Trapping a weasel???

[Kdmorrill12]

I had 13 meat birds killed by a weasel. Please share your best weasel trapping ideas!!!!

 

[nchls school]

Live trap baited with sardines.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Depends somewhat on the species. Is it a least weasel, long tailed weasel, mink or something bigger?
I prefer a weasel box with a #110 conibear trap inside the hole.
I've never had any success with a live trap and bait. Weasels and mink like live bait. Mice will work.

 

[Kdmorrill12]

Depends somewhat on the species. Is it a least weasel, long tailed weasel, mink or something bigger?
I prefer a weasel box with a #110 conibear trap inside the hole.
I've never had any success with a live trap and bait. Weasels and mink like live bait. Mice will work.

Thank you we are building boxes and I will set a live trap also

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've known people who claim a rat trap inside the entrance to the box works but a conibear is much more powerful and will usually kill instantly.
If it is a bigger species of weasel, you may want to go with a #160 or #220.
https://www.flemingtraps.com/duke-t...v2Y_P5QhjM8ZsMbA2y9u69IIZsyLf5SQaAtHcEALw_wcB
There is another trap that works. It is a pvc pipe buried in the ground. If you are trapping least weasels or mink, I would use 1 1/2 inch pipe buried at a steep angle so they can't back up or turn around. They are vicious killers but dumb.

 

[Kdmorrill12]

I've known people who claim a rat trap inside the entrance to the box works but a conibear is much more powerful and will usually kill instantly.
If it is a bigger species of weasel, you may want to go with a #160 or #220.
https://www.flemingtraps.com/duke-t...v2Y_P5QhjM8ZsMbA2y9u69IIZsyLf5SQaAtHcEALw_wcB
There is another trap that works. It is a pvc pipe buried in the ground. If you are trapping least weasels or least weasels, I would use 1 1/2 inch pipe buried at a steep angle so they can't back up or turn around. They are vicious killers but dumb.

We have never had an issue till we had a recent bear attack on one of our turkeys and I think it could smell the blood and it found my birds. Chicken wire was no match for it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chicken wire is only a match for chickens.
Mink and least weasels are able to squeeze through a 1" opening.
Trust me on this. My family has raised chickens within a mile of here since the 1800s and never had a problem with mink. Walmart built a store at the bottom of the hill from my house and in the process, they cut down 80 acres of woods along the creek. In a couple weeks I was overrun with mink and they snuck into a different raccoon proof building every night killing everything in the building. Over the course of a week, they killed $4,000 worth of chickens. I still haven't fully recovered from that disaster.
Thanks Walmart.

 

[Kdmorrill12]

Chicken wire is only a match for chickens.
Mink and least weasels are able to squeeze through a 1" opening.
Trust me on this. My family has raised chickens within a mile of here since the 1800s and never had a problem with mink. Walmart built a store at the bottom of the hill from my house and in the process, they cut down 80 acres of woods along the creek. In a couple weeks I was overrun with mink and they snuck into a different raccoon proof building every night killing everything in the building. Over the course of a week, they killed $4,000 worth of chickens. I still haven't fully recovered from that disaster.
Thanks Walmart.

Wow that is horrible!!!
I just went and got a bunch of hardware cloth and am going over all windows with it in double layers so this will hopefully not happen again. I've never going to sleep again!!!

 

[Howard E]

If you are building the standard weasel box from plans you may have found on the Internet.....traps to use inside would be a standard 7 inch wooden rat trap, the kind with wide plastic trigger pan. Placed just inside and beneath the hole, so when he enters, he places his weight on the pan and the trap fires. You could also use a size 1 1/2 long spring foot trap the same way. Orient the trap so he steps through jaws from the end, not over one of them. Same process, trigger pan placed beneath hole......so when he emerges from the hole in the inside of the box, his feet hit the pan, trap fires. Jaws will close up on his chest and neck and crush him.

A 110 body grip is good size for a mink (120.....which is a double spring is better). Body grips of this size may be too large for a weasel. If body grips are used around pets, buildings, etc, make sure to use a small enough hole in the box to keep any non-targets like cats, etc, out of the box. Body grips are kill traps, just like the rat traps are. Except are larger and will thus kill larger animals. Good if they are varmints. Not so good if they are pets.

Standard size live trap has been used for mink, but may also be too large for a weasel. The smaller ones used for squirrels, rats, etc might work.

Live rodents make good bait, but are not easy to come by. If you still have a carcass, the bloody liver from a dead bird might work.

Shame you didn't know you had weasels to worry about. Easier to protect the birds by keeping weasels out than to try trapping them after the fact.

 

[50-45-1]

I got my last one with a small have a heart trap using the body of one of the chicks it had killed the previous night wired to the trip pan. I also found a gap in my hardware cloth skirting that gave him access and fixed it later.
I would say that having a resident weasel is beneficial to the farmer and land owner as long as your coop is secure. A weasel will keep your rat and mouse population down.
Just go read some of these posts where folks coops are overrun with rats.
Give me a weasel to coexist with any day.