I just went out to my hen house this afternoon and found my largest Swedish Blue duck (a hen) dead and her head covered in blood near by the water trough. I went to the poultry pasture gate to get a closer look at the Swedish Blue duck and noticed another dead chicken along the fence line ... my little Ameraucana hen who had been broody .... plus sitting next to her a good sized mink. The mink was a bit startled by me and walked away a few feet but the fresh blood from his chicken was too much of a lure. I went back to my shop and grabbed my .22 caliber pellet rifle. I walked back to the Ameraucana hen and there was the mink again gnawing on his prize (my Ameraucana hen). I walked right up to the target and let him have it in the chest. He flopped all over and was bleeding profusely. I figured he was a goner so I grabbed a sturdy 3 ft. long pole to knock the living heck out of him. My mistake ... the weasely rat walked through the fence line and crawled under our cottage ... small carriage house. I looked at his blood trail and saw quite a lot where he had flopped around. He's a dead mink by now. This is the 5th time we've encountered a mink on our property plus next door in the past 6 years. This is the 2nd one to bite the bullet. I'll be on the lookout for mink for the next few days. This one likely has a friend. No sense in showing a photograph of the dead duck or chicken. Mink are bad! Kelly in Moxee
Killer Mink rampage .... they are BAD !
Sorry about your losses. 8 (
oh, dear! you might ocnsider, when you find the carcass, reviewing my thread in Sustainable Alternatives called Protein from Thin Air to Feed chickens... putting the dead predoatrs in the bucket is a sweet revenge...
glad you had your gun handy!
i lost three pullet eggs to rats today!!! the jumbo eggs are too big for them. a duck egg was stuck blocking their hole, they could move it, but couldn't get in down and through...
Hey tf, Damerow has a story about a rat stealing one of their "fake" nest eggs. It was made of stone and the rat rolled it down the hole and then rolled it back out a couple days later. Maybe you could create a sort of "grenade egg" that explodes when then push it.....okay, that's not practical........;0)
hmmm, it may be done! we have left over fireworks. maybe shove that tank down their hole!
liekly the hole was actually blocked off by the duck egg until we removed it.
fortunately [or not] DH is building a 28x12 foot building north of the north pen, and so will be using up more piles of wood.... eventually we will have no more places for them to hide. they nmust sneak in when the chickens are out.... my chickens kill mice... maybe these rats are just too big to look like something to kill? perhaps they have manners?
tf
Mink cover a tremendously large range in a day. They are not necessarily nocturnal hunters. At least we have had 1 night so far without a MINK attack. This really is the 1st major predator attack in close to a year. Last August we had a coyote get a 1/2 dz of the Game Fowl but by the time he nabbed our #1 roo ..... the roo had given us 20 of his boys and 30 of his daughters. We started with just the 1 wild roo and 7 of his girlfriends. Out of those original 8 there are but 3 remaining hens. Their offspring number roughly 40 with 16 eggs being brooded at this moment that I'm aware of + there is 1 really wild Game Fowl hen with a nest way the heck out in the neighbors 50 acre hop field ... its just too far to go looking for it. The loss of the #1 roo last August was saddening and surprising ... I shot and killed the Coyote the next morning so the Coyote paid a significant price for the 5-6 Game Fowl and we've been more careful to have the hens with broods stay inside 1 of the 4 enclosed pasture areas ... that are fenced with welded wire a one with the even better woven wire. Having poultry is a learning experience. Too bad my poultry are on the cusp of my learning curve. I believe a smaller pasture for the contained poultry with a skirting of small gauge chicken wire extending upward 2.5 ft and outward along the ground 1.5 ft would keep out the Mink. I can't envision a Mink jumping up 2.5 feet to go though a fence line or backing up 18 inches to dig under. Anybody with better experience or knowledge out there related to Mink? Kelly in Moxee
this is when you wish electric netting was affordable...
Mink attacked again last night. Killed my 2 Swedish Blue ducklings and their Game Fowl mother inside the portable night brooder box. The ducklings are gone and their mother was stone cold. I've got my work cut out today. I need a secure door on the portable brooder night box for my Game Fowl w/ 11 chicks and a large brooder box for my Guinea hen and her 6 keets. This is the worst experience I've had with poultry killing since before I put up fences. I'm gonna start setting up mink traps everywhere along the stream and in "runs" where I can tell the Mink have been.
