Yes. Miserably the night before last the ducks were attacked. When I went out for chores I found two dead and three injured. All head injuries. The night before last. Classic mink. I hate the bastard mink. I know to lose a few ducks is nothing in comparison to world events but this is a farm journal blog. It was a blow.
My original idea had been to have the ducks live in the stock trailer at night. I should have known better than to leave them in the barn that long. But the bastard mink has never hunted in the barn that I know of. So I have shifted the ducks into the old stock trailer for might-times. The stock trailer is my best solution but I am not entirely convinced that a mink cannot get in either. Can they jump straight up a tin side – like cats?
They do jump – but mainly hunt on the ground. And usually they live alone. Except maybe the spring. Was it spring when I had the last troubles?
So last evening BooBoo and I and terrorized every burrow we saw along the ditch and took extra night walks late. I slept with the windows open.
The ducks slept in the stock trailer and Boo and I were ready to go hunting at the first sound of a disturbance. Boo knows what I am hunting – we have done this before. Sometimes a lot of harassment and smelly trampling along their tracks will make a predator wary – maybe even move them downstream. 
But sometimes we need to hunt. A knowledge as old as methuselah. A farmers knowledge.
I hate the bloody bastard mink. So when I heard the screeching of the chickens, who I had locked down as tight as ever last night, Boo and I were out that door and streaking across the field to the hen house before I was even fully conscious. Bare legs in gumboots and nightie, hair flying, dragging on the first warmie that came to hand – one of Johns hoodies.
I heaved the chook house door open, banged on the light and saw a black shape dart across the floor, a dying chicken at my feet and I hissed. My kill it command sounds like a hissy kss kss. Like a snake. Kss Kss. Angry. kss kss.
Boo sprang forward at that command grabbing at the mink who screamed then darted under the layers box. I got my stick and began poking at it to bring it back out from under there and within reach – it screamed at us again and tried to escape but Boo got it and killed it. The room filled with its stink and the chickens were a mob of screeching and Ton was barking from outside and Boo made not one sound as he finished it off fast. I commanded him to kill it three times to be sure. It was dead.
Two dead chickens – a white layer and a dead rooster. He was a big mink and had worked fast because it had to have been only thirty seconds from start to finish. 
I disposed of the body, checked all the corners and watched the chooks until they were quiet again- I locked the hen house up again, checked the ducks – they were agitated but all ok, then cleaned up and went back to bed, the window still open – jumping at every sound.
Boo stayed out most of the night.
I wonder if that will do it. We will stay on high alert for a while yet, Boo and I. Gory I know but my job is to protect my flock and I have trained Boo as my right arm in this determination. And last night we did what had to be done. Minks are nasty senseless killers. Boo was extraordinary in that he waited for the command to kill then leapt through the throng of scattering birds and grabbed only the predator.
One down. I cannot pretend not to feel a certain satisfaction.
However – ( big breath) on another note entirely – Harold ( the organic farmer who is taking over the swamp – he also has a mill where he and his team grind the grains into flour – I will tell you more about that tomorrow) well he and I went down to a new local restaurant yesterday morning for a cup of coffee. They are not fully open yet just doing a very sensible soft opening with breakfasts and I talked to the woman who is owner/managing the brand new kitchen and she HATES wasting kitchen scraps so she has agreed to put them outside for me to pick up and feed to the pigs. I set it all up last night.
So every morning John will drive down the road in the cooking oil car – it is only a few miles – taking the clean buckets with him then he will exchange them for full buckets of pigs breakfast food. All outside. He does not even have to set foot in the kitchen. Though I am willing to bet he will wander in for a coffee every now and then.
She even gave me kitchen scraps she had collected already. Once home WaiWai snuck up on me while I was sorting the feeds out and ran off with a huge pancake. She reckons she will fill two buckets a day this is an extraordinary saving.
Harold set me up with the purge flour I told you about before, the wheat screenings ( basically everything left over after they clean the seeds) and some black beans that I will experiment with sprouting.
So the pigs and the cows ate well last night.
What started out with the bad ended up with the good. ( anyone new to the blog would look at that picture, above, and wonder what the heck that was all about).
Hopefully after last night my birds are a little safer – I also wonder sometimes if a mink would take a piglet when they are sleeping under the heat lamp away from their mother. They are much much smaller than a twenty pound duck. I don’t know.
