the HEADs and leave the rest...this creature is leaving the carcass and it is eaten from behind..thigh and rump--the modus operandi of the opossum...now at least I know what I'm going after. Now, do opossums eat rabbits??? My bunny lives free in the backyard!

I hope not! (I am "opossum stupid")

HI Well we had a weasel in our coop. This little critter stole our eggs for quite awhile. But the few little hens quit laying so he decided they would be better to take.We bought a trap and baited it ,the trap was snapped, the meat gone and he sat up at the wood pile and would watch us! You are right they can go threw areas the size of a dime!he killed quite a few of our birds ,and left them as he couldnt get them out of the pen. We were out there with a gun ,couldnt get near him as it was like he knew.We would go in the house and he would come out and tease the dogs.Anyways our Chow/shepard finally killed him,after a small battle.Please dont lock a dog in there thinking he will kill him,it depends on the dog,ours always hunted gophers.Know of anyone with a good hunting cat or dog?I sure dont know how we would have got rid of it otherwise.Patient hunting i guess.Wood piles under old buildings are there favorite places. If you have no other animals to worry about you may try baiting him out in the same spot with food then shoot him in a couple of days when he will stay there and eat for a few minutes ,but he will be watching, so be sneeky.Good luck

I know our cat would give a weasel troubles, as she has virtually eliminated all moles, voles, and small rodents within a 1 mile radius! Our dogs are virtually worthless, the lab carries eggs around in his mouth should an impatient hen lay an egg on the lawn. He cannot get into our coop. The dogs have been chasing something into the woodpile for weeks, however, but are too dumb to catch whatever it is. I started pulling wood away but never saw anything..but I now know that something is there.

HI Dont consider your dogs as worthless. A weasel is very smart,and sneaky. It took our chow over a month to finally catch the varmit,and only after we helped him . If your lab is at the wood pile I would say its a weasel, and remember a weasel can slip threw a very very small space.Watch your hands if you are pulling wood away,you,ll here it if you listen ,if I remember right its like faint hissing noise, sorta. Good luck!

Yes, I was a bit too harsh on the dogs. They are great leg-warmers and dish cleaners. I only wish they could vacuum or at least shed their hair outside! They are bark, bark, barkers and usually bark at shadows and run and hide from REAL intruders!

Hi Yes they do make great warmer uppers! Yes i wish mine would learn to shed outside to! We have 4 dogs in our house,i think the dogs have more hair on the floor than on them. We have a St.Bernard,a black Lab,he,s the worst, a Rotwiler and a Shit-tzu/Bichon,shes the best,she doesnt shed at all.Mine only bark when theirs something to bark at.Thank-god,but we have never let them otherwise ,we always check to see what it is ,and if its nothing they get in trouble. Well except our black lab as he turned 12 this past summer and hes beginning to get a little senial!

Hi! I get most of the messages in my e-mail, so I haven't shown my face lately. As my nickname indicates, I'm knowledged on the domestic ferret. However, if you have a mink, weasel, stoat, etc. raiding your coop, everyone is right. First off a weasel is the smallest of the family and quite ferocious. An angered or 'flustered' sound would be a throaty hiss. schwwwWWU! Second, they are ingenious and intelligent. I live in a mobile home and haven't fully 'ferret proofed' the place. Two of my ferrets, one in particular, has gotten out repeatedly through the small holes around water pipes. I had a couple suggestions. On a live trap, make sure the trap is no larger than 1/2" wire mesh. I had a mole get out of my havahart, and my larger than weasel ferrets could also. If you plan on a firearm, use 1/2" wire mesh and put some meat covered with egg (what it seems to be going for) in a small ball or basket of the mesh and nail it firmly on a large log in the middle of the end of the wood pile. This way, you can spot the critter trying to feed, keep him in view, and pull a clean shot safely into the wood pile. They're wary. You may need to do long distance. A .22 is fine, but if you don't feel you can hit a golf ball at the distance, you'll miss and make him harder to get. A .22 mag with a 3x9 scope would be a good choice, sighted out to 100 yards. Or an ATT rifle (as in "reach out and touch something")-a good varmint gun. You probably won't be able to open a window without spooking it, maybe it will come back out in 5 or 10 minutes for the free meal. Pre-situate yourself with a good comfortable position if you see the critter you'll want to get comfy and sight in quickly and quietly. And keep that thing unloaded. If you miss on the first shot, you're only going to see a blur anyway. I like my Winchester 94 in .22. I can hit clothes pins at 50 yards with it and a 3x9 scope properly sighted in. If you have the window open and your position set up, you'll be able to safely get into position and load. Sorry, I'm an NRA member and we believe in safety first-especially guns in the house. If you go the live trap route, use the wire bag for the bait and wire it to the center bottom past the trip plate. You want it to stay there and work for it. They're quick. Good luck, and happy hunting. Can you discern from the spacing of the claw/tooth marks on the hen if it could be larger like a cat or coon? Possum have HUGE teeth, large, long and more dog like. While the mouth is small on the ferret, the teeth are cat like. Their claws aren't so that they would leave severe damage-they would more grip into the feathers during an attack.

