I need a good chicken trap.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

437952Our outdoor shop is infested with chickens. I am about to get the crossbow out, but am going to try to be humane first. They are pooping on all my projects at night. You country boys (and girls) share your best live chicken trap.

[Mike Cutler]

Whose chickens are they?
Chickens can be conditioned to recall, or return, to a designated area at night. Some folks even use "pigeon doors" until they all get back in, and then they lock the coop up for the night to keep the predators away.
Build a coop and condition them to come into to it to eat, thus trapping them, or get a Jack Russell, and turn it loose. It will scatter those chickens.

[lowell holmes]

On the mainland I would recommend calling the county agent.

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe it is time to have a neighborhood BBQ…

jtk

[mike stenson]

I'd personally just run 5' of chicken wire around the shop perimeter and be done with it. It'd be easier than trapping, or shooting.

[Alan Rutherford]

Are you in one of those places were chickens have "rights" and they're untouchable? That would be tough.

Live chicken trap - how about a raccoon? Or did you mean you want the chickens alive? I don't know of a trap but you can try herding them into an enclosure. You probably already know that as an adult it's humiliating tryiing to catch chickens by running after them - that's what people have kids for - but you can snag them with a bent wire on the end of a stick. Use it to grab one leg.

[Jim Koepke]

Do you have a plan for what to do once you catch them?

jtk

[Thomas McCurnin]

A dog. Sig em on a chicken.

[Frederick Skelly]

Get a couple cats?

[John K Jordan]

437952...You country boys (and girls) share your best live chicken trap.

Best "trap" is simply a country boy or girl. Chickens are helpless at night when roosting. I walk up and grab them by the legs. Turn them upside down and suspend them for a bit by their legs and they quit flapping and go almost catatonic. The others nearby may stay put or scatter. If it's dark they can't find their way back to the roost so I grab them on the floor. (I've sold about 40 chickens recently and have practiced a bit of catching.)

If necessary, I use a sturdy landing net on a 4-5' handle. I've caught lots of birds with it.

I've used a cast net to catch birds in the daytime, even a large peacock.

You can use a live trap bated with feed, mealworms, or small bits of meat. This may also catch skunks and such.

JKJ

[Mike Henderson]

I grew up on a poultry farm. Chickens want to roost up, off the ground, on something and they have bowel movements during the night (but I expect you already know that:)). As John said, the easiest way to catch them is at night. You can generally walk right up to them. I'd have a coop to put them into. You might not get all of them the first night but you certainly will over a few nights.

What are you going to do with them after you catch them? If they're fairly mature they won't be good for fried chicken, you'll have to stew them. Do you know the proper way to kill a chicken (best to cut their throat and bleed them out) and do you know how to pluck and dress a chicken? To pluck them, you need a bucket of very hot water. Dip the dead chicken into the hot water for maybe 30 seconds and then set it aside. It will be too hot to touch. When cooled a bit, you can pull the feathers out fairly easily.

Mike

[Bruce Wrenn]

If you have several to pluck, look a YouTube videos of chicken pluckers.

[Jim Koepke]

Get a couple cats?

Chickens are pretty good at keeping cats away. They tend to peck a cat on the head and the cats will stay away afterward.

jtk

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Thanks for all the replies. I will answer a few questions:

Whose chickens are they? They are ferrel chickens- we have thousands of them on the island. About four roosters and ten hens have made a home around the shop. It was all fun and games until they started to roost over the work tables and crap on everything.

Why not put up chicken wire? Not possible. This is an open-air shop, and we also need to have access for vehicles. The grounds are already fenced off, but these things can fly anyway.

What am I going to do when I catch them? Take them miles away and release them.

Get a cat. We have about 10 of them already. Chickens are tougher than cats by far.

Get a dog. They kill the cats.



I have decided plan B is the better way to go= crossbow at night while they roost. Sorry PETA. I will invite anyone from PETA to come "save" these birds if they like.

[Bill Bukovec]

I agree with catching them at night. Then put the in a cage for about a day with water, no food. (This will clean out their bowels) .The next day butcher them and enjoy some soup.