It makes me wonder how the wild ducks (Mallard, Wigeon, GrWing Teal, Wood Duck) along the stream are able to evade the Mink.
maybe they have already had encounters where they fought him off, so he is scared of them and looking for easier meals.
i am so sorry for all this. get your work done today, and get those guys done-for!
Oh so sorry to hear, hope all works out. I was telling DH last night I am worried about putting them out just yet, he asked me if I wanted to sleep out there, I said we will see what happens tonight and go from there. All was ok last night. I told him IF I have to I might.
My wife and I were watering the flowers this morning ... we saw 3-4 different mink wandering around in the pasture just across our driveway ... less than 50 ft from us. Then one of them came into the flower garden and was stalking our hen with the 11 chicks. I ran to get a shovel. I'm simply amazed at how brazen the mink are. Kelly in Moxee
The dead mink has 2-3 babies in a hole somewhere nearby because she had 3 nipples on her lower stomach area that were being utilized. Its no wonder she's been so hungry to kill 3 large poultry and 2 ducklings with her 3 kits sucking. I hope they starve to death. This mink has a small white splotch under her chin ... just like the mink we shot last summer. Must be related.
This morning I checked the Guinea mom and her 6 keets and the Game Fowl hen with 11 chicks. All made it safely through the night. Kelly in Moxee
This message was edited Jul 6, 2008 9:48 AM
This message was edited Jul 6, 2008 9:49 AM
Around here it's coyotes and fox. We've been pretty lucky at our place, but our neighbors up the road have had a terrible time with foxes. Their son breeds guinea pigs and he has them in outdoor hutches...I think all the squeaking they do lures the foxes in the area. His mom lost all her ducks this year to them and too many chickens to count..I still say it's because of the guinea pigs.
Makes me think of that song, "The Fox":
Oh the fox went out on the chase one night
He prayed to the moon to give him light,
he had many a mile to go that night
before he reached the town-oh
Town-oh, Town-oh
He had many a mile to go that night,
before he reached the town-oh....
About an hour ago I was in my back yard ... and guess what ... another mink walking around looking for an easy meal. This one was definitely a juvenile kit of the mother I wacked in my hen house yesterday. The younger ones are even more dumb than the mother. This one allowed me to walk right up to it and I hit it with shovel. End of story ... end of mink. I calculate we have 2-3 more mink in the immediate area below the house along the stream. I suspect were it not for the 45 nearly wild Game Fowl (with unaccounted nests full of eggs) running loose along the stream ... we'd not be talking about a mink population in my back yard. These mink behave and look just like ferrets but are solid dark brown and are not tame. The juvenile mink looks to weigh a little more than 1lb ... roughly half what the mother weighed. Mink in this area are really an oddity. Most folks would just flip if they suspected or knew they are here. We're right on the edge of the desert ... 20 miles away from the Columbia River and the Hanford Reach National Monument & Wildlife Area ... with a really large herd of Elk on it. Kelly in Moxee
so you got three so far? hopefully it is just one family, and you can get them all...
TamaraFAye,
Not quite .... The mink I shot a hole in Friday and was convinced would die beneath our backyard cottage ... was the mother of the 2-3 kits we've seen walking around. Yesterday she went into my hen house and I followed her in with a sturdy stick in hand and clubbed her to death. Today one of her little guys came looking for an easy meal and I got up close to him with a shovel. So I've got 2 so far and last summer we got a 3rd. Kelly in Moxee
Sounds like the start of a mink coat here..............
Mink are nasty creatures, for sure. Our problem here on the farm is raccoons. Spousal Unit live traps them and then shoots them. They are destructive beyond description. The only good raccoon is a dead one, as far as we're concerned.
I agree one the raccoons. Even live trapping, you can't move them as they come at you right through the cage! They have eaten my some of my roos right in their cages, one claw scrape at a time & I truly believe they are the reason I have no cats left.
No minks here, at least that I know of. Only seen one or two weasel & that was about 2miles down the road a few years back. My main problem would be the raccoons & coyotes.....then there are the flying predators, hawks, osprey & owls.
Good luck on the mink. Was there a mink farm they could have escaped from (or been all let loose from)? Know that was an issue a year or so ago in another county west of mtns when an illegal farm let them all loose. Can't remember exactly where.
