Solitary chicken - need advice

[bigmike20vt]

Hi

 

We have had an eglu go for around 2 months now, without problem, however a week ago I awoke to find something had gotten through the fence (half of the garden is fenced for the chickens - just the temporary one we got from omlet).

 

Whilst it had not gotten into the run it had chewed through one of the elastic hooks for the rain cover on the run, and tried to dig under the plastic coup (unsuccessfully!)

 

for the next week nothing else seemed to visit, but this morning 3 elastic hooks were chewed through, and the rain cover has been ripped up to the point of ruin.

 

I am unsure if this is a rat, or some form of weasel/stoat but what ever it is, it is going to work out expensive if I have to keep replacing the rain cover.

 

I am going to get a trap - i will try humane 1st before going fully to war with them, but does anyone have any suggestions?

 

I expected vermin troubles at some point, but was not expecting them to start ripping up my stuff!.

[bigmike20vt]

PS thanks for any suggestions

[Redwing]

Foxes commonly rip run covers and always try to dig at the 'weak' area on the corner where Eglu meets run (make sure you have the little squares of run mesh that should sit here)

 

You can use 6ft lengths of corrugated plastic attached with bungee cords on the run (over the top of a shade if necessary) these last much longer than covers and provide better airflow and protection

[mullethunter]

Can you see it from your house? You could stay up with a red light trained on it to find out what it is. Or use an ink pad and piece of paper to get its footprints.

[Mars]

May be if you get a motion detection spy camera with night vision capability you may recognise the intruder, other thing you can do you get a live rat trap baited with tuna. rats and other carnivores will go for it. if it is a fox it will be too big to get into it.