Mink Stole

[aart]

I noticed the security alarms on my cell phone in the morning and video definitely reveals a bloodthirsty mink.

Guess you need to keep the phone where it will wake you up?
So sorry for your loss...hope you catch and skin the little bat-rastard!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My bad but it seems that the American mink is not native to the drier parts of North America.

 

[Folly's place]

I see that; apparently they don't inhabit Death Valley, and some surrounding desert.
Mary

 

[Dailypix]

I'm very sorry for your loss. Can I ask where you are that you have mink? I'm feeling very thankful we don't have them here.

We are In Ontario about 3 hours no4th of Toronto.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I see that; apparently they don't inhabit Death Valley, and some surrounding desert.
Mary

Africa, Australia, and Antarctica are also supposedly free of the American mink.

 

[Callender Girl]

My condolences on your loss and my best wishes on your trapping. I love animals, but I hate mink. MAYBE I could almost understand if they kill because they are hungry, but they waste their kill instead of eating it.

Last winter, one mink killed three of my four laying hens in a coop. I got outside in time to see it trying to pull my Sicilian Buttercup Mia's head through the run. Only Honey, my Buff Orp, escaped it. She stayed on the highest roost; the other birds were caught under a nest box and in the run on the ONE night I didn't close the coop door.

I chased off the mink with a shovel and the intent to smash it into the frozen ground.

The hateful thing wouldn't just run off -- it would circle back again and again. I sat outside, armed for more than an hour. When I thought it was safe -- and after I gathered Mia, Ginger Rogers (RIR) and Samantha's (Barred Rock) remains -- I came inside.

Two hours later, Pearl ran to the window and began barking toward the coops again. Yup, the murderer was back. I gave chase through a goat pasture and it headed into a hay shed. The only reason it wasn't hacked to death with a three-tine cultivator is that there is a small hole in the back of the hay shed.

The next day, it came back in broad daylight and took one of my original runner duck drakes as the flock free-ranged.

EVERYTHING now has hardware cloth, usually fastened down with 1-by-2's nailed across it. In addition, there are NiteGuard lights and hardware cloth aprons, staked into the ground and covered with bricks and large landscaping blocks.

And, still, I don't feel safe enough.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

… I chased off the mink with a shovel and the intent to smash it into the frozen ground... The hateful thing wouldn't just run off -- it would circle back again and again. I sat outside, armed for more than an hour. When I thought it was safe... I came inside.

Two hours later, Pearl ran to the window and began barking toward the coops again. Yup, the murderer was back. I gave chase through a goat pasture and it headed into a hay shed. The only reason it wasn't hacked to death with a three-tine cultivator is that there is a small hole in the back of the hay shed....

Tongue in cheek:
OMG, how violent is that?
I am shocked I tell you, absolutely shocked! ​

 

[Dailypix]

Calendar Girl that is terrible. I am so sorry.
All our chickens are gone but I will start again in early spring. I put a large live trap in the closed coop with the body of one of the small hens inside for bait. PETA will not like this but if I catch it the mink will relocated- in pieces, the tail tacked up in the run along with the 5 raccoon tail souvenirs, the skin cured in salt as an experiment and the body tossed in the bonfire with the mice bodies. Best wishes.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Calendar Girl that is terrible. I am so sorry.
All our chickens are gone but I will start again in early spring. I put a large live trap in the closed coop with the body of one of the small hens inside for bait. PETA will not like this but if I catch it the mink will relocated- in pieces, the tail tacked up in the run along with the 5 raccoon tail souvenirs, the skin cured in salt as an experiment and the body tossed in the bonfire with the mice bodies. Best wishes.

Be careful, mink have a scent gland similar to but not as pungent as a skunk's scent gland. You still don't want to get in on yourself. This gland does make a good attractant for mink because mink are highly territorial and they will readily fight other mink to the death to protect their home range so it pulls mink in like gravity.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I am so sorry about the loss of your sweet chicks!!! Bear hugs!!
Best wishes catching that nasty varmint!!!!!