I Hunt With Mink!

[Minkenry 1,044]

I have seen a jill of mine drag a rabbit out of a warren on several occasions, I think if brought up right she would be able to retrieve like a mink but is that the point in ferreting?

I think if you would like your ferret to do that with a warren containing 10 plus rabbits you'd need quite a big ferret to do all that heavy work, would be quite a different ferret compared to what we've been breading for.

 

Here's my humble opinion, mind you I've never ferreted, or even hunted rabbits with my mink. When hunting any animal, far more escape out of the hole than are ever caught in the hole. I think if you trained a ferret to cache, the ferret would spend 90% or more of it's time chasing rabbits out of the warren, unsuccessfully capturing anything, (thus fulfilling the goal of catching the rabbits with a net) and then when or if the ferret DOES catch a rabbit, it would then cache it, instead of you having to dig it out. At least that's how I would envision it. If rabbits are like any other ground dwelling prey I've hunted with my mink, even in the best of situations, 5-10 rabbits are going to bolt out of the warren for every one that is caught inside the warren.

Wouldn't a mink be able to just flush like a ferret or does it just always have to kill?

 

No matter how good the mink is, more game is always lost than is caught, and when I am hunting with my mink the same animal is usually bolted 3 or 4 times at minimum before it is finally caught. Depending on what we are hunting, my mink often catch the animal AFTER it is bolted, while it is trying to hide in a bush, or out run the mink in the open. If I were to use nets when hunting squirrel or rats, like you do with rabbits, then our capture rate would be similar to what you guys do with rabbits. So yes, the mink always ends up flushing more than he catches, no matter how hard he tries.

 

Would a small one, have read they can be as small as 600 grams which is the same as my largers jills and smaller hobs, still be such a killer?

 

Yes wild female mink are around 500-600 grams. I would suppose that a little 500 gram female would catch and kill fewer rabbits than a big old 1200 gram male would. I hunt with ranch mink more often than I do wild mink (more for the convenience of acquiring the mink than anything) and the ranch mink are considerably larger. Most female ranch mink are 800-900 grams, a small one being around 700 grams. The males run around 1600 grams, and I had one giant that was over 2000 grams. I'm sure those big boys would kill ANY cornered rabbit they ran into, regardless of how it plugs the hole with it's butt! The power of a 2000 gram mink is just CRAZY!

[Minkenry 1,044]

I moved this story to "Minkenry Hunting Stories For Thioⁿbasabe"

Edited October 10, 2013 by Minkenry

[Minkenry 1,044]

I moved this story to "Minkenry Hunting Stories For Thioⁿbasabe"

Edited October 10, 2013 by Minkenry

[skycat 6,172]

Great accounts of your hunts I am amazed at how you have got her to respond to you so well. But this is the hand reared mink isn't it? That must make a big difference?

[Minkenry 1,044]

Great accounts of your hunts I am amazed at how you have got her to respond to you so well. But this is the hand reared mink isn't it? That must make a big difference?

 

Yep, this one was bottle raised from 36 days old. It sure does make a difference. The bottle raised ones are much more socially attached to you, and you can get away with a lot more than you can with a mink you trained from an adult. Any mink can learn to come when called, and learn cues as to where you've seen game. The difference with a baby is they actually like to be near you for more reasons than just food, and they actually enjoy being handled, as apposed to a mink you acquired as an adult who just puts up with it.

[Minkenry 1,044]

Can I ask what a Mink brings to the table, that a ferret doesn't?

 

 

 

Does this answer your question?

[onthehunt 40]

Yum Does Thio get any?

 

[Minkenry 1,044]

Yum Does Thio get any?

 

 

Yep she does. I gave her the head, guts, and fins. The guts are her favorite

[bulljack 480]

Excellent read keep the pics and story's coming really interesting stuff happy hunting

[Minkenry 1,044]

here's some mink I'm being payed to train for a few guys.

 

[Minkenry 1,044]

A couple of interesting observations from today.

First observation is that mink definitely have a naturally strong homing instinct. I've noticed this fact before, but today just reconfirmed it with the two new Mink I'm training. Both mink have only been out of the yard a few times, and yet they both know their own way home, and are quite persistent about wanting to head that direction. Today was only the third walk for the big male, and yet the only way we could really take a walk was for me to carry him a few blocks from home, and then put him down so he can run back.

Next observation was kind of funny. The little female I'm training today became quite possessive of my gloves. I've heard of imprinted hawks becoming possessive of the glove, because that's where they get their food, but this is the first time I've ever seen this behavior in a mink. After the training session was done, and the little mink was all fed up, she then started trying to take my glove. I thought it was quite strange behavior, and wondered why she was "attacking" my glove, when all of a sudden I realized she wanted me to give it to her. So I did. We were in the park near my house, and I let her pull the glove off my hand, and watched to see what she would do with it. She drug the glove all the way home, and when we got to her cage, I opened the door, and she drug the glove over to her nest box.

This observation was interesting for a couple reasons. This mink is fresh off the farm. I've only been working her for 13 days now, and I've done absolutely no caching training. So being raised in a cage she is a completely clean slate when it comes to caching experience. This means that by observing this mink, I get the opportunity to have a little insight into the caching instinct, without any past experience changing her behavior. It's just 100% pure instinct.

What I gathered from watching this little mink drag a big cumbersome glove for about a block, and past many many good potential hiding spots, just so she could take it to her "den" is that wild mink must indeed cache specifically in their home den, rather than just any old hole that happens to be convenient. I have several other pieces of evidence to support this, but this observation pretty much sealed the deal.

[GreyRake 108]

Is her home nest box one of your pet carriers you use for caching? If not you could get one of those for her nest box and she might start wanting to cache in them straight away. ....?

[Minkenry 1,044]

Is her home nest box one of your pet carriers you use for caching? If not you could get one of those for her nest box and she might start wanting to cache in them straight away. ....?

 

Yeah, that's what I usually do is make their carry box double as their nest box. That way they naturally want to cache there when out in the field.

[Mole man Kent 26]

Ah mate! This is great!

I've had ferrets all my life and done ferreting only for rabbits. I've had a life long obsession with all mustelids (my favourite being the stoat). I would love to have a trained mink but my worry would be loosing it whilst out and they are a lot quicker than ferrets so I'm sure it would be more killing rather than bolting to the net. Good on ya mate I'm really impressed.

Have you ever thought of using your mink as an animal actor for films or documentaries?

[BullBell 0]

how hard is it to actually train the mink?? and would I be allowed to in the UK?