Well the unfortunate has happened. In spite of the sunning beauty of this place, there is the downside of it as well. Yesterday morning I woke early, I had a bad feeling something was wrong. I figured I was just being ridiculous until I heard a commotion outside.
A mink got into the duck pen.
I’ve talked about the mink farm nearby several times, and this was definitely an escaped mink from the fur farm.
Two baby ducks were killed, their mom got some wounds, but the drake was damaged pretty badly.
He must have fought bravely to keep his family from being eaten, and though he wasn’t able to save everyone, I’m very proud of how brave he was in the face of danger.
I believe he will heal, he’s been drinking still, though eating is tough for him right now.
More reinforcement of the netting is going up, closing up any and all gaps we can find. We still aren’t quite sure where or how the mink got in.
The worst thing about mink is the wastefulness. A fox or coyote will kill chickens or ducks when hungry. They’ll kill it, drag it off and eat it.
A mink on the other hand, kills anything and everything in sight, and MIGHT drag off one of them to eat, sometimes just killing is enough to satisfy.
Drakie is getting extra attention and treats, he’s swimming in the pond right now, but still isn’t grooming completely normally yet. Hopefully within a week he will be mostly back to his old self.
The trauma with mink can last for weeks or months. Some ducks are just never the same. They end up terrified of everything including their people. Thankfully, probably largely to do with Drakie taking most of the damage himself, the other ducks are bouncing back quite quickly.
So while it was a sad, upsetting morning, I’m so proud of the drake. He really did a good job saving the others until we could get to him. The little ones were easy targets, and would have had no idea what to do, we are lucky to have any survive the attack. And their momma’s head wounds show she did her best to save them as well.
On a lighter note...
My worm snake continues to get plants growing up around it, the hostas are coming in nicely, and the plants in the pots are popping up now and looking cute!
I’ve noticed an enormous amount of Saskatoon berry bush flowers growing everywhere which is majorly exciting! Can’t wait to eat them up!
I trimmed out some spruce trees to give room to several blueberry plants that were sprouting up in the garden as well. It’s funny, not many people keep blueberry plants in their yard here, they grow all over the back country areas, so much so that they’re not worthy of keeping around the house for most people. I’m not most people so I’m majorly excited for my mini berry patches I have, strawberry, blueberry, Saskatoon and raspberry, currants, crowberry, marshberry, wild cranberries, partridge berries, gooseberries, bakeapples (cloud berries) and crackerberries (bunchberries) all grow here on the property. It’s gonna be an amazing summer! So much to forage!
I made a video the other day regarding foraging.
We literally have people walking on food and freaking out that we are all going to starve because they can’t afford to buy processed crap. It astounds me.
Anyway, learn to forage! Find out what grows near you, make friends with farmers and support local! 💕
Here’s some memes!
Have a fantastic day! 💕
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Knotilus daily pond is a series of photos of the pond near my home, some bloggery about the homestead and the creations, it’s then finished off with some choice memes.
Some days here are breathtaking, others will be gray and dull, I’m happy to share the different looks of the pond all year long 🙂
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So sorry to hear about the babies! What a terrifying experience. Hopefully they went quickly.
Thanks! Yes I would say they went very quick. Drakie has since passed away. Very sad about losing him.
😭 Oh noooooooo I'm so sorry!!
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When I saw the netting the other day, I did wonder immediately about your predators. We have a lot of them here, including weasels, and we always built to prevent massacres. Fortunately, we never had any.
Hope the drake heals well.
Thanks! I hope he heals up too!
I also hope you never get one in there! They’re pretty crafty, and our netting is old and worn now, so some gaps and holes are showing up. The farmed mink that escape seem to be the worst of them, but there are a few varieties of weasel type animals, ermine for one, American mink and Newfoundland pine martens. The other types of mink that escape the farm, some are bigger than cats!