The Poultry Keeper

briancowell · Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Co Durham

We have three bantams which free range in our garden and today we saw a stoat or a weasel in the garden quite close to the girls. We were quite alarmed but aren't sure if they pose much risk to the hens Question

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7370 Location: isle of lewis

i'm sorry they are a real risk Sad

even to lf Confused

Henwife · Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 3469 Location: Monmouthshire

And they'll have the eggs. A cat will usually see off a weasel (the little ginger jobs).

Spana · Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 2243 Location: North Cornwall

I see them here all the time. They kill rabbits just to pass the time Sad

but I've never had a chook taken, but i wouldn't put it passed them.

I feel very uneasy when I see them about.

On summer evenings I sit on top of a high bank and watch them below, they are sooooo fast and nippy the rabbits dont seem to see them coming, but boy do they scream when the weasel gets them, poor things. Sad

Dixie Chicks · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 311 Location: South West Cumbria

I've only seen a young weasel with my bantams and they more or less laughed him out of the garden. I think a stoat would be much more of a threat to them. Mind you, mine saw off a young mink at our old house - it was very poorly though and my OH eventually had to put it out of its misery.

mojo · Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:14 pm Post subject:

both are deadly to poultry please take precuations

ZacB · Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 58 Location: Suffolk

We have them in our garden chasing rabbits from time to time. Touch wood.....nothing has happened to our little flock who free range all day. A worry though I agree.

mojo · Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:24 am Post subject:

if they prove a problem you can live trap them in big rat traps baited with raw meat or cat food............then dispose of them in the woods 5 km away

kittoch · Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 171 Location: glasgow

sadly i have found them to be deadly...............last year a stoat found its way into my summer house where my white doves lived and took the young in nests up to about 4ft from the ground, took heads from them and stashed them all in a corner........thankfully my dog met it merrily coming up the path in broad daylight on its way back to the summer house..................stoat no more!!
this year i had a weasel creep in through a tiny bend in the wire of my budgie aviary and kill 3 lots of nestlings plus one of the hens that must have been in the box.............reason i found the way it got in was that a partially eaten baby budgie was jammed in the gap, being dragged out.............by the way, the wire was inch by half inch!!............live trap caught this one.
At my work last year, we actually witnessed a stoat hanging from a gooses neck while it frantically ran around the paddock, again in middle of the day............goose survived thankfully, the stoat was caught with a live trap and dispatched................think the moral is that they can be around without you knowing and do little damage, surviving on rodents etc, but if they do kill any of your birds they seem to keep coming back, and as i found out, even small wire didn't keep out weasels. Sad

CP · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:32 am Post subject:

That's sad kittoch. Sad

I know they're quite small but you wouldn't think they'd get through that size wire. Shocked

mojo · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:31 am Post subject:

small but very deadly thats stoats and weasels andpolecats and martins are bigger but just as bad......P>S> french poultrykeepers.....martins are a lot more common than in uk....and they just love chicks so be aware for next spring

kittoch · Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 171 Location: glasgow

i was very surprised myself at how small a space/wire the weasel got in ...........the wires 16 gauge as it kept parrakeets at one point, and was, as i mentioned, inch by half inch, although the bit the weasel got in was slightly pushed apart from when i had put up branches for perches, but only a very slight bow............obviously big enough though!!!
only plus point was i never seen a sign of a mouse or rat for months when they were around................but with woods and fields adjacent to me, im under no illusion they will try again at some point, and i will mabye overlook a tiny gap somewhere with sad consequences again.

mojo · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:27 pm Post subject:

buy some traps today

kittoch · Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 171 Location: glasgow

ive 2 live traps which have worked well when i know there are stoats/weasels around...........set along a wall/hut and partially covered like a tunnel, they work well..........gave up setting them all the time as i caught 3 hedgehogs, 2 squirrels and even a large fat toad in the few weeks i had them perpetually set after the budgie disaster!!! Shocked

Dixie Chicks · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 311 Location: South West Cumbria

We gave up with kill traps when we caught a red squirrel - the rat trap was sent inside a drain. Live traps only from then on.