[Jim Koepke]

Chicken chili verde is good over rice or on a tortilla and rolled like a burrito.

My favorite is with the roasted verde salsa. A whole chicken usually takes takes two 16 oz / 445 gram jars.
Cook the chicken in small chunks or cut up after cooking by a method of the chef's choice.
Add it to a frying onion. Add some chopped celery or if you have it lovage. (Lovage has a strong celery flavor. It also counteracts heart burn if spicy foods do that to you.)
After this either chop up your preferred green peppers or add canned diced chilis. Jalapeño peppers to your desire. Let it simmer and enjoy. Goes good with a beer.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Chicken chili verde is good over rice or on a tortilla and rolled like a burrito....


I have about 18 chickens left from an incubator batch of 60, about 3 months old, in a building, easy to catch. Eggs or food, they are simple to prepare for the freezer once you know how.

I haven't advertised them people found me and bought a bunch. Anyone local who wants chickens is welcome to come and get some, no charge to creekers. My other chicken house/pen gives is enough eggs to sell dozens every week. Brown, white, blue/green.

JKJ

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Locally we call these “dumpster chickens.” I wouldn’t want to eat one. I have in the past, and it was pretty horrible meat.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks for all the replies. I will answer a few questions:

Whose chickens are they? They are ferrel chickens- we have thousands of them on the island. About four roosters and ten hens have made a home around the shop. It was all fun and games until they started to roost over the work tables and crap on everything.

Why not put up chicken wire? Not possible. This is an open-air shop, and we also need to have access for vehicles. The grounds are already fenced off, but these things can fly anyway.

What am I going to do when I catch them? Take them miles away and release them.

Get a cat. We have about 10 of them already. Chickens are tougher than cats by far.

Get a dog. They kill the cats.



I have decided plan B is the better way to go= crossbow at night while they roost. Sorry PETA. I will invite anyone from PETA to come "save" these birds if they like.

There's no reason to use a crossbow. Just catch the chickens and then cut their throat. You lay them down and put one of your feet on their feet - I'm right handed so I use my right foot for their feet. Pull the wings up and use your other foot to hold the wings in place. Use one hand (I use my left) and take the chicken's head in your hand and pull it upward. Use a sharp knife and cut their throat and let them bleed out.

Another approach if you have a fence is to catch them and cut the feathers on one wing. Keeps them from flying but eventually the feathers will grow out. You'll get some period where they won't be able to fly over the fence.

Wild dogs will kill chickens and that's why chickens roost up high. Any wild dogs in your area?

Mike

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Just tossing this idea out there. Not sure if it will actually work on chickens. While visiting a wharf many years ago, they had strung what appeared to be a thick fishing wire about 1" - 2" up above all the fence rails along the wharf. Not a seagull was to be found on the rails, yet we could see them perched on rails on another wharf. A quick google image search on "bird wire deterrent" shows lots of images, but I have not read any of them to see if it works on chickens.

[Alan Rutherford]

Running a string or something similar a few inches above something a chicken can perch on will keep the chicken from perching on it. I'm doing that to keep chickens from perching on top of a gate, which leads to hopping down on the other side of it.

[Mike Kees]

Malcolm I would be in for a chicken hunt,with a crossbow,at night...

[Mike Henderson]

Malcolm I would be in for a chicken hunt,with a crossbow,at night...

That wouldn't be sporting at all. You can walk right up to roosting chickens at night. It would be like shooting at a range at stationary targets. Worse, you could injure a chicken instead of killing it and it could escape to die slowly. If you want to kill them, catch them and do it in a humane fashion.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

If you want to kill them, catch them and do it in a humane fashion.

A sharp hatchet and a can about the size of a 2lb coffee can to put them in neck down so they can bleed out. Cut both ends of the can off.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

A sharp hatchet and a can about the size of a 2lb coffee can to put them in neck down so they can bleed out. Cut both ends of the can off.
jtk

My favorite chicken book recommends a 22 rifle point blank to the head. It also says to be kind and do this out of the sight of the other chickens. Then the neck removal, bleed out, dip in boiling water for feather removal, then cleaning.

