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???? ate the trap....

June 25th, 2007 at 07:47 am

Well, since we have had invasions on the poltry coup, we have traps everywhere. Mice keep eating the bait. So, we threw out poison for the mice. The leg traps caught a cat (not ours--a wild stray). It is not the critter that caught the chickens, but to get in the trap it was caught in kind of indicates that cat was up to no good, or it would not have been where it was.
This morning when we went out to check the traps, we discovered something had been in the live trap, and ate threw the wire to get out. Chewed a hole the size of a softball right threw the wire trap. (Now I am wondering, are we safe in the house?? How big is this animal???) It did leave behind a small amount of fur--its grey with white tips. No tracks, which was odd because it was very muddy out, but, it may have rained after it got caught and left, and washed out the tracks. Previous tracks were of a coon.
On the bright side, the remaining ducks made it through another night, and nothing has attacked the rabbits yet. Nothing has managed to get into the pen or coup for close to a week now. But, they keep springing the traps. Tonight the big traps and additional traps have been set. I am anxious to see what the results are in the morning.
I have more chickens due to arrive by mail either Mon or Tues. They will be in the garage or basement for a couple weeks before they go to the coup.

7 Responses to “???? ate the trap....”

  1. baselle Says:
    1182754246

    Opposum?

  2. moi aussi Says:
    1182784254

    could you use something else than rat poison? perhaps a little bit more humane?

  3. fern Says:
    1182787577

    I hope they're humane traps!! Death by rat poison is prolonged and painful.

  4. boomeyers Says:
    1182792782

    Wow! Sounds like a scary beast!! You may want to try the camera or camcorder trick to see what you can get, or even sleep in the coup with a shotgun! You may need to consult a professional. Geeze! Chewing throught the wire! Yikes!

  5. mom-from-missouri Says:
    1182797915

    As far as the coons go, since they have killed several hundred dollars worth of chickens, I really don't care to be humane.....They are killing the chickens/ducks/turkey/geese and leaving them. They only ate a couple and left the rest dead.

    The mice are just as bad. They get in the grain (they will even eat thru the plastic barrels) and ruin grain. Their feces can contain the hanta virus which kill cattle/poultry and horses. It can also contaminate the meat and then you can't butcher them. Not mention what the mouse feces will do to a human if you breath it in while scooping grain.

    The only other methods I know if ridding mice is cats, but is that any more humane--to be eaten by a big fury creature?

    There are devices that emit a high pitched noise, but those also bother the dogs, rabbits, cattle, horses (will cause them to stampede even), poultry, pigs--anything that happens to be near the barn. Animals hear things at a higher pitch than we do. (I can always tell there is a siren but the animals, they get all excited a full minute before we can hear it).

    Mice will also eat/steal chicken eggs and even kill young chicks and baby rabbits.

    When I was a teen I saw a barn burn. I still remember all the hundreds of mice that just kept running out of that barn.

  6. nance Says:
    1182807044

    When you are trying to make a living farming, you have to do whatever it takes to succeed. I am an animal lover, but I fully understand that trapping or poisoning predators is necessary. My DH has killed raccoons, too. They may look cute, but they are very destructive animals, and we know a ranch family whose young wife/mother died of Hantavirus.

  7. baselle Says:
    1182817879

    I grew up on a farm. Your animals depend on you for protection and you depend on them for your livelihood. You have to do what you have to do.

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