Minnie the Mink caught in the act

Posted: Wednesday February 3, 2010 by Debbie in Eggs Matter

Not a great start to Pauline’s day one day a couple of weeks ago.

‘I knew something was up when I went up to let the hens out because it was unusually quiet,’ says Pauline. ‘No clucking or scuffling about – and then I saw hen bodies scattered all over the run. Luckily, the kids weren’t around.’

When she went into the run she discovered 9 of her 13 birds dead. ‘I assumed it was a fox and began to gather up the dead hens but then we noticed something odd. They were more or less intact with injuries mainly around the head area and several of them were tucked under the hut, with their heads underneath. I went to pull one out and suddenly, this little face appeared. It looked just like a puppy – a little dark face with a black nose. It was a mink!’

It had dragged some of its catch under the hut and was still hanging onto one of the birds as Pauline tried to retrieve it. Eventually, realising today’s breakfast had been ruined, the mink gave up its catch, dashed out from under the henhouse and ran off to hide somewhere in the run. And yet, in the midst of all this uproar, Pauline had the presence of mind to take a photo of it for our benefit.

‘It was bigger than I imagined – like a big cat. It must have climbed the fence,’ Pauline says. ‘There are no signs of digging around the perimeter and no holes so that’s the only way it could’ve got in.’

Mink are mostly nocturnal or active at dusk. Established throughout the UK as a result of escapes or deliberate introductions, they were brought here in the 1920s for fur farming. They have had a significant impact on native wildlife, especially water voles, sea birds and domestic fowl and fish.

Pauline and friends set about gathering up the four remaining, somewhat flustered hens. A call to Environmental Health advised her to set a humane trap, which they would provide, since it’s an offence to release or allow the escape of mink into the wild. If it does return and makes its way into the trap, Pauline must feed it and keep it happy until Environmental Health come to take it away.

‘My kids are very excited at the idea of a mink coming to stay and they rush out to check the trap when they get in from school. But I can’t say that I’m looking forward to nurturing something that’s just killed most of my hens,’ says Pauline brightly, through gritted teeth. Watch this space for what to do if the crittur ever returns and makes into the trap…