PeaFowlAnjL, I've never heard of Gate ... not that I've heard of every place name in the state but yours must be a small community like Moxee. We're exactly 10 miles east of the Yakima River ... the mink just have migrated up the creek from the river ... no big mystery. We have beaver on the creek and have had for years. We've been having target practice shooting the littlest weasels ...aka ... Least Weasels ever since we got here 6 years ago. Think of a white Ermine with the little black spot on the tail. These buggers are all along the creek - drain. They do not change color to white in the winter because there's almost never any snow. There's lots of food for them and since we have skunks, mink, ermine and badgers ... I'm getting ready for raccoons. They'll be here before long. I'll not be surprised to see the Fisher Cats either. I've seen them in the Cascades up along the Bumping River. The one I saw there was so big I swore it was a Wolverine for years. My neighbor Mike has a Wolverine pelt in his front room. Kelly in Moxee
Gate is really Rochester. Once a booming town, now a small community trying disparately to remain. We are still on the map - Older maps show the name in big letters (etc rest areas). We are between Olympia & Centrailia off I-5. I am on the Black River. Have beaver & ducks. Hope there are no more weasels & NO MINKS. Skunks I don't mess with, but aside from 'visiting' our hen house a few years back, they have not been a problem. I certainly don't want to smell those if I have to shoot at them!
I will have to google the ermine to remind myself & Fisher Cat -- never heard of. What did you use to shoot them? I have a 20gauge shot gun. Works on raccoons. Will it be too much for the smaller theifs?
Cheryl in Gate (really Rochester)
Hope you are able to eliminate the problem minks! I know what a hassle and chore that can be although not with mink but feral cats. Good luck!
Patch, I've removed various threats to our poultry in 6 years: 37 feral cats, 32 skunks, 4 marauding dogs, 1 coyote, 3 mink ... several of the Least Weasels .... aka .. Ermine. The little weasels probably can't hurt adult poultry but they try to catch the chicks and they are difficult to hit. I have had a 16 gauge Remington Model 1100 ... since I was a kid. We use a .22 caliber Crossman pump air pellet rifle on the pests or the shotgun. I learned how to build a mink trap today. I'll be putting several of them out of my misery before long and some more cats and skunks too.
PeaFowlAnjL, I know Rochester, Toledo well. I do busines in Lacey a couple times a year so we drive by Centralia. I'm from the West Side as a High Schooler. My best friend from HS days married a Mormon girl from there ... coincidentally ... her name is Cheryl.
Kelly in Moxee
Wrong Cheryl for sure. Don't think my x has set foot in a church without force & definitely not Mormom! Small world isn't it though?
I know what I saw was a Least Weasel. Don't want any of their kind round here, or their cousins regardless of how distantly related. Will the trap be big enough for raccoon?
Also, had something squeeze into a very small opening & take my Peafowl's egg's. Do you think any of 'these' kind would carry off a egg that size? Just to eat it right outside of mama's reach? It didn't take it far. I will be repairing the fencing (chicken wire) and make sure there is no way, no how anything can get back in or under; but just in case...... I certainly don't want the loose the last clutch she will lay this year.
Cheryl
PeaFowlAnjL... Cheryl,
I most emphatically believe a mink , least weasel or skunk would do precisely that! If you know what hardware cloth is .... then that is about the only wire-fencing material that will keep out weasels. Chicken wire keeps chickens inside but next to nothing out. If you have a hole .... 1.25 inches diameter a weasel can get in. They are small little animals.
I just woke up after like 4.5 hrs sleep and I feel like I slept 8 hours ..... 3 in the morning and I have a mild case of insomnia. I think I'll finish reading a novel I've been working on ... Hemingway's .... "The Sun also Rises". It is a slow read ... and by far ... not his best work. I'm no literary critic but I know what I like.
There is mink smell all around the house tonight. It is similar but less strong and not nearly as offensive as skunk smell ... so similar that most people would just assume it is a skunk. I've been assuming it for a several years. Talk about a slow learner.
I just got through reading an article written about the Range of the Least Weasel in Washington State. It states emphatically that the least Weasel does not inhabit the Columbia River Basin region .... WRONG. This little creek 75 ft from my house (really a drain) connects to the Yakima River ... which connects to the Columbia River. Kelly in Moxee
Uh oh! Wondering now if all the distant skunk I smell is mink. Will have to do some research & watch.
I have either 1/2" or 1/4" in hardware cloth. Inexpensive so I can get more if needed; however, seems to 'cheap' to keep much out. The 1/2" x 1" cage wire I have is not pliable.
Do you think the hardware cloth strong enough to stop them? How far up the chicken wire would you recommend? Will also go a few feet out the sides on the ground, then cover it well. Do these barbarians dig much? Would 1-2ft be enough? Thinking now I made too easy of a target. My poor babies. That means, that's what's getting the eggs I can't find. Will re-count the banties tomorrow. Know the rest of the birds are accounted for. BARBARIANS!
