Mink tips and advice

[CoriM]

That's terrible, I'm so sorry!

 

[lagrange chicks]

I just had 11 hens killed in two nights. I caught one mink three nights later . Using one of the dead birds. then I found another dead hen sticking out of a hole on the edge of my pond. I now have three live traps set around my pond. I am wondering if wire screening will work around chicken coop. (I have a roll of that) Mine is 12' x12' totally enclosed with chicken wire. I just put a 3' welded wire fence around coop attached to the chicken wire. Getting new birds next week. I also put motion lights on each side of coop. Crossing my fingers. I have had chickens for 4 years where I am now . First attack..

Mink are nasty, kill way more then they will eat. Good you caught one, was it a male or female?

 

[Retiree2013]

I didn't check. I know that there is at least one more. 4 days after the slaughter, I had one in another trap. Just after 9am I went outside and the dead bird was sticking out of a hole by my pond. I am going to try putting one of my live traps in my pond ontop of some dead cattails with raw chicken liver on one of the dead birds.

 

[lagrange chicks]

Keep your bait fresh, mink are not fond of sticky meat. Hope you get the other 1.

 

[SamLockwood]

a motivated mink will stop at almost nothing to get into a coop. they are very brazen creatures. and as much i think it’s important to keep your animals safe, in doing so sometimes you have to get rid of the problem. after going face to face with one of them, my feelings on them have changed very dramatically. i’m a vegetarian so i feel very hard for animals and wild life, but after what one did to my duck (in day light) they’re not something i feel much empathy for.

I've never been a vegetarian, but I never had any urge to shoot animals until after I started keeping chickens. Having a rabid raccoon charge my mother one night didn't help matters much, either.

However, even if you use a perfect method to dispatch a predator humanely and you succeed in severing the spinal cord and /or destroying the brain instantly the body will often do things post-mortem as the nervous system shuts down. I've head-shot raccoons, had them keel over instantly, and then a minute later one or two leggs starts moving like it's trying to run (while it's laying on its back) with the head and the rest of the body limp.

If you're an animal lover, that sort of thing is going to be extremely distressing to witness. I've lost count of the number of critters I've dispatched and even though I know it's physically impossible for it to be feeling anything I still find it disturbing.

All that being said, if you're hell-bent on dispatching the mink, I recommend using a live-trap baited with something relatively fresh. Then dispatching it while it's in the trap. Don't try and be sporting and let it out and try and shooting it on the run.

 

[Plantaddict19]

Mink and Weasels are hard to trap also, they do not like rotten meat so any meat in a trap needs to be fresh. When my Dad would have mink attacks he would most times use a live bird for bait (in a mink proof cage of course) and set foothold traps around the caged bird covering the traps with a little fine straw or grass clippings. Allways caught the mink most times the 1st night.

Best comment so far for advice! Have you ever or your dad ever used poison? Wondering cause they just aren’t going for my traps at all. Doesn’t help having multiple areas around that draw them in for scraps and stuff from neighbors I guess.

 

[Plantaddict19]

Mink and Weasels are hard to trap also, they do not like rotten meat so any meat in a trap needs to be fresh. When my Dad would have mink attacks he would most times use a live bird for bait (in a mink proof cage of course) and set foothold traps around the caged bird covering the traps with a little fine straw or grass clippings. Allways caught the mink most times the 1st night.

Best advice so far! Have you or your dad ever used poison? Just curious cause at this point, I’m about to. They keep avoiding my traps.

 

[BDutch]

Best advice so far! Have you or your dad ever used poison? Just curious cause at this point, I’m about to. They keep avoiding my traps.

Poison doesn’t commit its self to the animal you want to kill. It gets scattered. Small animals that get killed by the poison get eaten by larger ones and it accumulates. Dead corpses get eaten by all kind of scavengers (including chickens).

 

[lagrange chicks]

Never poison.

 

[lagrange chicks]

What type of trap are you using?