Hen Killing Stoat - Best bait for traps?

[lambic]

Hoping somebody with more knowledge about these little gits than me, can recommend a good bait for the 3 live capture three traps I have put in my hedge. The stoat is going is to be shot with an airgun once I catch it.

Currently the bait is the poor little Silkie bantam hen who got necked yesterday. Stoat was disturbed and did not eat any of her.

Do stoat traps need a fresh bait ? Rabbits are very hard to find at the moment.

How long should I keep the hen in the trap for? What would be a good choice after that, bearing in mind no rabbits and (hopefully) no more dead hens? Tinned cat food ?

Thanks for help, need to sort this out ASAP.

 

[bogtrotter]

Good chance of catching it if you set up with the silkie where it was killed, stoat will often come back to kill, do you know anyone you could borrow a couple of Fenn traps from set them in a tunnel built with either wood or stones whatever is lying around either closed at one end with bait behind the trap or open at both ends a run through, stoats can't resist investigating a tunnel, make sure the opening is too small to allow entry by non target species.

Always found rabbit to be the best bait though chicken will work also had some success using sardines,pilchards etc in oil
have even trapped them just using fish oil, cat food probably but I haven't tried it.

 

[lambic]

Thanks Bogtrotter. I will look at tinned fish and cheap supermarket chicken thighs.

Need to get this stoat or stoats at all costs.

I don't have any Fenn traps, I have one cage trap and borrowed two smaller cage traps from my neighbour. Concern would be getting a red squirrel, pine marten or neighbours cat is in a lethal trap.

My cage traps are placed in hedgerow but are not covered at all , should I cover them with slates or branches to make them darker and more tunnel like?

The Silkie was the first bantam I have owned and has not lasted long, the larger more aggressive hens have never been taken by a stoat. Is that just lucky do you think?

Thanks for the tips

 

[enfieldspares]

Flocking Birds! In theory the ferret, thinking that the hens are flocking birds that if it didn't kill them today wouldn't be there tomorrow, will come back to where it left the kill. Especially in cold weather.

Which is why foxes and etc. kill all the hens in the hen chicken run. And not as town folk think "'Cos they're evil"!

So the only issue is baiting the traps so that the stoat isn't aware that it's been done. I'd maybe dismember the deceased bantam and place a piece of each of the three traps in the area where you found it dead.

Maybe in a three pointed star shape? Covered with some branches as if another animal has dragged it into the hedge bottom?

 

[lambic]

I sawed up the frozen silkie earlier.

I'll cover the traps with some branches tomorrow.

Hopefully the little bugger will freeze to death, supposed to be -8 C tonight and -7 tomorrow night

 

[rem284]

Bait them with the thing that they was wanting to kill, in your case the silky. Remember they will want to follow walls, fences etc. Cover traps and make sure they cant get to the bait without getting caught. Good luck

 

[lambic]

All three traps are now baited with frozen silky at the far end of the trap and all within a foot or two of the garden fencing, 10m apart. I have put 3 roof slates over the traps to make them a bit more tunnel like, but they look a bit of a bodge job to be honest.

Stoats would bother to look at frozen birds ? -6C this morning when I checked traps - nothing there.

 

[Charlieh]

Fresh liver for mustelids change the bait each day stick the trap in a tunnel that appears dark. What live catch traps are you using as many of them aren't that we'll made. I would always recommend bethal Rhodes ones

 

[lambic]

I bought a 'Trapman' mink/cat off eBay which is pretty good. Borrowed a couple of smaller ones off my neighbour, think they are well used by the looks of them. Pretty basic mechanism on them all

 

[Ranger22]

For stoats I would always use a fenn trap in a tunnel. As for bait, what ever it's killed or rabbit

 

[lambic]

Well good news and bad news. Took the good lady out for a coffee and came back to another gravely injured silkie (cockerel) and all the other hens were distraught.

Good news is I checked one of the smaller traps and found the little ******* inside, coming to eat the silkie hen bait. So this stoat is now dead.

What do you chaps think the likelihood of more stoats in the patch? Never had a problem in 2.5 years, only just last few weeks. How big are their territories?

 

[Ranger22]

Good you got it. Keep the traps going for a few more days just in case.

 

[lambic]

Aye, cheers. Will do. Just got the dubious pleasure of trying to determine if this cockerel is better off being dispatched or given 24 hours to recover.

Hard to know what's best really. It's neck didn't breaks, just bites to muscle. Least he managed to throw the stoat off anyway, otherwise wouldn't have caught it in the trap

 

[User00025]

At least you got one. Young or old? If young there may be more about, I always used Rabbit liver in a tunnel for stoats,weasels and mink and fresh bait every couple of days in the winter,

 

[lambic]

Not sure if young or old to be honest, think it was a male. It was not small by any means, but not massive either. Probaly around 25-30 cm including tail

I chopped it up with an axe and fed it to the hens, so cannot check now

 

[tunskeen]

Sounds like a dog, was it in ermine yet

 

[lambic]

No, it was brown with the black tip. No white on it.

 

[TOMMO.B]

Stoats are loaners. you probably wont get any more. (i hope) Well done for catching the wee bugger.
if you get any more hassle ask around the keepers on the estates near you for a shot of some traps. the more traps the better and folk are always keen to help with pests
as a silkie and other bantams keeper i feel for you loosing them.
also i keep ferrets and touch wood i think the smell keeps them away. so far so good
good luck and well done

 

[enfieldspares]

Well, where there's one there must at some time have been two. As in it's mother and father. So as others say I'd keep the traps going for a while. Just to sure.

 

[Dannyboy220]

I chopped it up with an axe and fed it to the hens, so cannot check now

you were close to that Silkie weren't you? Haha