Mink in the coop

[Mountaintop Homestead]

This was my first winter with my first flock, and we thought for sure our coop was buttoned up and safe for my feather babies... I was wrong. A few days before Christmas I went from getting about 5 eggs a day from my 6 hens to getting maybe one. I just figured its cold out the egg production will slow down, now I believe we had a critter visiting our coop. The day after Christmas I went to check on my girls and spend some time with them cleaning the coop and checking for eggs and what I found was was not a pretty sight.. 4 of my hens were deceased, laying on the coop floor, I thought they froze to death, oh no. I didn't insulate enough.. But then found wounds and blood.. So my husband and I look for entry points for critters. We set full steam ahead and filled every Crack we could think of, my girls were safe. The next morning 4 more chickens gone ( I also had 3 roosters and 3 guinea fowls). I suffered a loss of 8 chickens all together and now it was personal. I have 2 roosters and 2 guineas left alive now. So I went to tractor supply and got a trap, I needed to catch this critter. My husband pokes a bit of fun at me for crying over chickens but these were my girls. We unfortunately did use a deceased chicken for bait and removed my remaining poultry to a secure location in our basement. We also set up a game camera so we could see how this critter was entering and exiting the coop and turning my coop into a slaughter house. It was a terribly sad sight to see.. But the next morning, we caught it. A tiny little Mink was what had been slaughtering my chickens. We called the game commission and had it removed from our property but I'm still scared to return my chickens to my coop. Even though we did figure out how it was getting in. I'm devastated over the loss of my flock... and I will fix this problem and start over again, having chickens is such a joy in my life and in my children's lives. I loved more than anything working out in my garden and watching my chickens happily free range around me and watching how much my babies loved feeding them treats. They will be missed.

 

[gtaus]

Sorry for your loss. Predator loss is almost always going to happen at some point. Mink and weasels seem to kill just for the sport of it. Nasty. I had to deal with them when I was a young kid raising rabbits. Lost quite a few rabbits before I was able to kill that weasel.

Where was the mink getting access into your coop? After you correct that problem, I hope you start over. I really liked your pictures and it appears you otherwise have a great setup for the birds.

 

[hayley3]

This was my first winter with my first flock, and we thought for sure our coop was buttoned up and safe for my feather babies... I was wrong. A few days before Christmas I went from getting about 5 eggs a day from my 6 hens to getting maybe one. I just figured its cold out the egg production will slow down, now I believe we had a critter visiting our coop. The day after Christmas I went to check on my girls and spend some time with them cleaning the coop and checking for eggs and what I found was was not a pretty sight.. 4 of my hens were deceased, laying on the coop floor, I thought they froze to death, oh no. I didn't insulate enough.. But then found wounds and blood.. So my husband and I look for entry points for critters. We set full steam ahead and filled every Crack we could think of, my girls were safe. The next morning 4 more chickens gone ( I also had 3 roosters and 3 guinea fowls). I suffered a loss of 8 chickens all together and now it was personal. I have 2 roosters and 2 guineas left alive now. So I went to tractor supply and got a trap, I needed to catch this critter. My husband pokes a bit of fun at me for crying over chickens but these were my girls. We unfortunately did use a deceased chicken for bait and removed my remaining poultry to a secure location in our basement. We also set up a game camera so we could see how this critter was entering and exiting the coop and turning my coop into a slaughter house. It was a terribly sad sight to see.. But the next morning, we caught it. A tiny little Mink was what had been slaughtering my chickens. We called the game commission and had it removed from our property but I'm still scared to return my chickens to my coop. Even though we did figure out how it was getting in. I'm devastated over the loss of my flock... and I will fix this problem and start over again, having chickens is such a joy in my life and in my children's lives. I loved more than anything working out in my garden and watching my chickens happily free range around me and watching how much my babies loved feeding them treats. They will be missed.

Your post made me cry...to have them locked up and open the door and find them like that. Mine too were massacred once but I never found the culprit but it chased them over fences and still killed them. 3 of them hid, and that was all I had left.
I would be afraid to put mine back out too.
Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking? I have never seen a mink and have always lived near water and I'm sure a mink could have burrowed under to get into my stalls. I don't see any entry points in your coop at all.

 

[Callender Girl]

I had a similar experience with a mink -- the only animal I've ever wanted to kill with my own hands. My dog started barking at the window, alerting me to something outside, and I was able to get outdoors while the mink was still there. My appearance rescued one of my four hens; she was on the highest roost. The bodies of the others were scattered around in the coop and the run. I cried for days because they were dead, died horrible deaths and because I didn't protect them.

I had a night vision flashlight with me and gave chase with a snow shovel. It escaped, but I knew it would return. I waited outside with a three-tined cultivator and would have driven those spikes through it when it returned about an hour later. They always come back. A hole in the back hay shed wall is the only reason I didn't batter it to death. It came back the next day and took one of my runner duck drakes. It's really infuriating that they kill but don't even eat their victims; it seems to be for sport, not for their survival.

I know you won't feel safe now, even with the mink removed.

Minks can get through the tiniest openings, so hardware cloth everywhere is a must. I improved my coop security and blocked off access to the back of the property so I can see everyone out the windows when they are cooped and when they are free-ranging during the day (which only happens when I'm home).

