Any tips on dealing with minks?

[trumpeting_angel]

It’s been awhile since I read all about them, so really do your own research. They are much less domesticated than chickens. They need to be kept in the coop/covered run for - 6-8 weeks - I think, before you let them out. Only let a couple out at a time. They are very flock oriented and they won’t fly away and leave their flock if some are cooped.

They need to be trained to come in at night. I recall that millet is their favorite treat. Otherwise they will roost in the trees and get picked off by owls.

They will visit your neighbors. They startle (and make noise) at everything but settle down after the first year or two.

Maybe you can find out more in the guinea fowl forum here on BYC. I think there is also a website/forum dedicated to them. I’m sure there are folks here who know more than me - I just read a lot!

Best of luck!

 

[Alexandra33]

It’s been awhile since I read all about them, so really do your own research. They are much less domesticated than chickens. They need to be kept in the coop/covered run for - 6-8 weeks - I think, before you let them out. Only let a couple out at a time. They are very flock oriented and they won’t fly away and leave their flock if some are cooped.

They need to be trained to come in at night. I recall that millet is their favorite treat. Otherwise they will roost in the trees and get picked off by owls.

They will visit your neighbors. They startle (and make noise) at everything but settle down after the first year or two.

Maybe you can find out more in the guinea fowl forum here on BYC. I think there is also a website/forum dedicated to them. I’m sure there are folks here who know more than me - I just read a lot!

Best of luck!

If only you knew how helpful this post is. Thanks a million for taking the time to answer my question.

Yes, a visit to the guinea section of BYC is in order. Time to educate myself.

Oh, and one of the few things I knew about guineas beforehand was their tendency to wander. Good thing where we're moving, there aren't neighbors to worry about.

~Alex

 

[Northern Flights]

I will also place my vote on the wily fox. Up here on the northern fringes of the civilized world, we have badgers, weasels, raccoons, grisly, eagles, hawks, cougar, bobcats, lynx, wolves, wild dogs, coyotes and many, many feral mothers-in-law. Of all the fox is the one that routinely finds the gaps in our defenses.

Fortunately we have not lost a hen and with each near miss I learn a bit more, but they are unbelievably cunning, persistent and smart. They run our dog around like a spinning top.

But you know, I'd rather have all of those to deal with rather than ticks. Yech.

 

[TheBlueShepard]

What size conibear and bucket do you recommend for mink?

A Duke size 110 trap and any bucket or other similar object you can suspend it in without too much space edgewise.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

A Duke size 110 trap and any bucket or other similar object you can suspend it in without too much space edgewise.

I see, and you’ve caught a lot of mink in these 110 bucket sets have you?

 

[Biddybot]

How old are your guineas? Still just little keets , I hope. If they are, do spoil and fuss over them a bit while you can. They don't much care for handling, but offering a bit of mashed hard-boiled egg or the sort of very small-seeded mixes sold for pet finches on your held-out hand and letting them make all the moves will usually entice them close and start taming them down. Eventually they'll likely get excited enough about the food for the greediest ones to jump up on your wrist during the feeding frenzy and it's a good time to start teaching them that a special call means good things to eat so that later, when they're out roaming around, they'll come when you call them. Guineas can become quite tame--my first three came straight out of the incubator and never lost their fondness for visiting with me in the living room via the French doors that opened onto the attached back deck even when they became part of a much larger flock--but it's more the relationship you'd have with a tamed wild animal rather than something domestic. Thinking of them as friendly feral pheasants rather than chicken wannabes will help a lot in how you view them and care for them. Giving them their own digs will help a lot too. They love big spaces to live in with big entrances (I used a baby barn) and very high perches, like eight or ten feet high. I wouldn't keep them with chickens myself--they're not good 'mixers' when confined. Despite all that, they're my favourite fowl. You'll never be bored with guineas around!

The tick thing is very much overrated, by the way, at least in my opinion. Any decent Leghorn or standard game chicken, the sort that go far afield when they range, will pick up just as many ticks, plus they'll scratch up even more...guineas don't scratch. However, it IS true that they can help you out with certain types of predators. For example, they're smart enough that they'll quickly learn that any family dogs are 'safe' and will normally ignore them, even if they run loose with your birds. But they hate, hate, HATE strange dogs, foxes and coyotes, and as long as the guineas are flighted, they'll often feel bold enough to approach and harass such animals, all while screaming their heads off. Two of mine once went over the fence to yell at and follow a fox that was just innocently trying to hunt mice in the weeds at the back of my neighbour's yard, and another single male likewise flew over the front fence to trail and scream at an old labrador retriever who'd gotten out of his yard and who was meandering around on the road...this last actually halted traffic on the outgoing lane for a bit since the dog was walking slowly right down the middle of the lane and then, twenty feet behind him was the screeching, darting guinea, and twenty feet behind THEM was a string of five or six cars, moving just as slowly with their occupants enjoying the show and laughing their butts off, thankfully! Anyway, guineas REALLY don't like dogs they don't know and those darn foxes and coyotes. A flock of twelve, free to fly and free to roam, should be good at alerting you to any strays that come around.

Guineas will also gather under and curse at any perching hawks, eagles, or predatory-looking ravens they see, and the ruckus they raise will usually move such birds along, at least to quieter locations. They're also good about spotting snakes and will gather around any they catch out in the open and harass them and will sometimes kill them, if they're small enough. And that's...honestly...about it when it comes to guineas helping out with predator control in my experience. Mine never did seem to spot any daytime mink or even cats detouring through my yard and they're just as helpless as chickens when it comes to nocturnal predators, alas.