What Jim said...

My original thought was : 'How did you first prove it was a weasel ?"
Norway (now in many places called the 'Brown' ) rats often kill just like a weasel or mink does, a bite to the neck and or head.
I have trapped for many poultry farmers and also nearly two decades for pheasant and quail farms and more often than not, the culprit killing birds was a Norway Rat !

The culprit turned out to be a large buck mink. Caught it in a 120 with a pan. Guy had overlooked a hole in the floor because it was covered over with straw and debris. I was always assuming it was a weasel, but as I stated earlier, that was only because that's what the home owner was told it was. I never found any sign because of all the chicken scratching's and cat tracks everywhere. I did catch a brown rat at one of the holes in the barn, but that was before the last killing spree where 14-15 chickens were killed in one night. The last hole was found after the guy had installed the last batch of hardware cloth. I've left the trap set incase there's another mink. Which leads me to my next question. Do buck mink stay with a female once she's ready to or already has had her babies? I've been told no they don't, but would like to hear from you guys on the subject.

We have had many poultry and game bird operations get hit by mink. They can do some bad damage over nite. They just kill for fun many times it seems as they don't always eat what they kill. Just get a taste for blood and fun. Coyotes often have the same killing behavior.









Coyote (s) came in and killed 5 lambs mostly for exercise and amusement. Ate out some brain/skull and face tissue on one, carried one lamb off and let the others lie where they died. Some of these predators are stone cold killers just because they can at times.

Yeah the last batch was killed (14-15) and not a single one was eaten on. The next night one chicken was killed and it was eaten to the kraal. That's when I found its entry point and put the 120 there, protected with hardware cloth so the chickens couldn't get into the trap. Just got back and had another rat in a zero jump trap. I used the jumps because I can actually put them down inside the hole. Nothing has tried to go through the 120 for 3 or 4 days so I informed the homeowner that I would remove traps this weekend. Once I pull all the traps I will go in and thoroughly inspect the coop and cover any holes I might find. I guess you could say I dropped the ball by assuming the guys she had working for her would have been more thorough in the efforts to seal up all the holes. On the plus side the place is only 3 or 4 miles from my house so I haven't spent a lot of money on gas.
Could anyone tell me if male mink stay with the female and help raise the young or do they go about their merry bachelor way?

Female mink have delayed implantation, the male is not hanging out with her for those 3 or 4 months till she gives birth.

Mr. Jameson, we got called in once for some pen kept deer that had been attacked. Couple does were killed and a couple others chewed on, as well as the big buck. Turned out to be dogs from down the road that the owner turned loose every morning before he went to work. The deer breeder thought it was coyotes, but the large tracks and hair in the fence where they dug under all pointed to dogs. Game warden and dog warden were called in and the next day they found the dogs less than a mile down the road running loose, none were tagged either.
I forgot to ask the homeowner where she got the information about the male sticking around with the female, but everyone else I've asked about it says the male has nothing at all to do with the female once he's bred her.

Certainly dogs can cause some problems with live stock at times. An unskilled individual may have a difficult time in distinguishing between dog kills or maiming or coyote kills. I have had a couple that could have been either species years back. The more recent kills were coyotes on the lamb pasture killing spree. Caught a wet female and an older dog coyote there. Both had some wool in their stomachs. Head, face and organ feeding usually points to coyotes in most cases. As does the skull and neck bite wounds.

The deer kills were exactly that, kills. No feeding on any of them. The tracks in the mud were the leading identifier. That and the hair in the fence crawl under.