Thanks TONS for your help! Think you know all your predators, only to have a new one come along every year (last year it was the hawks!) Pea (Cheryl)
PeaFowlAnjL .... aka Cheryl,
You'll need hardware cloth over the entire perimeter. Weasels will climb six ft high to get over a fence. What this means is you need hardware cloth over the top of the chicken run too ... in addition to the fence ... & you'll need it underneath (on the floor of the chicken run) to prevent diggers from getting inside. The Least Weasel can kill a rabbit. Does that tell you how strong they are? A rabbit is 3-4 times larger than the Least Weasel ... sometime called a Stoat. That's a name I've never heard. Weasels are incredibly strong. A mink can kill a 10lb duck and probably 20 lb geese or 40 lb turkeys.
BAD news this morning. I was telling a neighbor about the mink rampage. He said that he saw a RACCOON a few days ago along our creek ... less than 1/4 mile away. We're in poultry hell if raccoons ever get a foothold here. I've talked to "oldtimers" in this area about raccoons. The unanimous opinion amongst the oldtimers is that there are no raccoons in Moxee. Things have a way of changing. I'll be getting rid of all my egg layers if the raccoons are around. My Toulouse Geese, Helmeted Guineas and Game Fowl would likely all survive but the rest would have to go or be wiped out. I can't see building a fortress just to keep egg laying chickens. We have about a 1.5 acre area for the flock ... I can't cover it or make it impossible for raccoon and mink to stay out. Kelly in Moxee
Jeez!
that is terrible! maybe you can kill it before it has babies!!! kill the female, the male will leave...
Please forgive me, I see I have my work cut out for me this weekend! I have another question for you. I still am wary of using the hardware cloth I believe are speaking of. I can literally pull the welds apart with my hand. I can take pix of what I think it is & post or d-mail you tomorrow. Or are you using wire that is coated with vinyl or something else? I figure if I can break weld easily while clamping together, anything else can pull or bite way through. Am I on the wrong track here??? So sorry, maybe cuz I am worried, I can't think right.
Get rid of the raccoon as soon as you can -- bad news there, babies really bad, cause they learn where to get easy food! They took quite a few of my flock last summer, reason I have only 3 large mutt chickens left. I thought they were roosting up high enough at 6ft up & did not totally enclose the pen. My banties are now 'well protected', Nothing can get to them; although the building really is an eyesore -- my son & I proudly built it!
Cheryl.... PeaFowlAnjL,
The hardware cloth you're referring to is of lesser strength. Some grades of hardware cloth will not break by hand. The weasels (mink, skunk, stoat) ... will not get through it. If you use 2X4's to create a wall and staple the hardware cloth to the 2X4"s.... the hardware cloth wire can be made rigid and into wall or fence sections. Just add sections of hardware cloth till you have the walls the size needed. You'll need an enclosure with hardware cloth on all 6 sides or boards. I've seen folks with chain link fences buried into cement footings to keep out fox, coyotes, raccoons, fisher, and badgers. Problem is the smaller weasel breeds (mink, stoat & martin) walk right in and kill as many as they want. Without a roof ... raccoons will climb any fence. Where you have 1 weasel type ... you probably have all of the others except perhaps WOLVERINE. I'd bet there are wolverine over near Randle, Longmire and Packwood around Mt Rainier Nat. Park .... whats that 50 miles from you?
I've got to post a photo of my hen house. It is a fortress to withstand weather related extremes and shelter... but the vermin ONLY need to get beyond my 5-6 ft tall welded or woven wire perimeter fence to walk into the hen house. Kelly in Moxee
Oh guess what someone told me today. we have a black panther, in OKLAHOMA. HMMMMMMMM In my area at the time my chickens just poofed. Supposedly this panther, killed a full grown mare, a few fawns, a few other things. And was spotted by a woman who let her little doggy out to potty and then back in and seen it in her yard. If I see something running around like that I would naturally think a black lab. Oh he/she is just the next road up to the south of me and covering about oh I would say 120 square miles. This panther has been seen as far south of me as 15 miles as the crow flies. I am getting a hand gun, I can't steady them long rifles. Just call me Ma baker or Annie Oaklie (sp?)
Luvs2garden
I grew up in OKLA. In a town called Wyandotte. In ottowa(sp) county. We saw many panthers in that area. The scream is awful. It really does sound like a women screaming. We lost quite a few calves to them we thought each year.