Best,
Paul

A few months ago something managed to crack open the small sliding chicken door on my coop. 5 old english, 1 silkie, a couple bantams, a yokahama, and an arucana were killed. I also found a silkie rooster and Rhode island Red hen wondering around the edge of the woods in pretty bad shape. I was wondering what would do this. No birds were eaten, just killed. Although the Arucana and Rhode Island red did have large tears on the fleshy part of their legs. The rest of the birds just had small punture marks on their heads. Any adivice as to what might have done this and how to get rid of it would be welcome. Thanks. (I'm from Maine if this helps)

Sounds like a racoon, which will kill any bird that moves--usually takes one away to eat, but not always. Weasles usually make neck wounds, as blood is their first desire. Dogs, also, will just kill and maim and not eat, usually. How sad, I am so sorry. Takes a skilled trapper to get a racoon. Havahearts and similar traps can catch a weasle, if baited with a chicken carcass. Immediate inspection of neighboring dogs (blood on face, neck or collar)may show the culprit. Getting rid is hard, New door with new latch will help. CJR

Regarding dogs, I lost my first batch of chickens (3 bantams) on different occassions to a neighbor cat and to my very own dogs when the dogs got into the coop (weak spot in the fencing).
I'm happy to report now that my dogs are trained not to eat Mom's chickens. It took a lot of time and treats, but they now get along fine. It's especially funny to watch my hens and my 100 lb lab mix scramble to get any food morsels I throw out into the yard! (I think my dogs realize that if they eat the chickens, they won't be able to eat the chickens' food, eggs and poop.)
During the day when I'm at work, I separate the chickens and dogs (either the dogs stay in the house or the chickens stay in the coop). But when I'm home, they're together all the time with no problems.

I recently lost 3 of my chicks to a racoon. I thought i would stop then with a double fence and cinder blocks around the bottom. It took my neighbors dog to fix the problem. He ended up killing the racoon the next night.
I am not sure of the breed, but she did the trick. As a result I have decided that the best way is to get a dog
that isn't a house pet and put him on a chain with full access around the pen. Remember, if you dont kill the predator, he will be back.
D. Kulikowski

I've had a backyard flock for about a year, so there's an awful lot I don't know. Our chickens spend days in a large yard fenced with 5' high cyclone and wood fencing, and at night they're shut into a coop. On a recent Saturday, I was home all day and working in the garden, and our 2 dogs were there as well. At one point during the afternoon, I heard the metal hanging chicken feeder clanking, but that's not uncommon when they're in the coop feeding. A little later, I went to the coop to find my best layer dead. She had apparently just laid an egg and was lying face down on the straw in front of the nesting box. I couldn't find any marks on her, but her head seemed very loose and wobbly and I wondered if her neck was broken. I know our dogs didn't get her, and I've suspected one of our cats who is an adept hunter. However, he and the hen were about the same size, or the hen might have been a little larger. We also have two not-yet-fully-grown chicks, who would seem to me to be more likely targets for a cat, although they would have been with their mother and probably the rooster. The hen who was killed was probably alone in the coop laying her egg.

After reading about weasels, I wonder if that might be it. Do they hunt in the daytime?

Since she had just laid an egg and appeared healthy up to the point I found her dead, it seems to me that she probably wasn't sick???

It has been about a week and a half and there haven't been any other disasters, but I'd appreciate your informed guesses as to what happened.

Also, I haven't had a single egg since. I presume that hens that are raising chicks don't lay for a while, but I have another hen who has never been a great layer but always gave me several eggs a week, and she's either laying them somewhere I can't find or not laying at all. Any suggestions about this?

Thanks for any help.

Liz Douglas

This is to respond to Koolman, above, who wants to put a chained dog in his yard to protect his chickens. PLEASE think twice about that! Dogs are highly intelligent, social animals. Their lives will be miserable tied to a chain. I think that is cruel. Not only that, but chains have been known to cause serious injuries to dogs. Imagine the dog on a chain chasing a raccoon around and the dog getting wound up in the chain, or caught on a tree branch or something. PLEASE think twice before getting a dog.

I have had a problem with opposums getting after my hens at night. Here is the solution that has worked so far. I put up a two-light security light that comes on when it detects movement. One side of it has a flood light, the other has a plug adaptor screwed into it. I have a radio plugged into this socket. The radio is set full-blast to a local all-night rock station. When anything triggers the security light, the radio comes blaring on. Hopefully, the raiders think there are humans present and run away.

I think I need help, were almost positive we have a weasel, and any advice on killing this rodent would be very helpful, can you poison them or do they only eat live bait, trapping or can they get through them, I use those glue traps for mice would the bigger ones work for this rodent, if I can poison what would be best? please help these chickens are my babies.

kristy

I successfully caught a weasel with fresh liver on a spring-type trap. They are blood-drinkers and carnivores, so serve up something they'd like before they dine on more of your chickens. If you get one in a trap, kill it immediately. They are deadly amongst poultry. Be careful setting the trap. Many hardware stores have a few traps back in the corner somewhere, but rural hardwares are the best places to check.

thank you anonymous I'll give it a try tonight, again thank you. kristy

my cockerel has escaped- crowing like mad 200 yards away in hedge how do we get him back