B####Y Stoat

Cheviot

Cheviot

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Went outside this morning to do the stock, and found my quail had been attacked, dead quail everywhere, :evil: after a head count 17 dead, 6 living, out of the 6 only one does not look to have been chased around as it's feathers are clean and dry, the other 5 are dirty and wet. Unfortunately only 2 of the survivers are female, so although 4 male managed to escape the carnage, 3 are going to have to be despatched :-)06. I left the survivors in their run, however after I came into the house, I saw a stoat running around the run, so I had to go and move them into one of the sheds. Have been busy sorting out some traps and hopefully mister stoat will soon be no more, I am not sure how it got in, there are no obvious places, unless it got through the mesh ? I am so annoyed as my quail were really tame, and I enjoyed spending time looking after them. :(
Does anyone know what size of birds a stoat will take on, as the rest of my chickens are all in runs of the same design and I'm now wondering if it might try it's luck on some of these.
I'm now off to wage war on stoats.
Regards
Sue
 
Hi sue so sorry to hear about your quail. stoats will definitely take chickens and as with the quail they will kill for the hell of it. I guess the quail were an easier target as chickens will at least try to defend themselves although I'm afraid they're no match for a stoat. Here in jersey we don't have foxes the only predators for chickens here are polecats and feral minks and they decimate stock if they get in. Sorry to not bring good news you will need to protect them well as they dig under and put out traps. You might even want to call in a professional pest controller. Good luck

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Hi Busymumma,
No, certainly not what I wanted to hear, traps haven't had any sucess yet, will have to have a word with the guy who controls the foxes, he may be up for stoat control.
Haven't seen it again since the day it happened, but it will be lurking around somewhere, no doubt.
Regards
Sue
 
OK, so now it's WAR, :evil:

after shutting in the geese and ducks tonight, went to do last check on chickens, and the few quail that are left, and came face to face with the little white monster :o , it had killed one of my OEG hens and was busy feasting on it :cry: , the coop has a lift up lid and when I opened it the stoat was busy eating, it just looked at me as if to say you dare take this off me, it didn't run away, just carried on eating keeping one eye on me, I thought about grabbing it :-)07 , but then thought better of it and went to get a weapon, which happened to be a spade, but when I opened the lid again it took off at great speed, it can get through the mesh quite easily, and went under the hut where my pheasants are, I'm dreading going out tomorrow :-)06
Regards
Sue
 
Sorry to hear about your quail & oeg :evil: think you will have to strengthen your 'defences' as such, double wire your runs, have you got weldmesh? a determined predator will still chew through this but it takes them longer. Hope all is well tomorrow & you catch it.
 
Hi,

so sorry to read about your quail and the oeg ( what is this?)
I am paranoid about predators and I know that we have stoats or weasels ( not sure which, they are very thin and fast).
Will these little beasts strike during the day, as I put the quail and hens away every night in closed houses.
Last year the little pest took all the baby birds from several nests in the ivy, there was nothing I could do, it was awful listening to the frightened little things, the beast just kept coming back for bird after bird untill they were all gone.
I am so paranoid that my husband goes out early and opens up the hens and checks the quail just to make sure they are all ok, he`s a sweetie, he`s also been known to dash out in the middle of the night if we hear a fox close by, we live on a farm and do have foxes around, they can be so brazen at certain times of year and seem fearless of humans.
Hope you manage to get rid of the little devils,keep us informed.

Regards Heather
 
Hi Heather,
OEG = Old english game, I was very suprised when I found that the stoat had killed her as she was a very fiesty bird, she was the only hen that I have handled that drew blood, :o , the day she gave me a good pecking when de lousing her.
Yesterday the dreaded stoat got one of my melanistic pheasants :cry: they really can squeeze through the smallest gap, I really do dread going out in the mornings, it is so frustrating, as apart from the traps I don't know what else I can do to try and catch it.
Ncotb, I would love to double wire my runs, but I have 15 ten foot by ten foot runs, this stoat seems to be able to get through gaps that are about half an inch wide, so would have to use avairy mesh and I can't really afford to do them :( .
Regards
Sue
 
Well, mister stoat is no more :-)17 , caught it in a trap today, only problem is, I don't think it is the same stoat that I saw the other day :-)09 , this ones tail had a lot of brown on it, and I'm almost sure the one I saw only had a brown tip to it's tail, but I really wasn't paying too much attention, so I can't be sure. Will just have to wait and see if anything else gets taken, or I manage to trap another.
Regards
Sue
 
Thats good news! :-)08 if there is another at least you know the trap works....
 
Hi,

thats great,what sort of trap did you use?, I ask because we have stoats or weasles in our garden and I would like to be prepared.
thanks . Heather
 
Hi Heather,
It was a cage trap, the sort used for rats, it was baited with a couple of the dead quail, and put into the coop where the stoat had killed the chicken, the only thing I would say is try and make sure that it is made of small gauge mesh, as the trap I used, the mesh was about one and a half cms and although the stoat didn't escape, as I had left it in the cage for the day until my partner came home to shoot it, when I moved the cage out of the coop, it did manage to get it's head through the mesh, and would have escaped had I not put the cage on the ground on top of it's head ! The trap worked really well but you need to be aware that you then have to despatch what ever you catch with it.
Regards
Sue
 
Hi,

thanks for that info. I dont think that I could dispatch anything but I know a man that can,if and when I catch anything.

Regards Heather
 
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