chicken predator ID

[Robert MoonShadow]

My border collie/Aussie cross was chasing down a mouse when she trapped it under some stuff…with a weasel! Mouse got away, Tugboat (the Nefie/Great Pyrenees) and Kiss (the hound) all joined in on the Great Weasel War (as did the Pirate, when it tucked up under a wall) and after 20 minutes of high sounds & great energy (and the little %&^&%$ running up a certain person’s leg…twice!), nell & Tuggie had it on the run, it doubled back towards the wall…and The Great Hunter Kiss snatched it by the back in mid-leap (hers AND its!) and with a couple of quick shakes, eliminated a threat to me chickens. It was moving so fast, I could only glimpse its tail – even when it started up me leg – and I thought it was a pack rat until Kiss got a hold of it. I think it was actually after the mouse, which was after the chick feed, but mice are Nell’s job, and I’ve seen what weasels can do to an entire henhouse in just minutes.
For the record: that high-pitched scream that sounded like a little girl’s, I think came from Tugboat, and had absolutely nothing to do with the PiratepFarmer.
No, really.

[jen judkins]

LOL, Robert..true story?

Andy. My young Pyr got into my juvenile pen just two days ago and killed a young bird. It was clear when we found her chewing on the bird like a chew toy, that she was just playing. That said, we have been supervising her interaction with the birds more closely. She does not seem interested in killing anyone, just in playing. I think it is a phase and believe she will learn to ‘ignore’ the birds over time. But, I, like you will be vigilant about her behavior around them.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Jen: Yup! Quite a bit of excitement, there, for a while! I think the weasel was after the mouse/mice that was there near the chicken feed & when I choused the mouse out, it got caught up in the hunt – the mouse got clean away. The weasel was moving so fast, that all I saw – even when it ran up my leg – was a bushy tail – so I assumed it was a pack rat until Kiss killed it. Dogs colliding, me demonstrating my here-to-fore unknown ability to break-dance; the guys in the drift boats after salmon must’ve really wondered what the h*** was going on!

When Tugboat killed that Rhodie hen when I first got them (about a month ago), her jaws are so big, that there were punture wounds & tears on her back, under the wing & on the neck… I ‘tenderized’ that chicken on Tuggie’s head/butt/body…as well as Nell & Kiss – just to make sure they weren’t involved (might as well make full use of the dead bird). Now whenever the hens manage to escape & strut around, the dogs barely even look at them.

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 35311 wrote:

Dogs colliding, me demonstrating my here-to-fore unknown ability to break-dance; the guys in the drift boats after salmon must’ve really wondered what the h*** was going on!

HAHAHAHA! What a visual!

[jen judkins]

Here is a new one….

I woke to the noise of a single screeching bird. Ran out to find a dead juvenile bird on the inside of the chicken wire coop, partially eaten, with blood on the outside of the coop. Head and innards gone. Obviously it was an animal that is dexterous enough to grab a sleeping youth near the fence. This happened again about an hour later. I put the last remains in a hav-a-hart, but I think it was close to dawn, so its empty at this point. Will try again tonight. Weasel? Raccoon?

[mitchmaine]

jen,
penny caught a racoon eating a chicken through the wire fence. he (the coon)grabbed the hen and held it to the wire and munched it through the fence. i shot the critter with her (pennys) blessing, no having heart that night. the only remains were the head feet and some feathers and blood.

[jen judkins]

Yeah, I thought it sounded like a racoon…but we have never had one threaten our coop before. Bizarre year this one has been. Almost wish for the fox to return….at least she took a bird only occasionally….not a mass murderer!

[Andy Carson]

Raccoons are very curious and easy to trap (at least in my experience), so that is a good thing about them. I bought some dog-proof traps and keep them set and baited in areas the chickens frequent all the time. I bait them with marshmallow, as the chickens, cats, and dogs have little interest in marshmallows. It takes the pulling action of a “hand” to set these traps off anyway, so I feel they are a safe and low maintainence insurance measure. I have to rebait every now and then b/c ants will eventually eat the marshmallow, but this takes a while. I also have the bottom parts of permanent fences reinforced with hardware cloth and electric or barbed wire keeps them from climbing over the top. Raccoons are thick here, I had a problem a while ago and took all sorts of steps to see that it didn’t happen again. I probably only needed a simple live trap once I knew the nature of the problem, but I chose to take other steps as well. Waiting to respond to a visit to the hen house was not an acceptable strategy, in my mind, b/c one visit kills too many chickens.

[jen judkins]

Andy, do those dog proof traps kill the racoon or just immobilize them? What do you do when you catch one?

[mitchmaine]

we got a border collie a few years ago. of course, he herds everything. he doesn’t seem to care for the swine, but he loves to herd chickens. we move them fairly often, but regardless of the shape of the fencing, he beats a circular path around it and runs it till his path is inches deep. we call them his crop circles, and they look it after we move on. oh! the point is, sinse he has taken over the job, nothing hits our henhouse, day or night. hawks, owls, varmint, nothin”. now that i have said it, i expect to eat my words, but there you have it.

[jen judkins]

We are hoping our new Great Pyranees will be effective as well. She was out in the goat pen nearby last night but I did not hear her bark. She is very young still though.

[Andy Carson]

The trap holds the raccon by the hand and is chained to a post or something secure. I spear the raccoon. It’s quick, quiet, and very effect. I have tried a club before, but wasnt happy with it. You have to get close and sometimes miss the mark as the animal is in a panick. The raccoon doesn’t know a spear is dangerous until it’s too late. If you are interested (I was), you can disect the ‘coon afterwards (I did). Thier body cavity is filled mostly with digestive tract, but is loose and quite flexible. The heart and lungs are suprizingly small and high on a raccoon, so you will want to aim kinda high.

[jen judkins]

@Countymouse 35463 wrote:

I spear the raccoon. It’s quick, quiet, and very effect.

Spear it? Seriously? With what? I might have an 18 inch kabob skewer around, but a ‘spear’?

[Andy Carson]

Yeah, seriously, a spear. My spear is designed for killing boar (link below, but I paid less). It’s what I take with me when I check out “bumps in the night” that my dog is barking at. These critters tend to hide under and behind stuff so you can’t get a good swing at them. Getting a good angle for a spear is easy even in hiding places and again, you don’t have to get that close or cause the animal to panick and/or do something crazy. It also doesn’t blow holes in buildings, wake up the neighborhood, or cause you to loose your hearing like firing a rifle in a building will. It also makes a bigger hole.

http://www.coldsteel.com/boarspear.html

You could probably clamp a knife to a pole for the same effect…

[jen judkins]

Cool, Andy. I think that is a weapon I could weild with more confidence than a club or gun. I found something similar on ebay from the same company at less than half the price.

http://www.coldsteel.com/samburuspear.html

Trap is set….

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