I'm guessing mink.... (Graphic pics post #17)

[aart]

Quote: I'm in Maine.I'm not sure what you mean by "Down Under".I
Australia, New Zealand, etc.....called stoats/ermine there.

The white winter coat of the lesser weasel are often called ermine here in the US.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/ermine-mammal

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

 

 

No, it wasn't a Weasel, to small.Im Sure it was a Ermine, my mom and dad even said so.

Do you live down under?

I'm in Maine.I'm not sure what you mean by "Down Under".I

Australia, New Zealand, etc.....called stoats/ermine there.

The white winter coat of the lesser weasel are often called ermine here in the US.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/ermine-mammal

OH ok, thanks.


Hmm, checking the link now.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Yup, Aart, that's what they looked like alright.Cutest things, Deadly predador.

 

[Beekissed]

We win! When I went out to do chores today, there was a young mink (probably a year old) in the trap. Given the size of the animal (about 14" long from the tip of her nose to the base of her tail) and the size of the BR hen she dragged out of the coop, it must have been quite a job for her. Now that we have that taken care of, coop security will begin ASAP.

The best part of all this? DH, who was an avid trapper for many years, said it would never work because mink are too smart to be caught that easily. He was thinking that the human smell on the trap would scare it away. My thinking was that it would be used to the smell because we're in and out of the coop every day. Plus I took away its food source - the hen it had been munching on - so it would naturally go back to where it found its last easy meal. My coop smells a little minky now, but that's better than skunk.

Good job!!!!

You may want to keep that trap set a bit in case their are more than one out there? Pics!!! WE NEED PICS of the little bloodthirsty stinky boy!

Gonna stick his little head on a pike by the coop door?

"All who enter here~ BEWARE!"

 

[bobbi-j]

Good job!!!!     You may want to keep that trap set a bit in case their are more than one out there?  Pics!!! WE NEED PICS of the little bloodthirsty stinky boy! 

Gonna stick his little head on a pike by the coop door?     [COLOR=B22222]"All who enter here~ BEWARE!" [/COLOR]

Hahaha! If there's anything left of it when we get home from visiting the kids, I'll take a picture of it. It was too early this morning for me to think to grab my phone when I went out to check the trap. The last I saw of it, the dog was carrying it off...

 

[Beekissed]

Good!!! Maybe he'll get a taste for mink and keep them out of the coop next time. They used to "weasel" feist dogs back in the old days....trap one and put it and the dog into a large apple barrel and let them fight it out. Said if a person did a dog that way he'd spend the rest of his days making sure not a single weasel lived on the land.

I sure hope that's the last time you'll have that issue with the flock.

 

[bobbi-j]

Good!!!  Maybe he'll get a taste for mink and keep them out of the coop next time.  They used to "weasel"  feist dogs back in the old days....trap one and put it and the dog into a large apple barrel and let them fight it out.  Said if a person did a dog that way he'd spend the rest of his days making sure not a single weasel lived on the land. 

I sure hope that's the last time you'll have that issue with the flock. 

I was almost tempted to let the mink out of the cage and let the dog take care of it, but thought it would be cruel. If something needs to die, it should die quickly and as painlessly as possible. Although my dog does catch and kill squirrels, and that doesn't take long. He has also killed several raccoons.

 

[Allisha]

I am glad you caught yours!
In the first time since we got our chickens, we had a death by predator.
Ice got in between a small gap in the coop door and expanded it, while a Fischer got into the coop during the afternoon and killed one of our hens.
It stayed in the coop long enough to defeather it's neck and head and then decapitate it.
I think our three roosters scared it off or it may have killed more, but you would have thought they would have acted a little quicker with three of them!