Trapping a weasel (or mink?)??

[slfg]

I found a hen dead this morning with a chewed up neck, no other marks on it. I'm thinking it's a weasel or a mink? I've trapped coons, possums, and skunks before, but no a weasel.

How have you successfully trapped one? Someone told me a pvc pipe with a rat trap inside? Will my havahart live trap work? What do you use for bait? (I already got rid of the dead hen without thinking)

So aggravating! They just started laying too. I'm determined not to lose anymore hens...of course I've said that before and lost an entire flock before.

Any ideas appreciated!

 

[Vytania]

I think I need some ideas too. I just lost my precious Sally, a cuckoo maran yesterday. I got home to my son telling me one of my hens was missing. I went looking and found a pile of feathers next to the fence and her headless body on the other side of the fence where she was drug through. Couldn't have been a hawk because it's a semi wooded area and her body was under a small tree with branches touching the ground and hard to get to. We couldn't get to her body to bury her last night so my dad came over to do it in daylight and said her whole head was gone. My poor baby!

I'm thinking it was a weasel or mink from what I've been reading and whatever it is I want it gone so my other babies can go outside.

 

[jetdog]

My friend traps them with a have a heart he wires in the dead chicken so they have to fight for it and had good success doing this, he has caught fishers and mink this way.

 

[jruhle]

I've sucessfully trapped mink by placing the trap where they got in the coop. Leghold traps work well and they make a ruckus when it snaps on them.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw1Gfa35R9E

The above set up is a good way to catch weasels and ermine


The bottom link is a good way to make a floating or cubby hole set to catch mink.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0EGwb9PJ2c

 

[Susan Kallio]

This is all very good info...I'm beside myself...My chickens are like my babies and I"ve lost 7 chickens and 5 guinea hens in just one week!!! I'm putting out a havahart trap tonight with tuna fish in it...I pray it works!

 

[Howard E]

To the OP and others, a single headless bird is more likely a coon vs weasel, mink or one of the cousins. One with a neck chewed off might be an owl.

With weasels, minks, etc., once they get rolling, expect to find a bunch of dead birds (they attack movement, so as long as you have live birds flapping about, they keep going). The way they kill their victims is by severing the spine at the base of the neck and skull.....back of the head vs. throat. Normally, that shows up as bites to the back of the head at the base where the spine is exposed, but if the victim is struggling, they may severe the head in a violent struggle. A mink then may stack them up in a neat pile.

So if your pattern does not look like this, look elsewhere. Unless you can ID the kill by pattern or tracks, it helps greatly to setup a game camera at the most likely point of entry. Getting an accurate ID of who is doing the damage is step 1 towards trapping it.

 

[Howard E]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw1Gfa35R9E

The above set up is a good way to catch weasels and ermine


The bottom link is a good way to make a floating or cubby hole set to catch mink.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0EGwb9PJ2c

I would suggest one minor modification to the weasel box shown......minor in change, major in results.......use a rat trap with wide yellow paddle vs. the small metal trigger. Weasel will step on the wide paddle the moment it enters.......can't avoid it. So bait is just to get him to enter. With the little metal trigger, he may be able to come and go and it misses him completely.