so today is one of those days where I really am wondering how did I get myself
into this situation about two weeks ago our ducks got attacked by a mink it
broke into the duck house and killed one duck and injured several of them I tried
my best to secure it and I tried to trap it but the next night it broke in again
I know all of this is actually really my fault that the mink got in and did that
the mink is simply following its predator instinct in doing what it was
meant to do which is find and kill prey I mean generally speaking when you think
about the ecology of this place make do a lot of good I mean they keep the
rodent populations in check and you know their predation helps make sure that
things are in balance but at the same time they are a problem and I can't have
them attacking my Birds
Oh ducks go to bed Oh ducks go bitch hold up go to bed come on
some of them I've been trying to catch him now for about two weeks and it's
been a steady round of using live traps I've got both the larger and smaller
traps I've been setting three or four of them a night I've caught skunk
I've caught possum and even this morning I went out to check on the Ducks and
check the traps and I found a large old raccoon hanging out inside of it
feasting on an old duck carcass I ended up taking that raccoon and releasing
them on the backside of our property again as long as the animals not trying
to attack my animals and staying out further away from the duck house I'm
much more likely to be sort of a live and let live mindset but based on the
advice from a lot of you guys out there who are watching these videos I I've
decided to step up my game I got a Conibear one ten traps so the
kana bear is this sort of kill trap I got a couple of these from somebody who
really asked to stay nameless I think they're called body grip traps I got to
admit I have never tried to do something like this before I had a very suburban
upbringing my father my family members they never hunted so learning all of
this is kind of just it's unusual I've never had to really go into it but at
the same time I'm seeing it as a necessary part of being a farmer trying
to protect my animals so if you found this video and are watching this please
know I am by no means an expert I'm simply trying to capture my personal
experience with this this should not be construed as a how-to I myself have just
watched a bunch of YouTube videos to learn how to try to even set one of
these traps and I gotta admit I'm kind of terrified you try it out for the
first time right here right now
that was terrifying you put this in like a hole or you put it in a stream or
something and the animal supposedly is gonna go up to the trigger go up to the
trigger these jaws sort of clamp down and trap them just probably test this
thing out before I try to set these out in the wild
okay I'm mr. mink and I'm gonna go in here that looks pretty ruthless should
be a quick clean kill I've got some bait here let's go trap some mink let's go
come on Pablo I brought the barn cats in they cannot stay outside tonight
bring in the barn cats indoors look I can't let those barn cats roam around
there they could smell the sardines wander over and I could easily see one
of these traps just killing lil
so they're sleeping inside they're sleeping in the basement tonight
come on guys come on come on hang on hang on nobody's going in the house or
just going to the basement excuse me mr. Pablo very little claw
alright enjoy the basement tonight guys I need to go inside
Bob locks inside let's go no ma'am
in the house you go
now one note for you guys you probably should check with your local wildlife
officials about whether or not this is okay I actually called the Vermont
Wildlife folks and asked if I could trap this mink and try to kill this mink they
said it was okay because it's attacked some of my ducks and I've been able to
document that the woman I spoke to she said nope it's totally cool it's
considered a nuisance animal you can do what you need to do and so that's why
I'm doing this which is what I need to do but you know look those rules vary
from state to state I think these traps are even illegal in some places so you
really have to check on your local rules if you're gonna do something like this
so now my plan for the traps was usually set these traps like in a hole or a box
somehow you want the animal to try to burrow into it and like go headfirst
into it and so I knew that there were some old cinder blocks over by the spot
that I've seen the mink before and so I dug those up and I used them as the base
of my traps one trap I decided to try by just laying the cinder block flat and
then I put some bait inside the cinder block and I took each of the traps and
set it on one of the holes within the cinder block
I made sure to drip a little bit of the sardine water around the block there's
these like little chains and like loops that you need to use to secure the
traffic case like the animal goes flopping around or tries to run off or
whatever and you don't want it to just disappear and be interned injured and
suffer I took those loops I put ground staples
in and then I put them underneath the cinderblock so they were really solid it
would take you know a bear could probably get it out but most other
animals probably could it may be a coyote I don't know that is my one fear
with all of this I'm worried that I'm gonna catch a coyote or a raccoon or
something that will get injured by this trap but not actually killed by the trap
so I am a little afraid of that for the second two traps I decided to stand the
cinderblock upright and make it like a little tunnel and so I put the can of
sardines inside the middle of it and then I took one trap set it on one side
and then I took another trap and set it on the other side and so I figured that
the the mink could go from either side to try to get in and it would clamp down
on him and catch him I happen to have a fifth in extra trap and so what I did
with that one is I actually went to one of the holes that was created by the
cinder blocks I stuck a little bit more starting down at the bottom of that
buried the trap just a little bit and set it so that it could be another thing
that it could try to plunge into it's crazy being over by this part of the
stream because I can see just the remnants of old dead ducks I've been
using dead ducks as bait still hasn't worked much the sardines have also
attracted attention but the mink has just either been too slick to get
trapped in the the live trap or it's been other animals that have set off the
live trap and the mink wasn't able to do anything so I don't know if this is
gonna work or not but we'll let the evening happen and see what it looks
like first thing tomorrow
come on guys freedom
but I've got nothing it's been four days since I first put these traps out there
I've moved him around a couple of times I've had the trail camera going and
frankly the only thing I've seen on the trail camera has been I don't know I
just don't think I'm getting the mink I doing my best here but I'm just not
having much luck I think I'm gonna call a pause to the trapping activity right
now because I don't like having to keep the cats inside and I don't know I keep
getting worried that I'm gonna be more likely to snag an innocent raccoon or
something the only other thing I'm really thinking about doing right now is
trying to put these guys in the stream itself and potentially do sort of an
underwater traffic situation which you know pretty much only means I'm gonna
catch the mink or muskrat and so that's I guess where I'm going with this whole
experiment you guys have advice leave it for me down in the comments and I really
appreciate all the help I received so far I'm just gonna focus my efforts on
trying to build a better duck house now I haven't had any issues since I put out
the electric netting and so I'm gonna keep
on that and yeah so there we go