Mink kills ducks, geese and Marge
(hen), but we get the Mink!
On the
18th September, in broad daylight, a mink
enter the pond area, via the drainage pipe and attacked and killed
the goose with no name. This is a goose that had
developed into a beautiful looking bird and also had become the leader of
the
goose and duck entourage. She probably died trying to defend
the others.
The next day the poor
ducks and Curtsy (other goose) did not enter the pond and Curtsy kept a fixed eye on
the spinney throughout most of the day. I bought
Jasmine
into the pond area and
through her sniffing traced how the mink had got in and its movements.
Jasmine
immediately went to the
outflow drainage
pipe and traced a track around the duck hut and back to the bridge -
where
I had found bloodstains. The goose's body was in the pond
nearby -
with its head and neck eaten away. Jasmine
then continued sniffing into the spinney. However she didn't
find anything - so I assumed that the mink had returned the way it came in.
I placed
chicken wire either side of the drainage pipe.
During
the last weekend in October we left our
farm to attend Laura's wedding in Spalding, U.K. A neighbour
was left
in charge of caring for the animals and as we hadn't caught the mink we
thought it might be a good idea to place the ducks and goose in one of
our vacant rabbit enclosures. On our return we found that an
animal had got in
and killed Curtsey, our goose and there was also a duck missing.
Twice we have come close to catching it - the last time it
left a scrapping of beige
fur on the trap door - making us believe that it was a stoat (I now
believe it was a neighbours beige cat). The hole
was too small for a fox and most mink are either brown or black.
The
ducks have been returned to the pond area but have never entered the
pond
since the first goose was killed.
During the first week in January, while I was in St Vincent's hospital,
the three remaining ducks were killed by a mink. I set the
trap near the duck pond but never caught anything.
On the 28th January something got into the hen house, through a small
hole, on a lifting flap. It attacked one of the cockerels
which managed to survive, although suffering bites near his head and
shoulder. It then attacked
Marge. My mother opened
the hen house door shortly afterwards, after hearing the commotion.
Hens shot out around, under and over my mother. We
found that the animal had tried to pull Marge through the small hole.
As Marge's body was four times larger than the hole it didn't
have much
success. I removed the old wooden lifting flaps and concreted
blocks in their place - leaving only the door as the entrance.
I also set up the trap in the hen enclosure. The
next morning we found a black mink trapped in it. It was very
ferocious and would throw itself at the bars if my hand came anywhere
near the trap handle. It hissed and also made a shrill
growling noise. It scared me never mind the ducks, geese and
chickens. An hour later I got our neighbour to shoot it.
All our neighbours are farmers and with the lambing season
starting they were very pleased that there was one mink less.
Two years ago a mink killed eight lambs in one night
on a nearby farm.
