Thought it was rats but not so sure...

Ok a few weeks back I lost a turkey I had in a room in the barn, head was eaten right off the body. This also happened a couple years ago. Then there was another turkey dead in the same room, neck was cleaned to the bone but still attached to the turkey. I moved the turkeys, put poison in the room, along with a couple rat traps and some baking soda mixture i made up (a poison recipe i read on the internet). All i caught in the rat traps were mice. I had to put another turkey in the room a week ago and he is still alive with his head.

A couple days ago i go into another room in the barn, where i have my bantams, find 2 dead bantams and blood everywhere and one has a broken neck like something was trying to pull it threw the wire. Look at the roo that was dead but couldn`t find any major chew marks but there was a hole in the cheek.

Go in the barn this morning and find 2 more dead bantams. Silkie is decapitated and her head is right beside her body. Roo D`Uccle is dead, head attached and no sign of an attack but upon a closer look i find a tiny hold on his neck.

At first i thought rats but now that i have found a couple with holes on the neck i am wondering if its a weasel or something drinking the blood. I thought weasels would kill everything in site. Whatever this is just kills a couple at a time...I just don`t know what to do.

Any thoughts?

I'd be leaning towards the weasel ! Rats would have gone for the inards .To bad you don't have a game camera and you could set it up and get a picture to remove the guess work ? If you could look for tracks inside or out you might also get a better idea ? Skunks are also wakeing up ??? another critter that would do what you discribed ,but it would leave a tell tale sign behind as it were

Not sure if a weasel is big enough to take on turkeys? The fact that only the necks on the turkeys are being eaten suggests whatever it is doesn't like "plucking" its food. Maybe mink?? Hope you catch the culprit!!

I am going to move the bantams and put a live trap in there as well as a weasel box. Might as well throw some rat poison in there too, cover all my basis. I could sit in there but probably not a good idea to be shooting a 22 in the barn..HAHA

Yeah, I'm thinking weasel. They can get through holes too small for a squirrel. Bait a trap with sardines or something.

Sardines? I wouldn't think weasels would have such a taste for fish?!?! Maybe!
I would try the chickens or turkeys livers as bait, but maybe sardines work too!

Moved all my bantams today and made a weasel box, hopefully I will get something other than a mouse. I used a roosters head as bait.

DON"T put out rat poison unless you are a hundred percent sure that they won't somehow drag it into the chicken's pen !I learned that the hard way ! chickens will eat anything and it's not a pretty thing at all .

check this page for a list of predators and what they leave behind.
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and if its weasel, you'll want to use bloody liver for bait in your trap.

Mink, weasel, something in that family.
"Usually" you won't have mice AND rats. One or the other.

I know for a fact there are mice and rats, at least last year there were. I do use a lot of poison around here.

Maybe I got lucky and killed all the rats last year, lets hope

Nothing in the weasel box this morning, rat trap wasn't set off. Put some turkey liver in with the beef liver, maybe that will get it.

Weasels can more than take on a turkey, very powerful, I had one take 7 peafowl, on a night for a week, locked everything up even the dogs and cats, put 3 fresh hamburger meatballs laced with Warfarin on a 7 foot long 2 X 8 plank, the plank the next morning was dragged to the other end of the building compound, the meatballs had frozen to it but they were gone, have not lost a bird to a predator since but that is also due to our fantastic GP.

Thanks for sharing what you did pops, I have taken your advice today and used rat poison with the turkey liver. Some how the weasel keeps setting off or getting out of the rat trap, eats the bait and leaves. So basically I was just feeding it Hope it eats the rat poisoned liver.

Make it smell good and they will it I used ground beef because it was easy to mix the warfarin in it but turkey lived should work great.