primitive finds chicken coop good place to dine

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x3227

Oh my.

There's a sequel campfire to this, but I haven't read it yet.

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:42 PM
Original message
 
Well, I guess my chicken coop made the list of good places to eat. 

I found one of my Lakenvelders missing its head in the corner of the coop. It hadn't been dead very long when I found it, the body wasn't stiff yet. I figure it's a weasel. Since it stopped there, I'm hoping it is satisfied.

virgogal  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Poor little chicken------and I hope the perp doesn't try to weasel out of the charges.

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:47 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
3. I don't mind losing one or two birds here or there. I have plenty of eggs, and I count it as my donation to wildlife. I'm just hoping he or she doesn't come back and clean out the coop some night. My worst fear is that I lose all my hens too late in the season to order a new batch of peeps. With the sudden popularity of backyard chickens, the hatchery I've used for 20 years ran out early last year.

DesertFlower  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. we have coyotes here.

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
4. We have coyates, too, but so far they haven't bothered any of my critters. 

I've seen them walking through on the far side of the yard. My guess is that there is enough for them to eat in the woods out back that they don't want to mess with the people. Our dogs are penned, but I don't know if the coyotes know that. From time to time I walk the dogs around the yard so they'll mark their territory.

virgogal  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:51 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
5. Coyotes are here too----even in the Boston area. I never thought I would see the day but they've been around for quite a few years now.

tularetom  (1000+ posts)        Sun Feb-21-10 07:07 PM
THE AFFLUENT EQUESTRIAN TULARETOM PRIMITIVE
Response to Reply #2

12. One year we lost three lambs to coyotes

Never lost a chicken however.

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:57 PM
Response to Original message

6. so sorry...

it is so very sad to lose a charge to a predator.

If it is a weasel, he will be back if he can get in. I lost 30 young hens in one night by a mink. A worker accidently left a crack in my chicken house door and in the morning I found all pullets dead by a bite to the neck. I imagine the mink was planning on eating one each night until they were gone. I have lost many animals over the years, but when something as senseless as that happens...

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:58 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
7. Well, from the mink's POV it made sense....

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:00 PM
Response to Reply #7
 
9. yup

I understand and respect the cycle... I was just so frustrated that the henhouse door was left cracked open enough to let anyone in...

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:16 PM
Response to Reply #9
 
14. It's an old chicken house with so many small gaps I wouldn't know where to start trying to seal it. Right now I'm just crossing my fingers the weasel finds easier prey elsewhere. I may have walked in on him and scared him off. I didn't see him, but the hen hadn't been dead very long.

Ernesto  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 09:27 PM
Response to Reply #14
 
17. They will be back!

I protect my girls with a "have a heart" brand trap.

I've trapped MANY raccoons & possums (and feral cats) over the years.

They basically "go for a ride" to be released else where.

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 06:59 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
8. My hens roost high, so I'm hoping that this was an opportunistic encounter.

Oregone  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
 
10. Capital punishment for offending animals will deter future offenses

Thats what the Republicans told me

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:05 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
11. catching a weasel is easier said than done.

I once set a trap when something was getting my animals... and found the neighbors cat in it.

Oregone  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:10 PM
Response to Reply #11
 
13. Ive never tried

I used to catch racoons in those rectangle metal live traps (not sure which one is smarter). Maybe they would work for you? You can pick them up for under 30 dollars at a feed/pet store.

Then you just release em somewhere far away

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #13
 
16. I am not the one who posted and I no longer have animals, but I have trapped hundreds of animals in my day. ...and weasels(mink) are easiest if you set the trap near water's edge. I was working (maintenance at an auto body shop) near downtown Pawtucket Rhode Island a few summers ago and the owner was having trouble with skunks... in just a couple of weeks, I caught 20 stray cats, 3 porcupines and 2 skunks. Raccoons ar probably the easiest to trap. The people at my small farm in Michigan have been given the task of trapping all the squirrels (not easy) getting into my buildings...

Ernesto  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 09:31 PM
Response to Reply #16
 
18. Eh, what happens when you trap a skunk?

In 20+ years, I've never bagged a skunk. The thought scares me!

hedgehog  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 09:51 PM
Response to Reply #18
 
19. The problem isn't trapping the skunk - the problem is opening the trap to let him out without letting him get his tail up!

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 11:16 PM
Response to Reply #18
 
20. funny you ask

if you catch a skunk in a live trap - most likely you already have a cover (towel or such) over it. ...the skunk will not spray when it is covered. I gently pick up the trap by the handle and put it in the back of a pickup and drive it too its destination... gently put the trap on the ground and try to open the end without too much rattling and skeedaddle until the skunk leaves and is out of sight. I have never been sprayed 

here_is_to_hope  (1000+ posts)      Mon Feb-22-10 08:48 AM
Response to Reply #20
 
21. That's true about skunks, we had six living in a basement when we moved into this house. The last one I trapped though, got a ride in my van, big mistake! The cage rolled and he let go!

