Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 26, 2011 17:46:10 GMT -5
Just a Warning. Semi- Graphic photos at the bottom of this post! Do not look if you don't care do see scenes of death.
This post is just to remind folks not to make the same mistakes I have made and become complacent about Nature's being a benign force. Probably you folks are already aware of this but agriculture is filled with lots of harsh lessons about how relatively powerless we are to withstand the elements. Most folks are isolated from these truths.
Two days ago I went out in the morning to do my chores. Almost instantly noticed how unusually quiet it was. After feeding the cows and the dog and cat I went over to the chicken house to change their water and check on them. As I approached I knew something was wrong as I couldn't hear anything. Total silence and a flock of chickens just doesn't happen, even in the middle of the night.
So I was somewhat prepared for what I saw when I opened the door. As far as I can tell, the night before a mink got into the house and killed every single bird. I am fairly certain that it was a mink based on that most of them only had wounds at the neck other than two that had their heads completely removed. Those two were in the attached mini-greenhouse with their heads pulled down into holes dug under the greenhouse wall. The holes were about three inches wide so about the only thing that could get through would be a rat or a mink, and I don't think a rat would be strong enough to drag that many hens from the chicken house into the greenhouse through the little hatch that connects them. Whatever it was managed to pull seven of them through. It kind of astonishes me that a mink could do it.
So we are suddenly without any chickens. 20 hens and a rooster gone in one night. The chicken house is just 30 feet from our house. I'm sure in the summer I'd have heard something, but with the storm windows on and our winter curtains up and a rainstorm, I didn't hear a thing. Neither did our dog apparently, although he sleeps indoors this time of year. Pretty appalling loss of time and energy. Especially as I was complacently confident that they were all locked safely away for the winter. In my homestead reading I feel like I've run across mentions that mink are capable of this kind of thing. I guess I didn't take it seriously enough. Hope this is a good lesson to anybody who has wild mink in their area.
Pics posted below. Be advised that they are images of dead animals in case you don't care for that kind of thing.
This post is just to remind folks not to make the same mistakes I have made and become complacent about Nature's being a benign force. Probably you folks are already aware of this but agriculture is filled with lots of harsh lessons about how relatively powerless we are to withstand the elements. Most folks are isolated from these truths.
Two days ago I went out in the morning to do my chores. Almost instantly noticed how unusually quiet it was. After feeding the cows and the dog and cat I went over to the chicken house to change their water and check on them. As I approached I knew something was wrong as I couldn't hear anything. Total silence and a flock of chickens just doesn't happen, even in the middle of the night.
So I was somewhat prepared for what I saw when I opened the door. As far as I can tell, the night before a mink got into the house and killed every single bird. I am fairly certain that it was a mink based on that most of them only had wounds at the neck other than two that had their heads completely removed. Those two were in the attached mini-greenhouse with their heads pulled down into holes dug under the greenhouse wall. The holes were about three inches wide so about the only thing that could get through would be a rat or a mink, and I don't think a rat would be strong enough to drag that many hens from the chicken house into the greenhouse through the little hatch that connects them. Whatever it was managed to pull seven of them through. It kind of astonishes me that a mink could do it.
So we are suddenly without any chickens. 20 hens and a rooster gone in one night. The chicken house is just 30 feet from our house. I'm sure in the summer I'd have heard something, but with the storm windows on and our winter curtains up and a rainstorm, I didn't hear a thing. Neither did our dog apparently, although he sleeps indoors this time of year. Pretty appalling loss of time and energy. Especially as I was complacently confident that they were all locked safely away for the winter. In my homestead reading I feel like I've run across mentions that mink are capable of this kind of thing. I guess I didn't take it seriously enough. Hope this is a good lesson to anybody who has wild mink in their area.
Pics posted below. Be advised that they are images of dead animals in case you don't care for that kind of thing.
