[MischieMoo]

Hi

We are just going to start our first foray into keeping chickens but have noticed a stoat wandering around close to the house.  We have a chicken house but were hoping they could be free range during the day.  Does anyone have any suggestions what we can best do to protect our chickens from these pests?

Many thanks

[Fleecewife]

We have a family of stoats living here.  They are beautiful, quick and appear to be quite intelligent.  However, something has been picking off our Scots Grey hens and we think it might be the stoats - other contenders are buzzards and of course the foxes.  One went today but she was sitting in the baler about to lay an egg - I can't see how anything else could have got to her.  Just two wings and a burst of feathers left 
 
So I will be interested in any answers too 

[Bodger]

Here's a little something 'wott' I wrote on Fenn traps sometime ago. Fenn traps are useful tools against rats, mink and stoats.
 
Now I'm a long way from being an expert at using Fenn traps but I have had some success with them. Later today, I'm going to resite and reset the four that I have permanently set around the place.
I have found them very useful in helping to stop rat infestations getting started and in letting me know that I may have a few around. I tend to use them in conjunction with rat poison, in as much as I have bait stations in use for just about 12 months of the year.
As well as taking rats, Fenns will also account for mink and stoats etc. Fenn traps are what are known as body crush traps. This means that they are designed to crush the body cavity of the animal causing virtually instant death. This is opposed to the now illegal leg hold traps, such as the infamous gin trap.
I always have the hope that any feather taking vermin will run through the artificial tunnel that all traps must be set in, before they get to my chickens. There's nothing like being optimistic is there?  :smile: They say that a picture paints a thousand words, and when Kaz returns from a shopping spree later today, I hope to get her to take some snaps of me setting them.

Here are the pictures as promised.
This is a likely spot for setting a trap. Its at the back of one of my chicken sheds which has a little ditch come soak away to take the rain water from the roof. Any visiting vermin would be quite likely to have a quick scoot along what would appear to it to be a natural highway.



Here are three unset Fenn type traps.



Heres one of the simple tunnels that I mentioned earlier. Its against the law to set Fenns out in the open.



Here's the inside of the tunnel to give you an idea of its construction.



Heres the Fenn in almost the set position. The jaws have been pressed apart and the safety mechanism is now keeping them open.



A blurred finger showing the safety mechanism.



The foot plate is then set but the safety is still kept on. Note the peg which the trap is anchored to the ground with.



The trap is set in the ditch sideways to the tunnel entrances. Now and only now do you release the safety.
The white wire is my electric fence that i have to keep foxes at bay. It doesn't work for mink, rats or stoats.



The trap is fixed with a peg and the tunnel placed carefully over it. The tunnel prevents non target species from being caught in the trap.



I've placed a couple of strategically placed stone to try and guide my prey towards the tunnel and the waiting trap.



Thats about it then. its not rocket science but do watch your fingers.

[lachlanandmarcus]

Our stoat didn't kill the chickens but stole all the blue eggs and left the brown ones

[Fleecewife]

Ah - a stoat with a good sense of feng shui 

[MischieMoo]

Thanks for the replies - especially all the trouble you took "Over the Gate" to post the piccies and info.

Think in the first instance we will dig down beside the run and house and ensure that the netting goes down well into the ground and along.  Hopefully this will keep the little pests out!!

[clydesdaleclopper]

Or you could get yourself an Egyptian Mau    ours caught 3 stoats last year and you get the bonus of lovely cuddles

[jaykay]

I think my stoats take the occasional egg and maybe even my neighbour's chooks (that's because he doesn't shut them in at night).

I am also sure they take rats. So on balance I am happy to live with them.

[Cheviot]

Hi,
A stoat caused the worst massacre I ever had 17 quail, 1 cock pheasant, and a very fiesty OEG hen, all in one day  , everything was penned in but the stoat could get through the chicken netting, eventually caught it in a rat trap cage, my OH went for the gun to shoot it, when it almost escaped, and I had to stand on the trap, it had it's head through the mesh and it was strangled before he came back with the gun, I felt quite sad about what I had done, but I dread to think how many more birds it would have killed, if it had escaped.
Regards
Sue