Ok. Now I will go out onto the farm and begin again and hope things are still ok out there after last nights attack – let’s hope.
I will update you in the comments.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
83 responses to “BASTARD MINK”
Foxes and mink are all of a piece; senseless destruction of life, rather than killing to eat. Well done Boo, and I can’t believe the speed you reacted at to catch the bastard mink. Great news about the scraps from the local restaurant; I used to do something similar in NSW, but ended up picking out the over-salted fries and great greasy dollops of mayo which I didn’t want to feed to my chooks – not such a good class of eatery!
This cook only uses what she makes herself and delightfully does not even have a deep frier. Bonus right?
Perfect! And good that her buckets contain identifiable ‘proper’ ingredients.
And here we must add in Coyotes! Nasty creatures!
I feel grateful that I have not had trouble yet with our coyotes – though Boo was in such a mood last night he decided to take on some yipping coyotes too – that’s when I told him “ enough now Boo – off to bed with you”
I’m glad you don’t have trouble with them. I have them even in my yard at night. Grrrr
You have the damnable mink and we have raccoon attacks. Our barn is old, which houses our chickens. One day we will build a new chook house, but for now we use what we have. We kill like you, in the event of an attack, but we also take preventative measures by trapping and relocating raccoons. We haul them 20 miles away. This is prime time of year for attacks, coming out of winter torpor and being hungry and all… mating. Doing battle isn’t pleasant, but it’s part of protecting your flock and being a good steward of the animals. I could feel my adrenaline rush as a read your story. I know all too well this unpleasant part of keeping fowl.
we only had maybe 5 backyard chickens when we lived in the Portland OR metro area. But we had to battle those damn raccoons too. We would trap them and relocate them also. Nasty devils…not cute at all!
I have racoons here but no trouble yet. I think they are more afraid of the dogs
I too am now looking for a way to lock the ducks down even more securely- like you my big leaky barn is not the best
Those raccoons will respect you a lot more if you start to kill and eat them rather than simply live trapping… The meat is incredibly tender – very pork-like in appearance and tastes amazing.
Even when they are a bit gory, I love your descriptions of things. The imagery and descriptive writing you weave is so enjoyable to read.
Also, the kitchen scraps look just beautiful. I too hate wasting food. Seeing it added to a healthy compost heap or given to appreciative creatures makes me so much happier. And I am sure WaiWai the pancake absconder agrees. 😉
Wasn’t that funny / I barely glimpsed that pancake before he whipped in and raced off with it
lol, so much for his eyesight; )
What an awful night? Why do minks kill, if not to eat? Senseless is right. I can’t believe the owner of the restaurant will collect two buckets of wasted food. Sad, but true lucky for you : )
Isn’t it great. And once Jakes restaurant comes online we will be in good shape for pig food
I remember an old tale about leaving the dead body out as a warning to other critters but that is a bit gory and stinky! I’m trying to figure out how to grow some seeds from a good pepper plant I had last year. All winter we had great pickled hot peppers to add to our meals. Morning miss c… 🙂
Did you save the seeds? Saving seeds is the way to go
Didn’t save seeds but did dry a bunch of the peppers to grind up (which I haven’t done yet) so I guess I can gut them and do that?
Yes! Perfect. Just put some gloves on – release a few seeds and pop them in a pot of soil. Perfect.
I’m sorry to read of the return of the murdering Bastard Mink & I am glad that this one will kill no more. I hate to say it but I think those open slats in the stock trailer are not too high for the enemy mink to enter. I sure hope I am wrong about that. The good news of the new restaurant & its overflowing bounty is welcome & it may become John’s regular coffee break too.
I tried to post yesterday to tell you all that the bears have come out of hibernation, Mama & 2 big half grown cubs visiting me on the first day of spring — in my fenced back yard. I watched them get over it down the back corner. At least you & Sheila won’t meet any bears up there in Illinois I hope. WordPress wouldn’t let me post. I hope they will today. Let’s see.
Bears! How exciting and bringing her cubs into your backyard – how naughty!! No bears here thankfully but how exciting for you to see your bears from the safety ( I presume) of your house!