My eyes burned like someone had stuff freshly cut onions into them...I went surfing afterwords and no one would come near me.

It took a week to air out the van, never again!

Ours, when trapped and covered, never let out a peep.

Cirque du So-What  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:18 PM
Response to Original message
 
15. Varmint Cong

A weasel will not cease plundering your coop until every last chicken is gone. They can burrow into the enclosure, so beefing-up your fencing (assuming that's where it gained entry) would be a temporary solution at best. Your best course of action would be to trap the varmint, using raw chicken for bait. It's up to you whether to use a 'have-a-heart' type trap; your local Humane Society may have one they would lend you. Your local extension agent may have other ideas; I've been out of the chicken bidness for awhile, so new technologies may have been developed in the meantime.

newfie11 (1000+ posts)      Mon Feb-22-10 09:49 AM
Response to Original message
 
22. Don't count on it not happening again

When we lived in VA we had the same problem. I sat outside with my 22 for hours waiting to catch the little bugger and the minute I went into the house to get a cup of coffee he got the last hen.

[AllosaursRus]

Oh good Grief! Take a little time out of your "busy" schedule and shoot the sum bitch! BTW the only good coyote is a dead coyote if he comes around humans or their livestock! Same goes for weasels and skunks!

Once they get a taste for an easy meal, they don't stop!

ETA: Any wild animal that gets close to my critters with evil intent, is going to have a lead diet!

[GOBUCKS]

handmade34  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #13
 
16. I am not the one who posted and I no longer have animals, but I have trapped hundreds of animals in my day. ...and weasels(mink) are easiest if you set the trap near water's edge.

Another lying DUmmy who has probably never been outside the Bronx. He apparently thinks mink and weasels are the same thing. Weasels and mink are similar in appearance and bad odor, but mink are twice or three times bigger, and their habits are very different. Traps in the edge of water may catch mink and raccoon, but never a weasel. Also, you need to use a size 0 trap for weasels, and it will grip their bodies and kill them. Weasels are so small, they can walk over the trigger on a larger trap and sometimes never spring it. I used wooden boxes, with a 3/4" hole drilled in the end, and a #0 steel trap inside the box under the hole. Weasels cannot resist checking out every hole they find, looking for prey. One winter I killed nearly thirty weasels using less than a half dozen boxes. It's amazing that a predator as small as a weasel can easily kill rabbits several times its size. I think the "animals" this DUmmy has trapped were probably roaches in his blue city hellhole apartment.

[AllosaursRus]

Another lying DUmmy who has probably never been outside the Bronx. He apparently thinks mink and weasels are the same thing. Weasels and mink are similar in appearance and bad odor, but mink are twice or three times bigger, and their habits are very different. Traps in the edge of water may catch mink and raccoon, but never a weasel. Also, you need to use a size 0 trap for weasels, and it will grip their bodies and kill them. Weasels are so small, they can walk over the trigger on a larger trap and sometimes never spring it. I used wooden boxes, with a 3/4" hole drilled in the end, and a #0 steel trap inside the box under the hole. Weasels cannot resist checking out every hole they find, looking for prey. One winter I killed nearly thirty weasels using less than a half dozen boxes. It's amazing that a predator as small as a weasel can easily kill rabbits several times its size. I think the "animals" this DUmmy has trapped were probably roaches in his blue city hellhole apartment.

Yeah, but.......have ya ever seen the size of the roaches in some of them thar cities???

[LC EFA]

Yeah, but.......have ya ever seen the size of the roaches in some of them thar cities???

I hear that NY rats are big enough to feed 3 people.

[BlueStateSaint]

I hear that NY rats are big enough to feed 3 people.

Yeah, in NYC they grow 'em big.

[GOBUCKS]

Yeah, in NYC they grow 'em big.

Yes. That's why it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between NYC rats and NYC people.

[BlueStateSaint]

Yes. That's why it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between NYC rats and NYC people.

NYRA might even have a couple of rat races at Aqueduct soon.

[dandi]

Oregone  (1000+ posts)      Sun Feb-21-10 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
 
10. Capital punishment for offending animals will deter future offenses

Thats what the Republicans told me

Banning weasels will prevent future offenses.

That's what the Democrats told me.

[Odin's Hand]

Yeah, in NYC they grow 'em big.

Yeah, but, do they run for U.S. Congress in CA District 30?

[diesel driver]

Yeah, but, do they run for U.S. Congress in CA District 30?

All the time, all the time....

[diesel driver]

Banning weasels will prevent future offenses.

That's what the Democrats told me.

I impose the death penalty on any and all critters that wander onto my deck to mess in my trash and eat the cats' food....

If I don't, they eventually end up under the house and rip out the insulation and damage my ductwork....

I keep a Louisville Slugger just inside the door to dole out instant justice to all uninvited trespassers, 2 or 4 legged....

Skunks, however, get the "special" treatment:  .38 Special, that is....