woodmort
RIP 1938-2020
- Jul 6, 2010
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<I'm revising this: After rethinking what I saw I'm now convinced it wasn't a mink as it was too big, rather it was a fisher. We've seen one around, I've captured it on game cams and my wife saw one run up the across the street neighbors. This just complicates the problem.>
Sitting watching TV at 7:30 tonight when our big male cat comes running into the room, jumps up on the sill of the open window acting agitated. I jumped up and ran to the living room--our TV room is in the front of the house, the living room in the back overlooking the coop--just in time to see a big black mink make a leap for one of my old australorp hens. I mean this sucker was so big my first thought was a big cat was after my chickens. Meanwhile there are pullets flying everywhere and the hen dashes around the other side of the coop. I ran out, grabbed a length of firewood and made a dash for the chicken yard. I chased the mink around the yard, it finally scrambled up a fence post and headed for the woods.
Then I tallied the damage: my 3 beautiful, 9 -week old light brahmas--dead; 2 11-week old production reds--dead and 4 missing, 1 8-week old australorp pullet--dead, 1 missing. All the adults--3 astralorps, a lace wyndote, a brown leghorn and 2 roosters OK. One australorp hen was traumatized but she seems OK. Spent the next hour and half searching for 4 missing reds and one australorp. Eventually the reds were found but the australorp is still missing. I'm sure she's out there just hunkered down--I found her sister in the chicken yard huddled right down. At any rate I between sad and mad. The reds are just about to come in to production and those brahmas were just beautiful.
I'm sure this is the same mink that kill birds last winter but since then I've completely secured the coop so he can't get in. I doubled the chicken fencing to a height of 8 feet but, apparently he climbed over. If I can't trap and get rid of him I don't know how I can release my 3 dozen, 6-week old pullets. He's just going to put me out of business.
Now before you start with advice, I trapped when I was in HS and was pretty good at it. I just didn't use Have-a-hart traps. I did make mink sets last winter when I saw what was doing the killing but judging by tracks, he never came back. In fact, I was hoping he'd gone elsewhere. Now I'll make a bunch of mink sets and keep at it until either I catch it or run out of chickens,
BTW, my dear wife is praising out cat for the warning. If he hadn't given us a head's up we may have lost them all.
Sitting watching TV at 7:30 tonight when our big male cat comes running into the room, jumps up on the sill of the open window acting agitated. I jumped up and ran to the living room--our TV room is in the front of the house, the living room in the back overlooking the coop--just in time to see a big black mink make a leap for one of my old australorp hens. I mean this sucker was so big my first thought was a big cat was after my chickens. Meanwhile there are pullets flying everywhere and the hen dashes around the other side of the coop. I ran out, grabbed a length of firewood and made a dash for the chicken yard. I chased the mink around the yard, it finally scrambled up a fence post and headed for the woods.
Then I tallied the damage: my 3 beautiful, 9 -week old light brahmas--dead; 2 11-week old production reds--dead and 4 missing, 1 8-week old australorp pullet--dead, 1 missing. All the adults--3 astralorps, a lace wyndote, a brown leghorn and 2 roosters OK. One australorp hen was traumatized but she seems OK. Spent the next hour and half searching for 4 missing reds and one australorp. Eventually the reds were found but the australorp is still missing. I'm sure she's out there just hunkered down--I found her sister in the chicken yard huddled right down. At any rate I between sad and mad. The reds are just about to come in to production and those brahmas were just beautiful.
I'm sure this is the same mink that kill birds last winter but since then I've completely secured the coop so he can't get in. I doubled the chicken fencing to a height of 8 feet but, apparently he climbed over. If I can't trap and get rid of him I don't know how I can release my 3 dozen, 6-week old pullets. He's just going to put me out of business.
Now before you start with advice, I trapped when I was in HS and was pretty good at it. I just didn't use Have-a-hart traps. I did make mink sets last winter when I saw what was doing the killing but judging by tracks, he never came back. In fact, I was hoping he'd gone elsewhere. Now I'll make a bunch of mink sets and keep at it until either I catch it or run out of chickens,
BTW, my dear wife is praising out cat for the warning. If he hadn't given us a head's up we may have lost them all.
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