Also, minks are very territorial critters; it's quite possible that the one removed was the only one close to you; males, especially, patrol their land to keep others away.

My heart goes out to you. You will continue to miss your girls. I almost gave up having poultry. I'm glad I didn't.

 

[Mountaintop Homestead]

Sorry for your loss. Predator loss is almost always going to happen at some point. Mink and weasels seem to kill just for the sport of it. Nasty. I had to deal with them when I was a young kid raising rabbits. Lost quite a few rabbits before I was able to kill that weasel.

Where was the mink getting access into your coop? After you correct that problem, I hope you start over. I really liked your pictures and it appears you otherwise have a great setup for the birds.

Thank you, we have ventilation near the metal roof where the studs come down, sorry you can't see it in the picture, but we covered in between the studs with hardware cloth. Well we figured on the wall we erected, nothing would be able to scale up and squeeze in between the metal roof and the hardware cloth, so we didn't have the hardware cloth attached to the metal roof. But thats how it got in. It bent and squeezed in between the hardware cloth and the metal roof. But I guess we will learn from it and secure the cloth to the roof and start over. I hope you can understand what I mean with my description, its a bit hard to explain...

 

[cmom]

So sorry for you losses. I let my favorite special hen (she was a cross beak) out one day thinking she was ok. I hadn't had any problems for several years. I was distracted and when I called her she didn't come like she usually did so I went looking for her. I never found her body but did find feathers. I cried and cried she was special. I still can't forgive myself for not putting her back in her pen when I got distracted. It was a fox that I had been seeing on my cameras. I did eliminate it. It was mangy and stinky. Good luck...

 

[Mountaintop Homestead]

Oh my goodness I cried for 2 days until we caught the little stinker. Thanks for your sympathy. Sorry you had to go through it also. We live on 10 acres in the Pennsylvania mountains, and we have a freshwater stream running through our property line. So we are in the perfect spot for Mink. Our floor is concrete but it got in near the metal roof roof where we have ventilation for the chicks, we put up hardware cloth but didn't attach it to the metal roof, thinking there's no way anything could scale the wall the whole way up and squeeze in between the roof and the cloth. But this little Mink managed it.. so we need to secure the cloth to our metal roof.

Your post made me cry...to have them locked up and open the door and find them like that. Mine too were massacred once but I never found the culprit but it chased them over fences and still killed them. 3 of them hid, and that was all I had left.
I would be afraid to put mine back out too.
Where do you live, if you don't mind me asking? I have never seen a mink and have always lived near water and I'm sure a mink could have burrowed under to get into my stalls. I don't see any entry points in your coop at all.

 

[Mountaintop Homestead]

I had a similar experience with a mink -- the only animal I've ever wanted to kill with my own hands. My dog started barking at the window, alerting me to something outside, and I was able to get outdoors while the mink was still there. My appearance rescued one of my four hens; she was on the highest roost. The bodies of the others were scattered around in the coop and the run. I cried for days because they were dead, died horrible deaths and because I didn't protect them.

I had a night vision flashlight with me and gave chase with a snow shovel. It escaped, but I knew it would return. I waited outside with a three-tined cultivator and would have driven those spikes through it when it returned about an hour later. They always come back. A hole in the back hay shed wall is the only reason I didn't batter it to death. It came back the next day and took one of my runner duck drakes. It's really infuriating that they kill but don't even eat their victims; it seems to be for sport, not for their survival.

I know you won't feel safe now, even with the mink removed.

Minks can get through the tiniest openings, so hardware cloth everywhere is a must. I improved my coop security and blocked off access to the back of the property so I can see everyone out the windows when they are cooped and when they are free-ranging during the day (which only happens when I'm home).

Also, minks are very territorial critters; it's quite possible that the one removed was the only one close to you; males, especially, patrol their land to keep others away.

My heart goes out to you. You will continue to miss your girls. I almost gave up having poultry. I'm glad I didn't.

Thanks so much for sharing.

My dog was barking like crazy but I figured it was just a deer, like usual. I should have listened to him.

I hope there will be no more, but we do plan on fixing the problem before removing the remainder my chicks from the basement.

I will start over this spring and learn from my mistakes.

 

[gtaus]

It's really infuriating that they kill but don't even eat their victims; it seems to be for sport, not for their survival.

Yes, that's what I said too. However, I read somewhere that in the wild, a mink or weasel will kill its prey, as many as possible, and hide them in the wild to eat later. So it's just their nature to kill as many victims as possible and try to eat them later. From out point of view, it just appears like a senseless mass killing.

I hope there will be no more, but we do plan on fixing the problem before removing the remainder my chicks from the basement.

I will start over this spring and learn from my mistakes.

Sounds like a good plan. If you are a fan of the Permaculture philosophy, we take the losses we experience and learn from them...

Principle 1: Observe and interact





By taking the time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.

 

[cmom]

I'm glad you caught the mink. Did you eliminate it? Some people don't agree with this but when the fox took my Gladys, that was it. I still think "if only". She was very special I never had a bird like her prior and probably won't ever again. Good luck...