George
I don't know if they are still around now, but we also saw timber wolves also. That was about 25-30 years ago.
Kelly - Moxee, They are living in an old Costco dome carport type thing. I would prefer to not re-build, since they really like their space. It is open, yet totally enclosed & covered at one end. I have branches for roosts, and some fir boughs for hiding / cover; however, those now need to be replaced. The dome shape tends to work well for the Peacocks strutting. I will post a pix, mostly showing the inside. Hope it shows enough. Do you think clamping the cheap hardware cloth to the 2" chicken wire I have will hold up to critters? The 2" wire covers completely covers entire pen, except the floor. I will be correcting that immediately!
I may stop by the hardware and feed stores to see what they have tomorrow night. This is REALLY bothering me know. I will get them protected ASAP. Certainly don't want to bring in anymore fowl to feed to weasels or???
Thanks again
Pea
oh dear, PANTHER! hopefully she is after bigger game than your chicks, sounds like...
about the hardware cloth, i understand some thing slike coons can pull it off, so use LONG staples, then put trim over it...
In western states the Cougar is sparse. Human encroachment on their habitat has caused some problems ... a few well publicized deaths and near deaths are enough to keep most people adequately cautious. They mostly go after large mammals like deer or elk ... sheep ranchers have significant problems with cougars. The black color is very recessive ... single digit %. I've read that in southern NM the Jaguar is seen and along the Rio Grande River in TX (Big Bend Nat. Park). There are other large cats ... Lynx mostly in Canada and a several northern border states and the Bobcat. There are Bobcat just 10-25 miles away and Cougar 50 miles west in the Cascade Mountains. These large cats are shy and generally not seen by people ... probably a good thing.
The odd thing is that melanism is virtually unknown in cougars. There has been a lot of debate about what people are actually seeing as "black panthers".
The cougar is definitely not sparse in California and Colorado--there are increasing problems with cougar presence and attacks as we move into their habitat in the foothills. My son saw one in our very suburban neighborhood in the East Bay and they have even been reported in the Berkeley hills. As the suburban deer population increases and hunting has been limited there is very little disincentive for them to move in and challenge people. The juveniles and females that have young and limited experience with hunters are the most dangerous. And they are stealth predators so you usually don't know they are there until they drop on you from a ledge or tree. Their jaws are designed to quickly severe four legged prey's spinal cord--and they have a hard time with our big heads and short necks--makes for some nasty wounds.
This is a nice piece that discusses cougar presence and attacks--more a personal summary of current info than scientific study. http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html
When I was a kid I used to see Bobcat in our woods from time to time. Unfortunately, I haven't seen them for years now.
I live just a few miles from the Daniel Boone national forest. Our place is 100 wooded acres and are surrounded by other people with large acreage. We have bobcat, mountain lions(not sure what they really are called), black bear and lots of deer and now elk. There are also lots of game birds(turkey,grouse,quail Etc.) I get very nervous and bring all my stock close to the house during spring and winter. In the summer I don't worry so much, but when the bears first come out and critters are hungry in the winter I keep animals in their more protected enclosures and a gun close. Since adding to my hound population I feel so much more safer. The biggest problem we have here are feral dogs and stupid people who raise wolf hybrids and let them get away from them and into our wild. We have numerous articles of these attacking humans and stock.
George
Sorry Kelly - Moxee. When I first read your response, I must have been really tired. I read as I had to re-build the whole house! I now see correctly! I did talk with the 'old-timer' at the feed store today. Have a really good idea of how i will be correcting the problem this weekend. Kind-of forces me to get the other 'home' done & done right.
tf, do you think hog wires (think that is what they are called) will work? No sign that anything is undoing what i have going on, so I don't think the raccoons are even interested at trying to get in.
About 5 years ago, I woke up to let the chickens out to come within about 50 yards of a bobcat staring at me. Boy was I surprised. So were the hunters I asked, as they knew they were here; but couldn't find them. True to what I was told, I never saw it again!
Yes, I am near Randle, Packwood. Not sure how many miles, may be over 50. Better keep my rifle & shot gun at the ready & get the live trap back out. DANG! I wanted to get more peachicks this summer to build back up.
Please do post a pix of your fortress Photograper. I would love to see it. I may need to build one, as I will not get rid of any of my fowl.
Off to find all the parts for my makeshift 'fortress'.
Cheryl
hogwire is storng, but then put 1 inch or smaller chicken wire over it because the holes are too big...