Predator

We lost four chickens last week to predation. We think it was a weasel. We knew there were rats living under the hen house. Lisa did research and the evidence pointed to a weasel. They use the rat burrows and kill the rats and voles which is what actually attracts them to the area. That alone wouldn't be bad except when the rat supply ran out it went after the chickens. It got two of the wyandottes and silky and her chick. We set out traps and today we added some wire under the front of the house.
 We got some gravel for the hen house job. I put some in the rabbit port yesterday. The gravel was still wet from rain and it froze last night. It was still frozen when I was shovelling this load. I moved the truck out into the sun so it would thaw.

We put the traps in feed sacks. Weasels like dark closed in places.

We caught a stray cat in the trap last night. We turned it loose.

The trench across the front of the hen house.

The wire got screwed in with washers.

Then we put broken concrete blocks and filled it with mud.
We put a layer of gravel on top of the mud.

Charley is beefy.

Larry is large.

Morty and Lucy are getting along nicely too.