[in the hills]

Thank you,  fW.


We decided to let them out. They tend to stay close to the house by choice .... though that didn't seem to bother the culprit! We are listening out for their alarm calls very closely.


Our dogs are working line labradors and I'm not sure they'd be any use as flock protection dogs. They are out a lot during the day while we are out but not left unattended outdoors. They don't chase anything so only any good as a deterrent.
It's the first time that we've been without a cat since we moved in here so I'm thinking that there is nothing to put off the small furies now. More bank voles etc and so the weasel located here to hunt those primarily.


Enclosing a big area etc would be difficult. We have lots of cockerels who get on fine when free ranging but do sleep in different houses (well in theory ..... sometimes they decide to all move in together) so making a central shared run would be impossible really.


The shut in quarters have wired air vents etc so hopefully safe but I've read that they're difficult to keep out if determined.


Keeping our fingers crossed that it was a one off attack.


Your soon to be pup sounds fun!

[Fleecewife]

<< Your soon to be pup sounds fun! >>

I'll put some pics somewhere when he gets here   At the mo he's a rolypoly sausage 



  the weasel doesn't come back.

[arobwk]

No expert on mustelid behaviours, BUT I go back to my 1st posted response and offer this quote from animalcorner.org as regards the stoat:
"The stoat is capable of killing animals much larger than itself. When it is able to obtain more meat than it can eat, it will engage in ‘surplus killing’ and often stores the extra food for later. Stoats kill their prey by a bite to the back of the neck and may travel as far as 8 kilometers in one hunt." 
(!!!!!)
I can only wish you good luck [member=24384]in the hills[/member] !!  Perhaps introducing an "outdoors" cat or cats might help deter stoats from living nearby and/or from investigating your chickens in future (and go back to preying on rabbits and other wild-life).

[in the hills]

Thank you arobwk.


I think that you might be right. I think that the creature that we spotted running across the road was in fact a stoat and not a weasel. I googled both and I think that it was too big to be a weasel and it's movement was more that of a stoat.


We are keeping a careful eye on our flock and hoping that it was a one off, as it were.