Challenges of living in the woods with chickens

[Seaslug]

I hear minks are the worst. They will kill your whole flock in one night just for the fun of it, leaving the bodies behind. Not sure if that’s true.

Mink are effective predators, but they do not kill for the fun of it.
Humans are the only animals that kill for fun.
All other species may kill for experience, to eliminate a competitor (for food, habitat, or mates), or for food, but not for fun.
And this is coming from someone who had a mink kill four of her hens.
Yes, the mink killed them and stashed them in the run. But mink must be judged as mink... Most mink, weasels, rats, mice, etc. are able to get into runs/coops because they only require an opening the size of a quarter. These animals are not breaking into an area through such a hole, such a hole is a like a door to these animals. Why shouldn't they go through it? And when that door leads to a bunch of oblivious six+ pound sacks of muscle/dinner that can not get away... and you are a small creature that must struggle for every ounce of protein you can hunt down? It would be ridiculous for these animals to not take advantage of the situation and kill whatever they could manage and cash the excess.
It is so logical, it boggles the mind that humans decided to explain it away by saying that these animals just enjoy killing (I realize that the above poster is simply repeating what he/she has heard and I am not criticizing passing along information or this poster.)
Of course no one wants to lose chickens, but I think I correctly put the loss of my hens on myself and not on the mink.

 

[Carontheroad]

Mink are effective predators, but they do not kill for the fun of it.
Humans are the only animals that kill for fun.
All other species may kill for experience, to eliminate a competitor (for food, habitat, or mates), or for food, but not for fun.
And this is coming from someone who had a mink kill four of her hens.
Yes, the mink killed them and stashed them in the run. But mink must be judged as mink... Most mink, weasels, rats, mice, etc. are able to get into runs/coops because they only require an opening the size of a quarter. These animals are not breaking into an area through such a hole, such a hole is a like a door to these animals. Why shouldn't they go through it? And when that door leads to a bunch of oblivious six+ pound sacks of muscle/dinner that can not get away... and you are a small creature that must struggle for every ounce of protein you can hunt down? It would be ridiculous for these animals to not take advantage of the situation and kill whatever they could manage and cash the excess.
It is so logical, it boggles the mind that humans decided to explain it away by saying that these animals just enjoy killing (I realize that the above poster is simply repeating what he/she has heard and I am not criticizing passing along information or this poster.)
Of course no one wants to lose chickens, but I think I correctly put the loss of my hens on myself and not on the mink.

Yes Seaslug, poor choice of words, more accurate wording would be “for no apparent reason”. There is always a reason for everything in life though, it’s just a figure of speech. Thanks for enlightening all of us on mink mentality. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one although they are in my parts. Is it true that they take the heads off the chickens? Have you noticed if they come back for their stash? Do they really try to hide/stash them a bit in the run or are they just strewn all over? Seems to me most animals kill what they can eat in the short term only. Off the top of my head, I can only think of spiders and their webs as another multi killer and their prey may still be alive in the web (not sure).

In the same vein, I actually felt sorry for a rat this past winter that we found in the coop. He was more afraid of us than I was of him and went running for the automatic coop door but we had closed it and he went splat like a belly flop right on it. We chased him out through the main door but a few days later he came back and so we trapped and killed him. Even then though, I thought poor rats, they need somewhere warm to sleep too.

That’s how I’m feeling about roosters. Poor roosters, no one wants them! I’m generalizing, not literally no one, lots of rooster lovers on this forum.

 

[nature_nerd]

View attachment 4147655

Um. I want to live here! I love the woodland tropical vibe here! Gorgeous.

 

[Seaslug]

Yes Seaslug, poor choice of words

Is it true that they take the heads off the chickens? Have you noticed if they come back for their stash? Do they really try to hide/stash them a bit in the run or are they just strewn all over? Seems to me most animals kill what they can eat in the short term only.

Carontheroad I apologize if that came off as a critique of your word choice. Yes, mink do cash, as do a number of animals. Squirrels I guess would be the obvious one, but acorn woodpeckers are notorious for it and most cat species cash, if they can. It is a truly ingrained habit, as my one house cat will cover unfinished food with anything she can get her paws on. Also, lots of little herbivores will cash food.

I'm not sure of the actual percentage of species that evolved to take in only what they currently need -- it takes either a really stable environment, a really flexible diet, or the ability to roam greatly to be able to adopt that lifestyle. Many animals adapted to gorge periodically and still function, while others go into a sort of sleep to get through lean times... I realize that this is not on topic and is barely on topic for this post, but I recently heard of research that was done on marine iguanas and they are able to actually grow and lose vertibrae depending on whether or not the alage they feed on is abundant or not. They had small digital xrays that they used on microchipped marine iguanas. Animals are fasinating.

So when the mink killed my hens, we had some cinder blocks about in the run and their bodies were stuffed into the holes of the cinder blocks. I only had two survivors, one of whom was injured. We put them on our enclosed back porch, I buried the deceased, and a game camera was hung in the run/coop. The mink did come back for its cash. As I think I mentioned, I convinced my family to not kill it, despite our devastation. It was our fault that the coop was not as secure as it should have been, not the mink's for acting like a mink. Mink and weasels often bite to kill at the base of the head/neck. At least one of my hens was fed on, while some of the others were simply killed and cashed.

But it was not out there with a bunch of teenage friends, showing off how many hens it killed and pulling out a cell phone in a desire to take selfies with trophies. I am sure it was there to move its cash to a more secure location. My deepest regrets to those hens.

 

[CabritaChicks]

There’s a major difference between a long-tailed weasel, a mink, and a mongoose. I once had a client whose parrot aviary was attacked—they were told it was a mink. But the moment I saw the signs, I knew it was a long-tailed weasel. She lived in grasslands, far from any water source, which makes mink unlikely. Long-tailed weasels are bold, aggressive, and known for stashing their kills, while mink are more elusive and tend to stick close to water (they love water hens).

I had her install a camera- sure enough, the fuzzy fella was a weasel.

Where I live, we have mongoose—nasty little chaps- invasive species that were once brought in to kill snakes and rats the size of footballs... but they generally live on the other side of the island. Here was have Department of Natural Resources and you can trap and kill them on site (they will even give you traps to set up) and they have researched these mongols till their eyes bleed and concluded they do in fact kill for sport. Only consuming eggs as food source.

The feral dogs, though? They kill for sport. They chase down a chicken or two and toss them around like a chew toy in a living room and leave them- walking away with pride. And don’t even get me started on the feral cats—they hunt newborn chicks just for the thrill of it.