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Minkenry

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Everything posted by Minkenry

  1. Minkenry
    Today I took Thioⁿbasabe' fishing in a stream near my friend's house. He has seen some fish in a pool in the stream, and wanted to see if she could catch them. She jumped in and caught the fish by surprise. She nailed one of the fish so quickly and easily that I just gave her a chunk of meat, and then called "Here here here!" where I saw another fish hiding. She was full of energy, and more than happy to go for a second fish! She went in and chased it around, lost it, chased it again lost it again. Then after searching for a little while she found another fish trying to hide in some rocks and
  2. Minkenry
    Thanks :-)
  3. Minkenry
    We've been looking for muskrat in the canal by my house, but no luck yet. I've been waiting for them to drain this irrigation canal, which they just did last week. They fill the canal in the spring, then drain the water off in the fall, It drains down so that there are dry spots in some parts of the canal, and pools of water in other places. In the summer these canals are FULL of muskrat, but the water is cloudy and about chest high, so it's difficult to catch any muskrats in them while they are full. My hope was to catch the muskrats when they are left vulnerable just after the water is drain
  4. Minkenry
    Yeah, but I know the guys. If I didn't they wouldn't sell them to me for any price. But since we are buddies they usually cut me a deal.
  5. Minkenry
    It depends. My GIANT male cost me $250, and I've bought babies for as little as $30.
  6. Minkenry
    Oh yeah. You can't be around mink very long without getting bit! I've had them bite me to the bone! Last summer I got a new mink that was a full on adult, and a few weeks after getting her I started going gloveless, and then one day, WAM! She bit me so hard I heard her canines scraping the bone in my thumb! Last January I bought this GIANT male mink that weighed over 2000 grams LEAN WEIGHT, and with a completely empty digestive system! He wasn't just big, he was SUPER aggressive! I named him Moⁿchushage which means "Bear Claw" in the Omaha Native American language. I was of course wearing
  7. Minkenry
    So the last couple day's I've taken the time to reinforce Thioⁿba's caching training. Since she was having issues with caching in that tree, I stopped hunting for a few days, and went back to caching training. She was doing good, so I took her hunting last night didn't have any luck at all. We were hunting in a chicken coop with a wood shed near it, and we saw a couple rats run out, but they escaped her. One ran down a hole she couldn't fit down, and the other run up into the engine of an old car on cinder blocks. She ran around in the car engine for quite a while, but she couldn't get to the
  8. Minkenry
    Yeah, I bred my first litter last year. It was a nice learning experience, but I'm not in too big of a hurry to breed again. Maybe in a few years I'll try again, but this time I'll be breeding for a purpose, instead of just breeding to breed like I did last time.
  9. Minkenry
    Wow, thank you very much
  10. Minkenry
    I took Thioⁿba back to the chicken coop, hoping we wouldn't have a repeat of this morning. She went straight in the same rotted out hollow tree, and I noticed something I hadn't really been paying attention to before. I now know part of why she has such a ridiculously good hunting average, and also why she has been catching rats so quickly. Unlike the other mink I've seen, Thioⁿba actually stalks her prey like a cat. Instead of just rushing into a burrow that smells like it has rats in it, she creeps in ever so slowly and quietly. Like a cat stalking a bird, she creeps slowly, carefully taking
  11. Minkenry
    When I first got to the chicken coop this morning, I released Thioⁿba and she wandered around for a while, with out any luck finding a rat. The rats had apparently moved to a different area in the coop, for fear of the mink that had been walking in and killing them off one by one. As time went on and Thioⁿba continued to unsuccessfully search for a rat, I began to worry that she might get bored and turn on one of the chickens or turkeys who have been growing increasingly curious of her. I started shooing the chickens out into their run, so they wouldn't be such a temptation for her. Finally T
  12. Minkenry
    We caught rat #6 today. This morning I didn't go hunting because Thioⁿba was a little too heavy from her day off (I don't work my animals on Sunday for religious reasons). She weighed in at 880 grams. Last time I hunted with her at 860, she cached, but was a little hesitant because her food drive was a little too low. I could tell she was contemplating whether she should cache her rat, or just leave it and go for another. I did't want to risk her having the same temptation, especially since she was 20 grams heavier than the last time, so instead of hunting with her, I took her to a stream ne
  13. Minkenry

