Still have a mink problem

[Cold Canadian]

Quote:
Originally Posted by acl68025


Per my husbands advice: a 6-8 inch round section of PVC pipe, use fresh fish or chicken inside for bait, 110 conabare trap at each end. He said he's caught many mink this way. He's looking for a picture of the set up as we speak

If I can add to this .......put the trap . tube in a area of interest for the critter , plus I use sardines out of a can . I will say it looks a bit big for a weasel ?? a pine martin maybe ?

 

[critters]

Believe it's a male mink

 

[acl68025]

Did you catch it?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have those bloodthirsty devils too. I shot one in the coop after it killed everything in there. Then I got a baby monitor and was able to stop another mink before it killed everything in another building but it got away.

I too recommend the conibear 110 or a snare. In my experience they only go after live bait. Try using mice in a small cage inside the aforementioned pipe.

 

[critters]

No I have not caught him yet...
Hard to do the conibear trap with the frozen ground

 

[ivan3]

Get a couple of live traps and put them in proximity to the rooster so that they have to enter the box traps to try to get at the rooster. 

Yeah, set back to back (rooster in one trap and the other allowing mink to get in to try to get at the rooster. Cover both traps with a section of tarp/black garden fabric/old rugs/sheet. Might take a few nights to get his courage up, but if the mink is hungry it will probably enter the open trap.

 

[AKmamabear]

A little over 3 weeks ago and mink got into our chicken coop and killed all but 1 or my chickens. ( A rooster that sleeps on the porch with our cat survived simply because he wasn't in the coop.) The mink somehow squeezed through the fencing to the yard, climbed up a 9 foot coop wall, busted 1/4 inch animal fencing we put over the coop vents, slipped into the coop and went on a killing spree. I walked out to find all of my chickens dead in the coop, many of them headless! I put a trap out and baited it with crab meat. It took a few nights but we got him. ( I get a new pair of mink ear muffs!)

I kept looking at our eggs on the counter that day and made the snap decision to try and hatch a few. I made a styro-foam incubator for $15 with stuff from Walmart and set 8 eggs. Three eggs got pulled at day ten for not being fertile. Yesterday I had 4 chicks ( 2 Ameracaunas, and 2 Welsummers) hatch and there is 1 more Welsummer in the incubator that has pipped but hasn't hatched yet. ( 28 hours post pip and not zip yet...gah! I can hear him chirping in there though.) Such a bittersweet experience.

 

[critters]

Kmamabear.,what kind of trap did you set.. Use for catching the mink?

 

[AKmamabear]

I built a wood box with one end open, placed it in the coop, put crab meat in the back of the box, and put a conibear trap in front of the opening. I left the coop door open so the mink didn't have to work too hard.

On a side note, the mink sprayed when he set off the trap and now my coop smells like ferret x100! I've scrubbed the coop a few times but it still smells. I'm worried it will freak out the new chickens when they finally get in it. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the smell out, I would be grateful!

 

[ivan3]

A little over 3 weeks ago and mink got into our chicken coop and killed all but 1 or my chickens. ( A rooster that sleeps on the porch with our cat survived simply because he wasn't in the coop.) The mink somehow squeezed through the fencing to the yard, climbed up a 9 foot coop wall, busted 1/4 inch animal fencing we put over the coop vents, slipped into the coop and went on a killing spree.  I walked out to find all of my chickens dead in the coop, many of them headless! I put a trap out and baited it with crab meat.  It took a few nights but we got him. ( I get a new pair of mink ear muffs!)

I kept looking at our eggs on the counter that day and made the snap decision to try and hatch a  few.  I made a styro-foam incubator for $15 with stuff from Walmart and set 8 eggs.  Three eggs got pulled at day ten for not being fertile. Yesterday I had 4 chicks ( 2 Ameracaunas, and 2 Welsummers) hatch and there is 1 more Welsummer in the incubator that has pipped but hasn't hatched yet. ( 28 hours post pip and not zip yet...gah! I can hear him chirping in there though.)  Such a bittersweet experience.

True, that.
Congrats on the catch and the hatch and welcome to BYC!