Mink!!! Help!!! Killed Chickens and Decimated Large Koi Pond!!!

[ThornyRidge]

Does anyone have any sure fire ways to get rid of a mink! I had a local trapper come and he sat his conibear kill traps up for a few days and apparently the mink had traveled away at that time.. he returned after the few days and took down his traps.. lo and behold mink came back.. so far the mink has killed 1 adult rooster, 2 adult hens, a juvenile pullet and almost killed one other hen. Thankfully I saved her and she has since made a full recovery (minus the couple chunks missing from her neck that are healing awesomely!! and still has bald spots on both sides of neck and head). Since the chicken massacre, I have kept the coop closed up and 75% of my other chickens and roosters have migrated their way back to the goat barn where they have been locked up due to weather. Soooo during this time the mink returned and discovered my two koi ponds.. I had large (some in excess of 16" butterfly koi and regular koi along with various shebunkins, comets and veil tail goldfish.. the ponds are rather large so most of the fish were very large also.. Mr. Mink has decimated the fish.. he has killed what looks to be all of my large koi ( around 10) and even alot of the other fish.. I am just heart broken over this.. it is bad enough that he killed off my chickens but to treat my ornamental ponds and fish as a buffet (have had these ponds for 5-6 years with no problems until the past month) makes me angry and extremely sad! My fish were beautiful! Any and all mink ridding suggestions welcome.. it has to meet its demise!!!

 

[sourland]

Try a box trap baited with sardines.

 

[ivan3]

Also try youtube: mink trap/weasel trap. (check out the vid of the floating box trap setup (mink trap)

I'd suggest leaving a couple box traps baited and set, all the time. Other members have posted about raccoon's `fishing out' their koi ponds (one our neighbors lost all of theirs to raccoons).

 

[Slow Elk]

A good dog on the prowl would probably work wonders.

 

[farmtotable]

I know a lot of people aren't going to agree with this, but I think it's a better use of time to focus on making your habitats predator proof than trying to trap all the predators. If you get rid of one predator, something else will eventually move in to fill the void. The last time I posted this opinion, someone pointed out that minks have a large territory that they prowl alone, so killing it will take care of the problem. I totally agree with that, except I would add that then some other mink, or some other critter, will ultimately fill the void. That's just what nature does. It might take months, but no matter how many minks you kill, there will be another one along at some point.

For that reason, I agree with slow elk that a guardian dog is the way to go. Much more of a deterrent than traps which are easily avoidable and defeatable.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

....If you get rid of one predator, something else will eventually move in to fill the void....

I have no problem with what your saying. It is certainly true. That is why I don't fret over removing predators, because sooner or later another one will take the place of the one you removed. So in the big scheme of things you have not caused any problems by killing the mink that's killing your chickens. There are more than enough mink left in the world to go around.

 

[ivan3]

farmtotable he last time I posted this opinion, someone pointed out that minks have a large territory that they prowl alone, so killing it will take care of the problem. I totally agree with that, except I would add that then some other mink, or some other critter, will ultimately fill the void. That's just what nature does. It might take months, but no matter how many minks you kill, there will be another one along at some point.

It is quite accurate to point out that one should look to passive defenses, first. In some locations this is sufficient. In others, one discovers, through hard experience, that active defense is also required, i.e., preemptive trapping does not prevent other preds from showing up, but it absolutely decreases the overall frequency of predation.

 

[JanetS]

We had a koi/goldfish pond in our backyard that we had to fill in because we could not keep the racoon's from eating all the fish.
We don't have any mink's around here but a bobcat just got one of our favorite hens. Good luck. It's so upsetting to loss a pet.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... preemptive trapping does not prevent other preds from showing up, but it absolutely decreases the overall frequency of predation.

Something else preemptive trapping does, is it increases the availability of natural prey, and this reduces the pressure mink or other predators put on your flock.

 

[farmtotable]

Something else preemptive trapping does, is it increases the availability of natural prey, and this reduces the pressure mink or other predators put on your flock.

And increasing the amount of available prey will inevitably attract more and more predators to feed on it. It's nature, all part of a cycle. I'm not against trapping, I just don't think it makes that much of a difference. In my experience it hasn't. I trap one mink, literally the next day there were two more in my duck pen. I saw them, trying to drag off a dead duck. After that experience, I put all my effort into reinforcing my coops so that absolutely nothing could penetrate them at night, and stopped trying to trap everything. A year later and no more predator deaths, and all my animals free range during the day.