When our hens get older and quit laying eggs I invite families from town and suburbs with children over for a chicken killing and cleaning. I get rid of the chickens, the kids learn where their food really comes from, and the families go home with meat for the freezer. The kids always seem to enjoy the feather plucking, sometimes have races. The kids also clean up with supervision, dig a hole in the woods to bury the feathers and innards, and hose down the tables. Educational opportunities like this seem less available these days.

Anyone too squeamish for this sort of activity should probably go vegetarian.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

Then the neck removal, bleed out, dip in boiling water for feather removal, then cleaning.

After Malcolm posted:


Locally we call these “dumpster chickens.” I wouldn’t want to eat one. I have in the past, and it was pretty horrible meat.

It seems he is interested in ways of either keeping them away or eliminating them.

It seems they may not be considered as edible chickens where he is located. Maybe there is someone in his area who could use them for making food for animals.

jtk

[Alan Rutherford]

My favorite chicken book recommends a 22 rifle point blank to the head....

You've butchered more chickens than I have although I've done my share, but I bet I've shot more rounds of .22 in the last 10 years than most and I'm fairly good at it. But shoot a live chicken in the head? You'd have to hold it by the neck with the other hand. There's no way to make it pleasant for the chicken (although I agree about staying out of sight of the others) but if you're gonna do it, I see nothing wrong with the traditional hatchet or similar methods including the gruesomely-named killing cone.

[Bill Dufour]

Chicken might make good fishing bait or at least Chum for sharks.
Bil lD

[Phil Mueller]

Perhaps try “bird spikes” installed on the rafters.

438713

[John K Jordan]

You've butchered more chickens than I have although I've done my share, but I bet I've shot more rounds of .22 in the last 10 years than most and I'm fairly good at it. But shoot a live chicken in the head? You'd have to hold it by the neck with the other hand. There's no way to make it pleasant for the chicken (although I agree about staying out of sight of the others) but if you're gonna do it, I see nothing wrong with the traditional hatchet or similar methods including the gruesomely-named killing cone.

My wife's mother used the neck-wringing method - supposedly it occasionally failed and had to be repeated. My dad always used the hatchet-on-the-stump method. I was always horrified by the chickens running around with no heads, squirting blood into the air until they finally flopped over and twisted and kicked for a bit.

One caution I've read about the method of dispatch is minimizing "emotional" trauma may reduce chemicals or hormones dispersed through the meat, perhaps a result of frantic muscle contractions. I have no technical references to back this up but perhaps google can locate some.

The 22 rifle method is actually easier and more "humane" than one might imagine. The gruesome details: hold the chicken upside down by the legs until it goes to "sleep" and becomes immobile. Then with the rifle ready in one hand, bend down and put the chicken's head against the ground, holding the neck lightly with the toe of one foot. One point blank shot to the center of the head does the deed instantly with no outward display of trauma. The shot is actually quite quiet, better than using a silencer, and the bullet goes harmlessly into the dirt. (Shoot straight down and not at an angle which could possibly result in deflection.) Safety glasses and hearing protection anyway and no one else in the area. I would not do this on rock or gravel or the Walmart parking lot but on sand should be fine. I'm sure the chicken doesn't enjoy the process but fortunately it is very quick. Cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes may not enjoy the picking process either but we will probably never know for sure. (ha!)

I really don't enjoy killing anything but I do what needs to be done for food, mercy when animals are suffering, or safety such as the case of the copperhead coiled 2' in front of me preparing to strike. The "safety" aspect extends to livestock and considers predators such as the skunk who dug it's way into a pen and killed one of my young peacocks, the raccoon who pulled down three guinea fowl from the roost one night, or the pack of feral canines who got over and through a fence intent on a midnight snack of baby goat. I completely understand animals wanting to eat but I encourage them to go to some other restaurant.

JKJ

[Alan Rutherford]

Thanks for the explanation, John. I'm not likely to do it that way, but we're on the same page about being as humane as possible.