Humane Way Folding Live Humane Animal Trap

This cage has been a blessing. My family moved to a new place that has roosters crowing at 3am. After the first night or constant crowing (right outside our bedroom window), I was in the hunt to catch these roosters in a humane way. My local feral chicken program was going to cost $200+ per week to rent a cage. So that was a no-go. And the. The landscaping guy that services our area said he would pick up the chickens for free. Free food. So I pulled the trigger on getting this cage and was quite disappointed for the first 2 weeks. No chickens! I almost wanted to return it and my wife said to be patient. And after a “yes darling”, on Christmas Eve last year, bam. That solid. Of the cage closing was the greatest Christmas present ever. Since then, we’ve caught over 30 feral chickens. The peddle can be triggered pretty easily. So I tend to catch some chicks, but we let those go since we’re really after the big guys which are for eating and mitigating the noise. It also triggers large common birds, so that’s a bit of a hassle to have to let go, but that’s all because the cage works well. Also having doors on both sides is helpful to get the chicken acquainted with the cage, walking in and out to get food.

My fruit trees were getting regularly raided early mornings by a bold band of feral chickens. To defend the fruit from the voracious invaders, I began protecting my bananas and guavas with clear “blue bags” and “bird nets” before the fruit began ripening. This worked temporarily. When they started attacking and pecking holes into the young fruit while they were still unripe, that was the last straw. I tried a sling shot, a bow and arrow and even a handmade javelin, unsuccessfully! I chased them around my property - growling menacingly at them until they simply flew away into the bush- loudly laughing and mocking the futile efforts of this 68-year-old man! They returned even earlier the next day for a hearty meal and lively entertainment! Frustrated, disappointed, but not defeated, I consulted with “Master You-Tube “. Armed with an example, I built a wooden trap based on an impressive South Asian model! While it worked effectively for the Asian chickens, my chickens simply laughed louder and continued feasting on green bananas, fallen avocados, blossoming loquats, and green guavas fresh on the trees! They simply ignored my effort at a trap. Undismayed, I then turned to the All-knowing Amazon for a tested/effective trap that used a similar tripping principal – the Folding 42 Inch Live Humane Animal Trap. While reviews testified that it had worked for all sorts of critters, no one mentioned chickens. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try! Arriving in a flat box, the fold down cage was easily assembled, and quickly set . The next morning there was nothing but crowing and laughter from my banana patch. The next morning, the same thing again. After several more unsuccessful attempts, I abandoned the trap and returned to my bird bags to protect my fruit. The abandoned trap sat unset out in the weather - through the rain, one winter and at least three severe hurricanes since February 2024.! This week (December, 2025) frustrated by the chickens again stealing my fruit harvest just before Christmas, I was drawn to the abandoned trap that had patiently sat unset. I decided to try it again. I industriously scraped off the rust, oiled the wire trigger, and then sat it under one of my large fruit trees. I baited it that night with some of the fruit that had been clumsily knocked off during one of the chickens' early morning drunken parties! The next morning, to my welcome surprise, the leader of the pack (a large colorful and cocky rooster) was trapped in the cage, with four of his gang members clucking around – apparently coaching and offering him advice on how to break out of my jail! It was my turn to laugh – there would be no flying this coop! After humanely “relocating” him far, far away, I moved the trap to another area of my garden and baited it with more discarded fruit. Success again – another rooster was caught with his gang and one hen pecking around his cell! This morning, the third night, I have trapped the hen! Strangely, she is all alone, without any drunken roosters crowing around. I’ll leave the moral of this story to you, but I can confirm that this trap works for chickens - eventually!

I also have a smaller squirrel-sized cage. The back door on that one is a piece of cage that slides in and is held in place with a clip. Simple, straightforward, effective. With this 42" cage, the back door folds down onto the floor of the cage. There are a few problems with this. - The worst issue is, you cannot bait the trap from the back. The door folds onto the floor of the cage where you would place the bait. My arm does not bend in a way that allows me to reach around the door when it's partway up, in order to place the bait. - Folding the door inward scares the animal to the far side of the cage. With the squirrel cage, as soon as the animal control guy lifted the door, the squirrel dashed into his cage. With this one, the back tends to slam down and scare them into the front of the cage. It took some coaxing to get a racoon to go into the other cage. - The door folds onto the trigger plate. I guess that's not a huge deal, because it's so easy to set the trigger. It's just an additional, minor annoyance. I am astounded that they didn't figure this out the first time they tried to use their own cage. I'm six feet tall, and I cannot reach from the front past the trigger plate to set the bait. Fortunately, I have one of those grabber devices that I use to reach that far back. They almost need to include one with the cage. I've about reached the point where I'm going to rip the back door off of this trap and come up with a way to secure it, that allows me to easily remove and re-secure the door. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do that. It needs to be something that the animal can't chew through. One of the raccoons I captured was very tenacious about trying to get out. If I had used twist tie, or anything like that, chances are he would have chewed through it. Or, I might cut a small hole in the side or back that lets me extend a bait tray to where it needs to be. That might be simpler.

Working great

Great quality. Works as it should. Easy to assemble. Highly recommend.