almost lost one of my girls today !!! scary

[emjay]

About 4pm or so today, I thought I would show a young friend of mine , who's going to be housesitting this work my birds. Took him to the coops, did the tour, came back to the main coop, where the ducks decided to waddle over and say hi.

seconds later, this brown whirlwind comes flying out from underneath my coop, goes for a duck and then runs back under the coop. Needless to say, we humans let out some squeals and screams. This creature, who was a mink, was within arm distance of my friend when it came lunging out at one of my ducks. At first I thought he got her, as four of them came back towards me, one missing. but, she was there, looking startled and frazzled as I was.

I quickly rounded them up, and locked them in their run. Minutes later, the mink poked its head out and stared at us. It then came flying out and ran towards the duck run. At this point I grabbed the shovel to chase it. the ducks were throwing themselves against the fencing, trying to lunge toward the mink. It got into the pond and swam to the other side. It then stared at us some more. It came running back towards us and ran into the culvert, unfortunately for the mink, the culvert has been blocked off on the other end. No escape.
so, we blocked the entrance. I went to the neighbors house , knocked on the door and said.

"do you have a gun? I need you to kill something"

haha. i'm sure he thought..what ?!!!

he grabbed his pellet gun, as we can't just be shooting off big rifles. I am not a person who likes to see animals destroyed, but, this mind crossed the line. I feel bad it had to die, but, it tried to kill my duck , in front of me nonetheless, too brazen for me.

he was shot and killed, he put 3 into him just to ensure he wasn't suffering. He's dead in my culvert. ugh. But, my ducks are safe another day. But, now I will be forever paranoid.

He was a good size and very healthy.

My duck is okay, I gave her a look over.

 

[katharinad]

Good thing you've got him. Minks are furious creatures. They kill just for the fun of it. The can kill an entire flock and only feast on on of them. He would have come back and who knows how many ducks he would have killed. I have relatives who work on a mink farm in Germany. You should see the security measures they have to assure no mink makes it out. That includes high voltage metal mesh that will kill a mink instantly. The voltage is so high that it can be damaging to a human beings. Minks are so aggressive, even to each other, that they cage them singularly. They only put them together for breeding, and then only for a short period of time. They do all that for their valuable fur. They will also viciously attack if cornered. Very aggressive animals. I'm glad you took care of that one.

Do yourself a favor and get a gun. Walmart sells very inexpensive ones, and we have two just for critters. The ammo we have is also designed for small animals.

 

[emjay]

well, I do hope I don't see another in a while. He scared the dickens out of us as he came out so fast and unannounced.

I think he would have taken my friend on if he got too close, he was really eyeballing him.

I hate guns, scared of them. haha. But, I might consider one of those pellet guns, that look like rifles, they are pretty powerful.

 

[katharinad]

I don't like guns either and I would never shoot a shot gun. A riffle it ok. We had problems with skunks and raccoons. The skunks we trapped and killed with several shots, the raccoons we shot from the tree making sure they did not get away. We had 5 raccoons hanging around our deck and they got bolder and bolder, and I worries about our dogs. I hate killing animals, but sometimes you have to protect your own animals. That is the only reason we have two riffles. I don't think a pellet gun would not work on skunks or raccoons.

 

[emjay]

luckily we don't have skunks here.

we do have raccoons, haven't seen one on the property yet though.

I hate to see anything die or kill anything, but, with the fact of how brazen it was and that it was such a bold attempt to take my duck. It forced my hand.
for me to make the decision to see something destroyed is big. Huge animal lover here. but, I am not going to risk losing all my babies , my ducks and my egg layers to something that just kills for fun.

Now if an eagle were to fly in and take a hen. My fault, not the eagles, and he's going to have a meal, so hard to be mad at that.

I only let one group out to free range, and that is only when I'm home and in the yard with them.

I am also going to invest in a live trap to set up at teh coop. just to be safe.

 

[katharinad]

I don't think you can trap minks, very difficult and they are very intelligent. We have tons of predators out here. 3 packs of coyotees around our property. They have jumped into the meadow over the 5 foot fence. Nothing I can do. I do take the risk of loosing a duck one of those days. Good news is that they will catch one and run off and not just kill for fun. Bald eagles galore, but they don't seem to be interested. I wont shoot those, because it is a waster of time. Raccoons are a different story. Had to destroy one pack that was just coming day after day. No way to deter them. I also have two traps for skunks. Actually trapped my cat in it when she was still young. She was a stray, that was either being dumped or an off spring from our neighbor 1/4 mile away who does feed stray cats. We did get her fixed, had her in the house for a few days in a crate to have her heal from surgery. She fell in love with the family and stayed. Great with our dogs, and afraid of our ducks who chase her. We moved here and had no guns, and never owned one. I did learn how to shoot a riffle when I was a kid on a farm, and my husband learned it in the military. We had to get it because of predators, and we are also surrounded by forest for miles on end. One two neighbors here and we are all 1/4 miles apart. The nearest tiny town is 10 miles away, so you can see why we needed it. We don't have children, so I'm not concerned about that issue. The coyotees are an issue when we hike out here. They challenge our dogs while being out, so we not carry a small riffle with us when we hike. We only shoot into the air. That gets the coyotees running away and our dogs run back to us at the same time. I would not shoot at them and risk them being injured and getting away, and have to suffer. I don't even kill snakes. I rehome the ones that become a nuisance at my fish pond, but then we do not have poisonous snakes either.

 

[froggie71]

Glad to hear your ducks are ok and you were able to dispatch that mink. I'm pretty sure I would have freaked had that happened to me.

 

[katharinad]

I forgot to mention that minks life in solitude and viciously will defend their land against another one (male or female). They only get together for breeding and do not stay together after the act is done. So you may not have another one around. Hope that eases your mind.

 

[emjay]

Quote:
YES THAT DOES !!!!!!!!! hahah.

hopefully he was here long enough to deter any other one away. he was a brave little sucker.

I also like your philosophy's on your predators.

All makes good sense to me.

Thanks for the heads up on a trap. hmmm, anything else work?


thanks froggie71.