Wooden Animal Trap

animal are great!

except when they are wild animals that eat the chickens that are in your backyard

there are coyotes where i live and they have eaten 3 of our chickens

items

1. a pallet
2. an 8 in by 1 in piece of wood
3. 2 ft by 5 in piece of wood
4. four 24 in by 5 in pieces of wood
5. one 13 in by 5 in piece of wood
6. three19 in by 4 in piece of wood
7. two 24 in by 32 in pieces of plywood
8. 13 in by 26 in piece of plywood
9. lots and lots of wood screws (i used about 52)
10. some fishing line

tools

1. drill
2. prybar (or anything to take apart skids)

for this step you will need a prybar (i don't have one so i used a shovel)

take off the three pieces of wood that are on the bottom

saw the skid in half (like shown in picture )

NOTE: the two boards on the sides should be taken off

screw the two of the 24 in boards onto the top corners (i used four screws on each side of the board)

then flip it over and do the same thing

screw the plywood onto the top between the two boards (this isn't structural but it will keep the animal in)

flip it over and do the same on the other side

now you should have a nice little crate!

get the hinge and screw it into the 13 in board make sure the barrel of the hinge is facing you

then screw the hinge and board about half way in the crate

find the middle of the 2 ft by 5 inboard and mark it (long ways and across) then mark the middle of the 19 in by 4 in boards (across

screw a 19 in board into the middle of it and screw the other 19 in boards about an inch away from the ends (using 3 screws)

get the hinge and screw it on to the door (make sure the hinge barrel is not facing you) and then on to the middle of the end of the crate

screw a long screw 7 inches down from the door (make sure the screw is on the same side as the screw on the pressure plate

NOTE: you will have to play around with the length of the string you want it long enough that the pressure plate goes up

crew a small wood screw into the corner of the pressure plate and tie one end of the string to it

then drill a hole in to the 8 in piece of wood and put the string through the hole and tie it

cut a notch in to the 8 in piece of wood 1 inch from the end on the same end as the hole (see picture)

see picture for the way to set it

test the trigger mechanism

congratulations!

you have made a wooden animal trap!

now put it in your backyard with the appropriate food for the animal you are trying to catch