AWESOME New Hunting Mink!

[Minkenry 1,044]

I have started a new mink project! Meet my newest mink.

Brocc- named after the old English word for "badger" because of his big thick head and shoulders and brazenly confident personality. He is a happy-go-lucky 8 month old buck who is super confident and friendly with humans, yet very intense and highly aggressive towards prey.

Ine'sa'be- is a highly driven, highly aggressive, 8 month old buck that wants to bite everything that moves! His name means "black fire" in the Omaha Native American language.

Thashishi- is an old retired breeder mink from a fur farm. Her name means "To bite something full of holes" in the Omaha Native American language. She gets her name from her ridiculously powerful bite. Despite her worn down old canines, she can dispatch a muskrat in a fraction of the time Fang could!

Shelby- is an old retired breeder mink from a fur farm. She is similar to Brocc in that she is kind and confident with humans, but very intense and highly aggressive towards prey.

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Minkenry

[TAXI DRIVER 549]

Good luck with the breeding plan.

[mackem 23,691]

Beautiful condition on that big male 'Enry,good luck with the project,look forward to following your progress online 

[trigger2 3,100]

Theres a element of madness if you ask me handling those mink like you do but its great to watch. your achieving some good stuff  and putting together some nice vids along the way, hats off to you mate.

great vid and good luck with the future plan of breeding.

 

how soon can you get a young mink out hunting?

[jigsaw 11,809]

I hope you have health insursance,if them savages turn on you your guaranteed missing body parts ,,,best of luck for the future

[Str 793]

If that were me I wouldn't have there teeth  so close to my cock! Good luck.

[Minkenry 1,044]

33 minutes ago, trigger2 said:

Theres a element of madness if you ask me handling those mink like you do but its great to watch. your achieving some good stuff  and putting together some nice vids along the way, hats off to you mate.

great vid and good luck with the future plan of breeding.

 

how soon can you get a young mink out hunting?

Honestly I'm still trying to answer that question. When is the best age to start hunting biting prey with a mink? I wish I had someone I could ask that could give me a straight answer! Unfortunately I'm still in the process of answering that question through trial and error.Waiting longer than necessary never really hurts a mink, but like with any animal starting them too young can destroy their confidence.

I start hunting them on little/none aggressive prey as soon as they are coordinated enough to catch the prey in question. I have a friend whose mink was a super early starter when it came to fishing, and he was catching small fish with his mink as early as 8 weeks old! Most mink aren't any good at catching fish or crayfish until around 10-12 weeks old, sometimes older. You can also start them on small non-biting prey like kangaroo rats, mice, or voles at that age. Then at around 13-14 weeks old you can start them on least chipmunks which only weigh about 45 grams and rarely try to bite, but require a high level of agility to catch. Bigger and more aggressive chipmunk species like Eastern and Uinta Chipmunks (which typically weigh 70 and 100 grams respectively) shouldn't be hunted until after 16 weeks of age, to avoid the chance that your mink gets bitten. Mink can also handle rabbits just fine by about 16 weeks, or even younger, but they will often take longer to dispatch the rabbit due to less developed jaw strength.

When it comes to brown rats, muskrats, and squirrels, I'm really not sure how long you should wait. I feel comfortable putting most mink on brown rats after 6 months old, but I feel its probably best to wait until at least a few months older before starting to hunt muskrats and squirrels. Waiting until after their first birthday before hunting muskrats might not be a bad idea, but I have yet to actually wait that long, so I don't know for sure if it helps or not. With some mink, starting on brown rats at 6 months is pushing it, so maybe all mink would benefit on a few extra months of hunting none biting prey before moving up to brown rats? I really don't know for sure to be honest. I do know this much, waiting longer to start on biting prey doesn't hurt a thing, but starting too young might. I'm considering waiting until after my  next mink kit's 1st birthday before starting to hunt biting prey with her. We'll just have to wait and see what I end up doing with this next one.  

Edited January 4, 2018 by Minkenry

[socks 32,253]

When would a mink be left to fend for itself in the wild ? Or would they hunt fish and crayfish etc first then move up to things that bite back ??? 

[Minkenry 1,044]

25 minutes ago, socks said:

When would a mink be left to fend for itself in the wild ? Or would they hunt fish and crayfish etc first then move up to things that bite back ??? 

Mink leave their mothers at about 4 months old (around mid August to early September). I'm pretty confident that for their first few months of hunting on their own, they typically stick to easy prey like fish and field mice until around 6-7 months old when the hard times of winter push them to start hunting more difficult prey. In most situations, muskrats would be very difficult to catch until mid winter, so its not likely that a young mink would have much of an opportunity to start hunting them before 7-9 months old, even if they wanted to hunt them earlier. Around 6-8 months old is when most mink start getting over their timid nature that is so common when mink are young. 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Minkenry

[socks 32,253]

Well there's your answer mate ... follow nature ?

[Sirblessed 2,511]

Beautiful animals! You can see they are related to the ferret family. Good luck with the breeding and your fingers 

[THE STIFFMEISTER 14,553]

Pleased for you Henry 

chuffed that you’ve decided to carry on 

good video as well 

[bird 9,587]

5 hours ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Pleased for you Henry 

chuffed that you’ve decided to carry on 

good video as well 

+2  great you got back in to the mink, they look in great condition   mate, love Brock , great name as well  there deff tough  animal . i tell you what though , them mink   could make right mess of your hand or finger  , ive had few pecks of bloody ferrets , never mind them big buggers lol.i think the females and Brock  could ome good for you Henry  regards hunting and general handling , but that other male   , might  be just to much like hard  work, he seems  more wild than the others !!

[Minkenry 1,044]

3 hours ago, bird said:

........... that other male   , might  be just to much like hard  work, he seems  more wild than the others !!

Yeah he's a wild one! You can train the human aggression out of a mink, but you can't train a mink to have more grit or determination than it was naturally born with. You can boost an animal's confidence, but you can never create confidence that isn't there. Is it more convenient to have a mink that is born with both the way Brocc is? Sure it is! But I'll take a mink who is a great hunter and also wants to eat me, over a mink who is an ok hunter and friendly with people too. I can always make that mean mink nice, but I can never make that average mink great if it doesn't want to be great.

Muskrats are a challenging prey, even for a mink, the one animal in nature who is born to hunt them. Muskrats are big and SUPER aggressive. The Brown rats you are accustomed to on your side of the pond can be pretty aggressive too, but they are rarely as aggressive as an average muskrat, and typically only 200-400 grams maybe a little over 600 grams at the VERY most. Even a young muskrat is typically bigger and has a MUCH worse bite than even the largest of large brown rats. An average adult muskrat is around 800-900 grams, and the real big ones can get over 1,200 grams! It takes a good mink with a real confident and driven temperament to take muskrats day in and day out, season after season. A lot of mink can take them hear and there, and kill the average and easy ones, but a mink that will take EVERY muskrat it can, EVERY time, and do it over and over and over again...... now that's a good mink! I'll happily take a hard to deal with mink, if he'll do what I just described! Every now and then you run into a BIG OLD muskrat who wants to fight, and its times like those that you find out what  your mink's really made of! I'd rather have a mink who wants to bite me, and will happily take on the big bad muskrat that most mink can't handle, than have a nice mink who will only take the average and below average muskrat. Of course the ideal is to have a mink who is both human friendly AND confident on even the worst of muskrats, but finding that ideal is VERY difficult! 

Edited January 5, 2018 by Minkenry

[mackem 23,691]

Enry,any chance you can do a video on hunting raccoon with your lurcher?