Every prudent poultry farmer has to take the necessary precautions against predators. Perhaps the most lethal of all is the weasel. The rodent is capable of climbing vertical walls and squeezing through the smallest holes. The weasel kills often for pleasure and preys on the largest hen as well as the smallest chick.
My story takes place in the year 2016. I had purchased a batch of 100 fine Rhode Island Red pullets from the hatchery and had placed them in their allotted brooders. 
Nearly a month passed without event save a few deaths from stress and other natural causes. However, the young birds were reaching a month old when a weasel slipped under a brooders run and massacred 38 chicks! Shocked to find the bloodbath, I moved the remaining chicks to the warm box and closed the sliding door. I later saw that the evil culprit was a weasel when it barely escaped Pepper the Border Collie’s teeth minutes after the massacre.
Three days later ten more chicks were killed! I discovered that the culprit had made its infiltration through a small hole in the sliding door. Two weasel traps were constructed by building a small box with a rat trap inside.
15 days later the rodent struck again by somehow getting under the run and through a new solid door. Then the weasel, after killing a total of 68 chicks, was finally stopped. A few minutes after the last attack, the over confident weasel’s evil ways came to an end by the bar of a newly constructed trap. The financial loss of the chicks amounted to $816.00 gross income.
A few days later a wood bottom was screwed onto the runs and the remaining chicks moved in. The chicks were once again safe in their now-secure brooders. So if you have chickens, and you care about your flock, then let my loss be a lesson for you. And it is never a bad idea to have weasel traps always set and baited-just in case.
Thanks for reading!!! ~ Matt
Rosehaven Homestead 
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