Oh, so sorry about your attack on your birds, how awful. Glad you have Boo. My nemesis is a Red Tailed Hawk that figured out how to get through my net cover on the pullet pen and get two Javas. I then covered it with fence wire and it somehow got in that and killed a third Java and couldn’t get out. My girls were hunkered down under the coop, I didn’t dare go in because that part of the run is only 4 ft and I didn’t want a frightened hawk after me. Finally chased it out. I should have kept a couple of my old hens to teach these younguns to follow me home when necessary. They are almost 21 weeks old and I still can’t free range them because they don’t come to me. When the shrubs have leaves and they have cover, they will get to roam. When your predator is a protected bird, you can’t remove the predator. Life on the farm.
Yes. We must protect hawks but your poor chicks. I saw someone string wire in random ways above the Coop netting and the reflections confused the hawk. You can also hang shiny dvds the shiny disks reflect light and confuse the birds too. Or bells. Anything that moves and reflects light. Hopefully this would train the hawk to distrust the area. However – once the predator has found the lunch bar then we are in trouble. As I am.
Someone once told me to use camouflage netting over the top of my chook pen because hawks can’t see through it. I didn’t go there because a) my pen was huge and b) I was nowhere near an army surplus store, but it might work…?
What a champion you have in Boo! I hope for calm for some time ahead and nothing else lurking in the night. And to have good news and food savings on the other side of this horror…perfect!
The good with the bad – aye
Celie & Boo 1 – Mink 0 👍.
Sad about the ducks. Will you be able to increase duckling order? Let’s hope they and the skunk clear off soon. Waiting to hear more about Harold and his crops on the farmy. Laura
Well – mink 5 actually – but yes – hopefully that is all – we will see
Celi, am I correct in assuming that if the mink dispatched all with head wounds, then they’d be safe to dress for the freezer/table?
Well – yes that is true but I would never eaten anything killed by a predator. It feels wrong on a number of levels. I don’t know.
“Waste not, want not” as my GranMa said.
(At least that way they didn’t totally die in vain, yes? :/)
Sounds like an eventful evening. I enjoy reading about your life on the farm. It may have been gory, but I’m glad to hear your fowl will be safe from one more preditor.
One down.
Good boy.
Yes – good boy BooBoo
It was spring the last time. And I always call them Bastard Mink, in your honor, ever since then. Good for you and Boo for getting one.
Ah – I thought so – thank you – spring is a tricky season
Missed this yesterday- had to look up Friday to see what happened- I assumed it was theBastard Mink. Horrible! Good boy Boo! I don’t have any chickens but have a bird feeder – have a problem with hawks swooping down and getting birds that feed on the ground- doves and once a cardinal. I will have to take down the feeder for awhile when the snow melts because of bears. Here in rural Michigan I ave heard of owls getting ducks and chickens and even pets. Coyotes are a big problem here- I never let my cat outside at night! Hopefully the mink was the only one. So happy that your farm animals are getting all that “tasty” waste!! In the winter I take it out for the wild creatures in back- no minks though!
I always heard that the three S’s are the way to handle protected predators…. Shoot, Shovel and Shhhhh. I don’t know if this is true…Jus’ sayin.
Mink are not protected- they farm them.
When we lived in Mt Shasta CA we always said “Shoot, shovel and shut up!”
I am putting this body back down his own burrow- it is worth a try to discourage others
Around here it is quite legal to dispatch predators who prey upon farmer’s livestock. Is it the same down there in Illinois Celi?
So sorry to hear about the return of the mink. You and Boo did a good job! We had problems with raccoons and mink when we had layer hens and also meat birds. We haven’t had any of those for awhile. So glad Boo is well trained!
He does excellent in this area – there is always a worry when I command him to hunt that he will go for the birds – so far so good
Horrible experience, but good for you and Boo for being ready to do battle and WIN! I’m sorry about your chickens and ducks. I know real life involves honest living and dying but somehow a sneaky mink whose instinct is just to kill is so strange. I think the food scraps from the new restaurant sound fantastic! And I can’t wait to hear more about your grain guy. I’d forgotten all about that. Brilliant writing today. Hope today is filled with better news.
Cats certainly get a lot of fun out of killing but usually they eat their prey. And when they don’t they leave it on the doormat!!
Oh yuck!! Yeah, there’s pretty much nothing more disgusting than stepping on a cold gall bladder in bare feet, first thing in the morning:/)