Mink in Coop

[RMHiggins]

Yesterday I was out by my cattle when I heard my chickens start to get very excited about something. It wasn't out of the ordinary until I saw feathers fly out of a very small hole that must have recently been made in the side of the barn where the coop is. I went inside and saw 1 dead hen, 1 badly injured hen, 1 slightly injured hen, and my rooster seems fine but has injuries to his neck area (not deep) and his comb. His comb is in bad shape, but like usual he is being a champ.

I saw no predators in there, but knew it had to be around, so I grabbed a pitchfork and sat by the door. Not even two minutes later a mink came in through the aforementioned hole. I chased it into a corner and stabbed the fork right through it, (this is when the rooster decided to try to join me, of course I pushed him away with my foot to avoid more injury to him) but it wiggled right off and ran into the barn.

This morning I found it because I could hear it's shrill shrieks and it's currently composting in the middle of my large compost pile.

My question is, how do I deal with the animals injuries? They are acting fine, eating and drinking, but the hen that is injured is staying away from the rest of the flock and not walking around much. The rooster is acting perfectly normal.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Howlet]

id post this is the health emergency area!

 

[iwiw60]

More importantly is making changes to your setup so the scumbags can't get in to your flock. Can you post some pics of your setup so we could see if there's anything obvious that might be changed?

 

[RMHiggins]

More importantly is making changes to your setup so the scumbags can't get in to your flock. Can you post some pics of your setup so we could see if there's anything obvious that might be changed?

I have already found the two holes he made under the foundation and that has been fixed. However, this morning I killed a different mink (it was a different color so I know it was a different one).

Does anyone know if mink tend to travel together? I live near two of the biggest minkeries in North America and if I'm not mistaken one is one of the biggest in the world so they are not uncommon to be around here, my dogs kill them all the time on our property. But I have never seen two of them in the same small area so in such a small time frame.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have already found the two holes he made under the foundation and that has been fixed. However, this morning I killed a different mink (it was a different color so I know it was a different one).

Does anyone know if mink tend to travel together? I live near two of the biggest minkeries in North America and if I'm not mistaken one is one of the biggest in the world so they are not uncommon to be around here, my dogs kill them all the time on our property. But I have never seen two of them in the same small area so in such a small time frame.

Except when they are rutting mink are some of the biggest loners in the animal kingdom. They also tend to be territorial, so if you remove one mink a second is not likely to take it's place in the same year. In fact in my mind at least minks are minks' greatest enemy.