Mink tips and advice

[chickenlady2004]

Mink are useful creatures to keep away other critters like rats.
Imho it is not useful to kill wildlife like mijn. Better make your coop (and run) a Fort Knox. Many predators are more dangerous during the night.

From google: The carnivorous mink hunts a variety of aquatic and terrestrial prey. Frogs, fish, crayfish, mice, voles, muskrats, shrew, moles, freshwater mussels, turtles, snakes, birds and their eggs, and even insects are some of the animals that occur in the diet.

How to build a safe coop: https://vjppoultry.com/tag/do-mink-hunt-at-night-or-day/

a motivated mink will stop at almost nothing to get into a coop. they are very brazen creatures. and as much i think it’s important to keep your animals safe, in doing so sometimes you have to get rid of the problem. after going face to face with one of them, my feelings on them have changed very dramatically. i’m a vegetarian so i feel very hard for animals and wild life, but after what one did to my duck (in day light) they’re not something i feel much empathy for.

 

[CoriM]

The mink got inside my coop because I forgot to close the door one night, and my run wasn't predator-proof. Much hardware cloth has been added, along with double rows of 12-inch square concrete stepping stones along the outside edges of the runs.

I have learned it's not wise to speculate on this forum, but I, personally, would think it's unlikely that a mink would dig that much. I feel like they are much more opportunistic and look for an easier kill. Again, that's just my opinion. Someone else may be able to better answer that concern.

I don't know if the moles are your diggers. The tunnels I've had to contend with out here have been dug by rats. A few years ago, they constructed passages that led between two of my coops and would pop up in the runs to steal leftover feed.

I have read that they use other rodent's tunnels. Maybe it is a rat. I was just surprised at how big the area was where it had been digging and how much dirt was displaced. Seemed like a bigger animal. I had hardware cloth going down a foot and out a foot around the coop, but in the area is was digging I dug down and out further and added more hardware cloth. This morning I saw something had come through a tunnel starting a few feet out, just like yesterday, and and also dug near the door and came out where it did yesterday where there was a lot of dirt displacement. I bought a trap but didn't put it out because right at twilight I noticed a tiny new baby bunny sitting by my coop and I was so afraid that it would go in there. So I had a little bit of a sleepless night worrying about it all. I will put a game cam up tonight and maybe try the trap sprayed with rabbit repellant?

 

[Callender Girl]

Did you get the game cam up?

I'm proud of you for being concerned about the baby bunny; they're so darned cute -- even though I likely end up cursing those same littles ones when they grow up and destroy my gardens.

 

[CoriM]

Yes for sure on the bunnies. In our 6 years at our house we've never had more than one per summer and they don't seem to last long - I always thought coyotes were getting them. This year we have at least half a dozen rabbits and have had several babies. They are so adorable I love them and they are so destructive I hate them! Revamping my garden with rabbit fence next year.

We didn't get the game cam up yet. We are working double time to finish a shed up until after dark and just haven't gotten it done. I did put out a live trap with tuna last night and also a rat trap with baking soda/muffin mix in it. Both were untouched this morning and there was no digging on the front side, but there was digging and tunneling on the back side of the coop, along with scat on the base board along that edge, and it looks like rat poop to me - from looking at online images anyway. That would make me feel a whole lot better than mink or weasel. We will keep trying to trap whatever it is, and also hope to get the game cam set up. On the back it seemed to be tunneling right against the house, and it looks like the hardware cloth was stopping it.

 

[pepe1]

I had a mink kill one of my chickens, i put the dead chicken in a Hav a hart trap and he was in there the next morning i took my pellet rifle and stuck it in the cage and he bit the barrel that was it, i told my wife 29 more and she will get that mink coat she wanted

 

[CoriM]

We finally got the game cam up last night and it revealed a gigantic rat and a smaller, possibly baby rat. Ugh, I could see it eating the food I set out for the trap - baking soda/muffin mix - but it was so big I don't think it could even enter the container, which had a couple inch diameter hole. At least we know we're not dealing with a mink or weasle so I am relieved. I am concerned about setting out a snap trap because we have a tiny baby bunny in the area. But this morning there was coyote scat with intestines in it right near the coop, so he might be gone . Any advice on getting rid of rats?

 

[BDutch]

Any advice on getting rid of rats?

Cats. And keep the feed in a closed feeder overnight or even better, buy a treadle feeder (rat proof)

Domestic cats / barnyard cats are harmless for chickens, but most cats chase and kill mice and young rats. Unfortunately they hunt songbirds too.
Feral cats are not a good idea. And do fred the cats. There life shouldn’t depend on catching food.

Treadle feeders have a learning curve. Start with a brick on the treadle.

My neighbours on two sides both have 2 cats. Havent had problems with mice or rats In the last 10 years. Except in the barn where the chicken feed was in 2 buckets with a soft plastic lid. The cats cant come in the barn, but mice did. The mice chewed on the lid until they could get in the bucket. Stronger buckets solved the issue.

 

[CoriM]

Feed is not accessible to the rats - unless little bits get rinsed out of the bowls at night or spilled when the ducks have a bowl in their tractor in the yard. I bring in the feed bowls at night and so far rats haven't broken into the duck run which is protected with hardware cloth. I am going to be more vigilant about any spilled feed for sure. I don't want to get cats because they'll just be taken or injured by all the other wildlife we have here and I can't deal with that sadness. I guess I will have to figure out better rat traps. I wonder if I should crush their tunnels, which are going along the edge of my coop on top of the buried hardware cloth?

 

[BDutch]

Feed is not accessible to the rats - unless little bits get rinsed out of the bowls at night or spilled when the ducks have a bowl in their tractor in the yard. I bring in the feed bowls at night and so far rats haven't broken into the duck run which is protected with hardware cloth. I am going to be more vigilant about any spilled feed for sure. I don't want to get cats because they'll just be taken or injured by all the other wildlife we have here and I can't deal with that sadness. I guess I will have to figure out better rat traps. I wonder if I should crush their tunnels, which are going along the edge of my coop on top of the buried hardware cloth?

How deep fid you burry the hwc?
Rats are great in making deep tunnels. But I dont know how deep they go.

 

[Retiree2013]

I just had 11 hens killed in two nights. I caught one mink three nights later . Using one of the dead birds. then I found another dead hen sticking out of a hole on the edge of my pond. I now have three live traps set around my pond. I am wondering if wire screening will work around chicken coop. (I have a roll of that) Mine is 12' x12' totally enclosed with chicken wire. I just put a 3' welded wire fence around coop attached to the chicken wire. Getting new birds next week. I also put motion lights on each side of coop. Crossing my fingers. I have had chickens for 4 years where I am now . First attack..