Anyone know anything about killing weasels?

A farmer friend of mine keeps an old 22 and a box of 22lr birdshot loads in his barn for pest/bird control. He says it works good on rodents and birds and he doesn't have to worry about punching a hole in anything or a bullet ricocheting.
 
a regular rat trap baited with a small piece of bacon or sardine worked for me...fast little beegars = killed all my quail and piled them in a corner of the cage for later I guess
 
Now that I see it's a mink well if ambushing it is still on your mind it would be shotgun with #8 target loads for me. I have shot many a pigeon inside municipal roads sand domes upon request and never an ounce of damage or a ricochet.
 
Yesterday: 16 of our chickens dead with blood drained out of them.
This morning 7 more dead birds, again with blood drained!
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Obviously, Sir, you have a vampire infestation. :Slavex:

I recommend rubbing garlic on the jamb of the chicken coop door and spraying holy water at the critter when it shows around. You should also make sure those chicken are still dead and not hanging upside down off the eaves of your house at night, waiting for you and your family to go to sleep. A wooden stake is recommended (one per chicken, at least). You may also wish to thoroughly assess the loyalty of that traitorous barn cat: it may be a thrall of the vampire by now and might actually help it bypass your precautions.


Joking aside, I hope you do get that mink/weasel/vampire. Farming's hard enough without losing your chicken to predators. Please post an after-action report!
 
A friend of mine called me up saying that he had a weasel in his fur shed and was worrying it was going to chew holes in his pelts. I told him to set a rat trap with liver as bait. He had it within an hour.
 
X-man said:
Weasels will kill for sport. Make sure your birds have access to a high roost. Seal up your hen house and cover all potential entry points with carpenter cloth or fine mesh wire. If they can get their head through it they can get their arse. Your standard Victor rat trap will take care of your weasel problem. Screw them to base boards and strategically place the baited traps around your coop area. Cubby boxes and a 110 conibear will also work. YouTube has lots of videos on how to make them and proper sets.
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Good advice, after loosing 25 birds you have the right to be pi$$ed and protect what birds you have left. A weasel like you have found out is a very proficient chicken killer. Like mentioned above find out where there getting in and seal it up, if that's not possible set traps. And yes get out the 22 and have at him.
 
Wooden weasel box with limited access by means of a small 1.5" hole in the front with victor rat trap with pan trigger will catch your chicken killers and be safe to use around your hens and potential barn cats. Fresh bloody bait in the back and a little anise oil for lure.
 
I would use leghold traps if you can get your hands on any, the number 1s long spring are plenty for mink and weasel. Set them at natural openings and travel ways. Rat traps will only teach them to avoid traps of all kinds. Shooting them will take hundreds of hours I would think, they are usually nocturnal.

Trapping them in the wild usually involves using a cubby and fish or meat (beaver/muskrat) for bait. If you want to try baiting them too an area use one of the dead chickens.
 
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geologist said:
A trapper I worked with said that anything other than Marten he'd just squeeze them with his hands until their hearts stopped.

I never could figure out if he was 5hittin' the city boy geologist.
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two-dogs said:
I'm think'en so!
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Nope. It is true. Works for pine marten as well. If they are in the Conibear hanging but still alive just squeeze them around the chest and hold. They just nod off and their heart stops. Just hold for a minute or so. Works like a charm. Seen my trapper buddy do it numerous times. mind you if they aren't already in a trap you had better have some thick gloves on or your hands will be shredded.
 
ljones said:
Nope. It is true. Works for pine marten as well. If they are in the Conibear hanging but still alive just squeeze them around the chest and hold. They just nod off and their heart stops. Just hold for a minute or so. Works like a charm. Seen my trapper buddy do it numerous times. mind you if they aren't already in a trap you had better have some thick gloves on or your hands will be shredded.
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that's what I was thinking!
 
Morning guys!
Thanks for all the info. Sat in the coop from 8-12 last night. Never came. I blocked off the crack it was using and nothing was killed this morning when we checked.
It is hiding in one of the stalls we use for storage. I could hear it all night scratching 3 feet from my hiding spot behind a wall. There is no food on that side so pretty sure it wasn't a rat. This morning, we found the cat food bowl licked clean. Someone here mentioned they eat cat food. Guess it's true. We will try baiting it with that now.
Action reports ( if any) to follow...
 
Kenny_G2 said:
I would use leghold traps if you can get your hands on any, the number 1s long spring are plenty for mink and weasel. Set them at natural openings and travel ways. Rat traps will only teach them to avoid traps of all kinds. Shooting them will take hundreds of hours I would think, they are usually nocturnal.

Trapping them in the wild usually involves using a cubby and fish or meat (beaver/muskrat) for bait. If you want to try baiting them too an area use one of the dead chickens.
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We have ordered traps for minks. Should arrive in 3 days. Hope we still have chickens and ducks left!
 
Weasels? I generally just try to vote them out of office. The problem is that territoriality thingee - another one always comes along to replace them.

Seriously, though, good luck with this. An old fellow once told me that if weasels were the size of jackrabbits, no man could walk through the woods unarmed. Nasty bits of work, they are.
 
A good rat trap with canned cat food will kill a weasel every time. I caught several in my shop this winter. Even caught one about 35 seconds after I set the trap and put it down at the end of a pipe running lengthwise along the wall, while my daughter and I each stood on either side. Took him 34 seconds to actually commit to it with us standing there, but he really wanted the cat food.

A lesser weasel is about the thickness of your thumb under the hair, a greater weasel about two thumbs worth. A rat trap will definitely do the trick.

IF it's a mink, (are you near water of some sort?) then you may not kill him, but it will likely hold him.
 
KodiakHntr said:
A good rat trap with canned cat food will kill a weasel every time. I caught several in my shop this winter. Even caught one about 35 seconds after I set the trap and put it down at the end of a pipe running lengthwise along the wall, while my daughter and I each stood on either side. Took him 34 seconds to actually commit to it with us standing there, but he really wanted the cat food.

A lesser weasel is about the thickness of your thumb under the hair, a greater weasel about two thumbs worth. A rat trap will definitely do the trick.

IF it's a mink, (are you near water of some sort?) then you may not kill him, but it will likely hold him.
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Yup! We've spotted it several times. Definitely a mink. Yes, we are near the Fraser River and have many sloughs around the farm. We've bought a mink trap already. We will bait it with cat food.
 
ATOM said:
Weasels? I generally just try to vote them out of office. The problem is that territoriality thingee - another one always comes along to replace them.

Seriously, though, good luck with this. An old fellow once told me that if weasels were the size of jackrabbits, no man could walk through the woods unarmed. Nasty bits of work, they are.
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that's what I have in mind, I really don't know how our cat killed one and how my dog got away scott free from a near noise to noise investigation!
 
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