Friday December 3, 2021 Guerneville CA.
My brother Tom lost fifty chickens the other night to some critter. It got in through a hole it made in some rotten chicken wire. Tom said it didn’t appear to eat any of them as there were no feathers from that.
Tom has about 200 chickens he uses for eggs he sells at the farmer’s markets. Well, he used to have two hundred.
He’s been trying to catch the critter. He thinks it’s a fox he’s been seeing around. But he can’t get it in his wire traps.
The trap that works
Sooooooooooooooo, time to get the big stuff in, the old time trap that mostly works.
But it needs some repairs
The only trouble is, it’s been out in the weather for a few years and needs some repairs. I built this one from one my uncle had that he made.
View of this traps entrance door.
Rotten boards
This rotten wood needs to be repaired or they will eat their way out.
And the bottom of the trap is pretty rotten too.
Better idea
I looked around for some twelve inch wide boards to fix it but I didn’t find anything that would work, so I kicked in a better idea, although a bit more work.
I decided to do the repairs with sheet metal. All I had to do was measure, cut it and bend it and screw it on and it will last for years and no critter is going to chew this stuff up.
Two pieces to make
I had some sheet metal from an old roofing job I did so I got that out and measured and cut it to the size I needed. I decided to put a piece on top and one on the bottom.
The tool I use to bend up the sides.
Installing the metal parts
I got the bottom piece on and am just screwing the top piece on and almost have it.
Ok, I got the metal pieces screwed on but now it needs a trigger piece made that is missing on the end of that stick sticking up attached to the sliding metal door.
Getting dark on me
It was getting dark, but I continued to make the trigger piece and got it attached.
Gotcha
Here’s the trap in it’s set position, ready to go to work. A critter hits the trigger board inside and the metal door slides shut.
Out of the weather
I told Tom not to leave this trap out in the weather any more when not in use and it should last a very long time.
Dark
I put all my tools away in the dark and went in for the day, after shutting the chickens up for the night. Don’t want no fox killing my chickens.
Nice day.
Very sorry to hear about Tom losing so many chickens. Years ago when I was living out at Hessel and had a chicken coop and chickens, one night a badger broke into my cage and proceeded to slaughter my birds. Unfortunately, badgers will not stop at the first chicken that they are able to kill. They are known to go into a frenzy, killing all of the birds that they can get access to. Doesn’t sound like the work of a fox to me. I finally shot it one night, I know I hit it because of the blood, but never found it. The trap is a good idea, but staging your camera out will identify the culprit. Good luck!
That’s too bad about Tom’s chickens. ;( Hopefully your trap will catch the suspect!