    Help Please

    Minkenry replied to Barky's topic in Falconry

    Any updates on how your bird is doing?
  14. Minkenry

    German Goshawk

    Minkenry replied to rickardo's topic in Falconry

    That's what my question is. How do you get a close enough slip for an accipiter to take a corvid? The only member of the crow family that I can think of that will let you any were near them are magpies. Does your hawk fly long slips like a merlin where they sneak up close to their prey by hugging the ground as they fly, and using obstacles to hide their approach? If so, that's pretty cool, because I've never heard of anyone flying an accipiter like this. I've seen wild accipiters do this, but in falconry I've only heard of merlins and other small falcons being flown on slips like that.
  15. Minkenry
    Here's a few more you may enjoy.... http://youtu.be/WnrDEzo1B5k This isn't much of a hunting video, as my mink just walks in and grabs the rat. I think this video is interesting because it shows her ignoring chickens while hunting for rats. THAT took some training to accomplish! Here's one of my big males going for a carp in a small stream....
  16. Minkenry
    I find most falconers get a kick out of the sport I've invented, so I thought I would share it with you guys. I was originally invited to join this group by someone on the ferreting side of this website, and I've been posting messages over in the ferreting messages for a while now. But since I'm a falconer at heart I wandered over here, and thought I'd introduce myself and the sport I've created to you guys. I used to be a falconer a few years back, but over the last few years I've been too wrapped up in my own little sport that I've been too busy to fly a bird. I still have a deep love of
  17. Minkenry

    German Goshawk

    Minkenry replied to rickardo's topic in Falconry

    Quick question. I'm from America, so I don't know too much about how you guys do things. How do you guys hunt corvids with an accipiter? Do you guys car hawk like we do here in America, or do you have some other method you use to get a close enough slip?
  18. Minkenry

    Help Please

    Minkenry replied to Barky's topic in Falconry

    Have you had the vet check her mutes for internal parasites? Have you checked that her castings are normal and that she hasn't thrown up any meat? What do her mutes look like?
  19. Minkenry
    Here's the story behind Thioⁿba's 5th rat. About 11:30 this afternoon my friend Cade and I took Thioⁿba to go hunt rock squirrels were she had caught her first squirrel. We searched until about 2:30, but no squirrels. It appears they got smart and left the country. So we then took Thioⁿba to the park with a stream running through it where she caught her first wild rat. I turned her loose and she began searching for rats. After about 10-15 minutes of searching, she found a big rat who she flushed out of its burrow into the stream. Silly little Thioⁿba still hasn't figured out the seemingly obv
  20. Minkenry
    It obviously depends on where and how you hunt. I'm in it more for the chase than the numbers. For me one awesome chase is more exciting than 10 quick easy kills. For me it's quality over quantity, but I have hunted for quantity as well. If you set up nets to catch the fleeing rats, between you and the mink you can catch as many are available I would assume. One REALLY EASY way to rack up high numbers would be to take a gun out with you hunting muskrats! Muskrats flee to the most open spot they can find surrounded by deep water when chased by a mink. If you had a gun with you, you could easily
  21. Minkenry
    Depending on the conditions about 4-5 hours.
  22. Minkenry
    So I raised her around a few chickens. I let them run free around her cage, and fed them near her cage. I wanted her to constantly see, hear, and smell chickens, but never get to catch them. I also took her on a leash around chickens, and so she would be even more tempted, but unable to try to catch one. Plus I took her swimming at the park where there were lots of ducks. Ducks on the water are close to impossible for a mink to catch, especially if the duck sees the mink first, and the ducks know this. They will swim right up to a mink, basically mocking it because they know they can get away.
  23. Minkenry
    Thank you! I would think the same, had I been told you could train a mink to ignore chickens! To be honest I still can't believe it has worked so far. I'm still holding my breath though, and realize that one little accident could change things, and turn her irreversibly on to chickens.
  24. Minkenry
    Here's a video from this morning's rat hunt. We went back to the same chicken coop as last night, and caught a rat even easier than we did last night. This video really isn't all that exciting, but the reason I'm posting it is to show you guys how good my little mink is doing at totally ignoring chickens as she hunts for rats. I am still shocked and amazed that I was able to get her to ignore a much more visible, and easy to catch prey (the squawking chickens), and go searching for the hidden rats instead. It sure feels good to watch the fruits of your labors! You guys got to watch this!
  25. Minkenry
    Yes, but not very many. I've only ever hunted with 3, two were my own, and one was a friends. I did have one other male, but he was just a pet, and I never hunted with him. Most of my experience has been with females. They can fit down much smaller holes, which gives you a larger range of prey you can go after. Since I work with mainly ranch mink, the males are usually 1500 grams and up, which makes them just too big to go down most prey animal's holes. They could be good on rabbit, but I have to travel quite a ways for rabbits, making them a rather inconvenient prey. I'm sure they're great on
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