The long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata), to be precise - at least, that is my tentative identification of this species. I'll find out tomorrow, from a more experienced trapper, if my identification is correct. As long as it's not a mink, I'm good (minks are not in season right now, but Pennsylvania has no closed season on weasels).
This little brown bastard has been the bane of both my neighbour (the one with the pigs) and myself for some time. My neighbour lost his entire flock of chickens to a weasel, and I lost nine, including two of my youngest and the mother hen. Having lost my only broody hen, I'm absolutely livid. One of the chicks better take her place next year!
I didn't even know it was a weasel at first, given that the first two disappearances (my last guinea and one of the chicks) I dealt with were consistent with a hawk. However, the timing of the subsequent losses is consistent with a weasel - and one of those times, I caught the weasel red-handed! Once I knew what I was dealing with, I immediately set the trap, using a drumstick from one of the recently-slain hens as bait.
I decided to use the live animal trap, because I saw the weasel, and I knew right away that it was too big for a standard weasel box. Standard weasel boxes are lethal, as they are nothing more than rat traps inside wooden boxes. One of mine has a modified entry with a prawn-trap-style entry, such that I could remove the rat trap and turn it into a live animal trap (though I have yet to try that approach). Weasels have large territories, approximately 50 acres, I'm told, which means that this exact animal is probably the culprit who killed all of my neighbour's chickens a few months ago. So, what justice did he (this is a male) receive?
A .177-calibre lead pellet to the head, that's what!
As you can see, this is quite a large specimen, measuring at the upper limit of what this species is supposed to. That makes sense, considering that it's been having chicken dinners every night for who-knows-how-long.
If anyone is curious, I skinned this after taking pictures, so if you'd like to see pictures of the pelt when it's all cleaned up, let me know. I'm not yet skilled enough that you can expect to see skinning tutorials on my BitChute channel any time soon, but I can provide some pointers for anyone who is interested in trapping these critters, whether for the purposes of pest control or fur-trading.