Mink Trappin' (Part 2)

CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!

So far our poor cluckies have been "cooped" up in the coop for over a month now. I think they all believe they are on permanent ISS...or In-School Suspension. On really cold or rainy days I don't feel so sorry for them since I know that if they were allowed outside their confines, they wouldn't go past the kennel anyway. However, the past few days I felt awful for them because I knew they would have loved being outside in the spring-like weather.

Because of that, I really hounded Dan to get our mink trap built and a bait system in place. He came home last night with his homework assignment already finished and by 6:00 P.M. he had everything set...box, trap, and nasty sardine bait.

As you can see, the opening of the trap is only as wide as the trap itself. This way, Mr. Mink (or a poor cat) has to go over/through the trap in order to reach the bait behind it. Minks are cleaver and will actually move the trap out of the way. Dan also staked the trap in place so this cannot happen.

(That nasty looking glob in front is mink lure.)

This mink trap box is closed in the back:

Dan also placed a cinder block on top incase our violator did get caught in the trap and flopped around a lot. This way he's sure to be in one spot and one spot only.

I don't even know if Mr. Mink is still lurking in the shadows are not...too much time may have already passed. Our game plan now is to keep the girls locked away until the weather gets a little warmer (like I said, they wouldn't go far right now anyway). They might get to sample a little bit of freedom this weekend with the warmer temps and we will be home and will be able to monitor the barn in case Mr. Mink decides to come back like he did at his Christmas visit.

I know the chickens need/would like to get outside, but I also can't help but note the impressive number of eggs we are continuing to get. We still get a dozen or more a day. Only one day this past week did we drop below the magic number 12 and only received 9. Dan was a little harsh that night on ladies calling them slackers and whatnot. I told him, what can he expect? The past 2 days prior they gave us 18! This drop in production was probably due to the fact we ran out of chicken feed and supplemented with Jimmy and Charlie corn for a couple of days...opps.

A chicken really is only as good as what it eats!

Hopefully Mr. Mink comes back and gets snapped up in the traps. If we haven't suspected any mink activity, we may just go ahead and let the cluckies out and try and lure him back in. Keeping my fingers crossed for success, justice and no more dead chickens!


                                                                                                   ...cluck... cluck... cluck...