The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: in the hills on July 02, 2018, 02:59:01 pm
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My daughter has some Pekin chicks with a broody in a little ark on the lawn right by the house.
Heard a commotion coming from the hens and daughter went to check on them.
A squirrel was in with the chicks and hen! It had dug underneath the pen. One of the chicks has been bitten near its eye and the broody is bleeding around her comb and beak.
Looks like we went out just in time!
Anyone else has trouble with squirrels?
Guess it's likely to come back so we're putting bricks around the pen. Soil is clay and very dry and must have been really difficult to dig into.
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Are you sure it was a squirrel and not some sort of Mustelidae, like a least weasel?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Mauswiesel.jpg)
By Medien-gbr, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1327810
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My guess would have been a weasel or stout but my daughter actually saw him and had to get him out. Definitely a squirrel!
Wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't actually seen him!
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Never had a problem but squirrels are known to go after baby birds in nests in trees. Never heard of one digging under a fence though.
you could use a baited rat trap to keep them safe. You can nail it to a tree.
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I had a squirrel take a couple of day old turkey chicks a few years ago
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Came back a couple of times but not seen him since.
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Rats with tails..........
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I staple netting under the broody coop runs to stop rats. Should work for other stuff.
Good ludk!
H
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I have been working with Red Squirrel conservation in my area. This involves eradicating Greys so Reds are able to thrive. There has been a lot of reports that Greys are hungry at the moment, often very lean when caught, so given they will take young birds I can see that young chicks could be attractive.
They are also proving quite easy to trap at the moment too.
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That's interesting, thanks Harmony.
He may soon be 'eradicated'! Popped to the village with a neighbour this morning and he has been back. Caught in the act. Chewed a relatively large amount of wood off the door and side of pen!
Daughter thinks that he is acting 'strangely'. Doesn't run away when you approach and seems to walk in a menacing way!!!
There was chicken food out on the lawn this morning so an easier source of food available.
Rogue squirrel?????!!!!!!!!!
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That's interesting, thanks Harmony.
He may soon be 'eradicated'! Popped to the village with a neighbour this morning and he has been back. Caught in the act. Chewed a relatively large amount of wood off the door and side of pen!
Daughter thinks that he is acting 'strangely'. Doesn't run away when you approach and seems to walk in a menacing way!!!
There was chicken food out on the lawn this morning so an easier source of food available.
Rogue squirrel?????!!!!!!!!!
When you kill it, have it analyzed. I don't know to what institute you should send it in your country, but here it would be the state institute for vetrinary medicine. And have gloves on when touching it or the animals it has bitten.
Why? Strange behaviour can be things like rabies. Sure, you like us don't have rabies in our countries, but people are idiots and bring their pets abroad, it is just a matter of time before we do.
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I have a squirrel at the moment that's worked out how to get in and out of the trap on the pigeon coop and get their food. There are young pigeons in nests everywhere but he's only interested in the corn, the pigeons don't mind him at all either!
If you walk past he panics and throws himself on the wire front which scares the crap out of me!!