MINK!!!!

[shane]

I was at our sink this morning at bout 9.30am, I noticed a bit of a commotion in our duck pen, with our 14 one week old muscovy ducklings and mama duck, I went out to see what all fuss was about. mama as flapping around mad, babies very agitated, when I saw the mink and noticed the dead chick. I ran and got a garden fork but couldn't kebab the dirty thing. I found the smallest of holes in the back wall of the pen where it got in, I bloked it up. over the next hour and a half it came back 7 times, it actually ran past me trying to get in to the pen!!! I came within millimetres of a direct hit with the fork, but in the end it was swallows that have a nest nearby who divebombed and chased it off. I couldnt get a mink trap so I have buried a pipe about 3 foot into the ground, put the dead chik and some fish into it, the thinking behind this is that the mink goes in for an easy meal but cant get out, in theory anyway. half expecting a massacre in the morning, but praying otherwise. anyone out there know of a foolproof way of getting rid of the f@*$£r??

[shane]

just brought mama and babies indoors, they will live in our downstairs shower until i can catch the mink. I dont mind a fox to much, I can fence off a pen to keep them out, but a mink will always get in!!!

[Millymollymandy]

I hope you catch it. In the meantime I shall think of you having a shower.......

[Jandra]

Goodness, mink. Are they native in Ireland or escapees from the fur industry? I'd guess that any Dutch mink would be escapees...

Hope you manage to keep your livestock safe.

Jandra

[Ellendra]

If you can find a large rat trap it may work, some rats can eventually grow bigger than mink.

Other than that, just keep nailing shut the openings it finds. A BB gun might also work.

[Andy Hamilton]

American Mink have found their way into the wild in Europe (including Great Britain) and South America, after being released from mink farms by animal rights activists. American Mink are believed by some to have contributed to the decline of the less hardy European mink through competition. Trapping is used to control and eliminate any feral American Mink.

From good old wikidepedia

[shane]

Ireland have no native mink, feral escapees from farms or released by anti fur groups. we have stoats and pine martins, but they tend to stick to wildlife for dinners, so have had no problems with them. got a trap today and have it set, had to run out a few times to chase off local stray cats trying to get the mackeral i have in it as bait. Will put down rat taps also, never thought of them, thanks!! back hall where downstairs shower is is STINKING!!!

[Shirley]

We've got mink around here too but they are hopefully being managed by the keepers.

[DrSlippers]

I've spotted a few on my local canal in Blackburn, Lancs, a family of mink devouring a swan on one occasion!
I hope they don't come near my chickens; it's bad enough that they are preying on our rare water mammals.

I thought this was an otter, when I saw it on the ice, earlier this year, but soon realised it was a feral mink. I tightened my security now.

[shane]

I got myself a mink trap, and caught it last Sunday!! you can tell the difference between a mink and and otter fairly simply - a mink will swim with his tail up out of the water, an otter will have its tail in the water. out of the water a mink will look very slim and sleek, and if you get close enough (not advised - they will go for you) they stink!!

[oldfella]

Hope you look good in a mink Davy Crocket Hat, glad you caught the perishing thing, now you don't have to shower with ducks

[MKG]

I'd keep 'em in the shower for a little longer, and leave the trap out - what are the chances of a lone mink at this time of year?

[shane]

this was the first time we had any trouble with mink, but just to be sure i bought a can of expaning foam ( not the most env friendly I know ) and filled in any gaps in walls and fence more than 2 inch diamater. completely mink proof!!! I hope. trap set just in case anyway, nothing in over a week, it could have been a passing male looking for a new territory.

[Odsox]

Had the same problem yesterday ... my 3 hens are no more !!

Like you I heard a commotion about 6 o'clock last evening and found a severely wounded chicken in the run with the other two very frightened.
I shut the survivors up in their house and returned half an hour later to find them all dead with their throats ripped out.

I was stunned as I thought the house was predator proof, built out of concrete blocks with galvanised tin roof. The only way in I discovered is up the corrugations under the roof ... a gap of about 2 inches.
So that's it ... I give up. This is the 3rd lot of hens I've 'lost' this year, although the other 2 lots were entirely my fault. I have a medical condition that makes me very forgetful and the previous 2 lots I just plain forgot to shut up one night and (I think) the fox got them. This time I had technology on my side and programmed the alarm on my mobile phone to remind me to feed them and shut them up, and up until now it worked very well. But all the while I have mink around the only way to keep chicken alive is to virtually seal their shed and never let them out ... or build an ark which would probably turn out to be just as vulnerable.

[Esther.R]

I lost three out of four chickens last year to a feral ferret (no mink on Shetland but lots of feral ferrets) which squeezed through a 1" gap in the hen house. We have kept ferrets ourselves in the past, and basically the only way to make a hen house ferret/mink proof is the same way as to make one to keep them in - it has to practically be hemetically sealed as anywhere their head can go their body will follow, so all gaps have to be sealed. Am hoping we don't get a repeat performance this autumn (autumn is the worst time round here as the young ferrets have left home and are looking for new territory and an easy meal).

its awful when you lose them like that.

Mind you it just fed my chicken obsession - last year I had 4.....now I have 12