As someone who has had to ferret proof their house (which is near impossible) so that I didn't have to cage my pet ferrets, I can attest to everything you said. A Ferret can squeeze under a closed door, they can open simple latches, and I can't tell you how many times I've found my ferrets sleeping in a closed sweater drawer.

I just love Allison. You could see the overwhelming pain she was feeling when she was holding that injured duck. You two have such compassion and integrity. Thank you for sharing your farm life with us.

Such a sad situation. If you search "Carter the Mink Man", he might be able to give you more insight on Minks. He breeds and uses them to kill rats, etc. on farms!!

Oh man Morgan, I remember when the ducks got injured and some killed and how you were so miserable and feeling guilty, well you did a great job my friend just the fact that some are still alive today that you and Allison nursed them back to life, it's awesome in itself! Thanks for showing us the good, the bad and the ugly so everyone can learn from it and not go through something like that! Have an amazing rest of the week. Hugs

Yeah, when you get closer to the equator you could include mongooses. They were imported into Trinidad to control snakes as they did in India. However, chickens in a coop are easier prey. We lost a whole brood of chickens in 1956 to a mongoose--in non-urban northern Trinidad.

Definitely regional. Here in Missouri, I would say raccoons are the biggest threat, as we don't have a large population of weasels, and such. Guard geese also don't stand a chance against a troop of raccoons. Raccoons will absolutely take out an entire flock without eating them all. They can also fit into small spaces, and learn to open simple latches, and pull cheap chicken wire apart. I've had to build better enclosures because of the raccoons, so I understand your struggle.

Two GSF videos in 24 hours! SO grateful!!!! What a great day!

Additional note: Otters are also mustelids! However, unlike most mustelids, otters don't have anal glands, instead being aquatic creatures, and prefer to go after fish instead of land animals, though you don't have to worry about them, as they only really do predation opportunistically, meaning that if there is an otter on your property, they'll likely be a custodian of the waterways instead of going for your birds.

Hey just something to maybe think about! The cow water buckets could be very dangerous for the cats if they fall in there! Maybe put something in there to help them climb out just in case they fall in. Happy farming!

Good job on the bucket training. You and the cows have come a long way.

I was living with some friends who have chickens a couple years ago and a hawk was absolutely terrorizing the flock. I'm talking at least one attack a week for a couple months before they were able to figure out a solution (During which the chickens were actually confined to their coup for a while). At one point I was collecting eggs and came out to find absolute chaos. The hawk had landed and walked INTO the coup and proceeded to kill and eat a chicken, all while its flockmates were right there. The chickens had been freaking out so much a few had weaseled into weird spots in the coup, including under the roost (basically a box with a separate door to the outside topped with bars for the birds and wire mesh so their poo collected somewhere easy to clean). Ultimately, the thing that did the trick was just covering the run in netting, which was promptly dubbed the Aerial Defense Network. Extreme, and only feasible because they didn't have a massive run, but effective. I actually had the pleasure of watching a hawk literally bounce off the net shortly after it was put up. She saw the chickens, dove, but didn't see the net; which then trampolined her 10 ft back in the air. She landed on the net and just sat there confusedly staring at the chickens who were scrambling over each other to get into the coup (3 stooges style). She wasn't hurt which was good and flew away shortly after. Also, I've heard some predators like foxes and mustelids will kill more than they can eat with the intention of coming back to the kill if its in a safe place. And a coup where they had a hard time getting in themselves is the perfect place since most other predators and scavengers won't have access. That might not be true or just a theory.

I totally already have a guard goose. He is an Emden that I hand raised and loves me. We deal with predator birds more than anything else. We have all the same ones as you, but they don't come around during the day and the birds are safe at night.

We have plenty of weasels up here on the farm too. Thank goodness they're small. They will attack everything in their path. Imagine if they were the size of bears, wolves or even a coyote.

For about six months, I raised a mink (long story, but I made sure to follow my area's laws and regulations), and I can confirm that they are vicious, fearless, intelligent creatures. I love them, but they are absolutely deadly. A poultry farmer's worst nightmare for sure.

Was nice to see Samson again. Curious if Toby will sense your energy and help a bit with the cows. Best of luck with the moove.

I caught my weasel in my chicken house years ago...the hole he went through was ridiculously small. He got through it. He bit the heads off the chickens and sucked their blood out. He got maybe 5 chickens the first night and then 3 the second night. We lined the house with a wire lining and no more weasel!

I remember that video. At the time, I thought you were so over your head. However, a couple of years later ... look how far you've come. Amazing.

Fishers were the most worrisome predator when I lived in Western Maine. Most of my neighbors had given up raising chickens when I moved in, warning me not to even bother. Covering the entire run in 1/2" hardware cloth (not chicken wire) and burying it right down to the uniform layer of small round stone 18" deep kept my chicken losses to 0 for the 8 years or so that lived there.

I wonder what Joseph Carter the Mink Man would have to say about this. 😂

It's a horrible feeling when you think you failed your flock. I found one of my chickens wedged between two buckets. Apparently the local hawk (he's taken 4 of my layers) tried to get her too and just missed her neck. She had a terrible injury to her head and looked to have lost an eye. Today I was happy to see her eye had survived the attack and had been vehind a flap of skin. She has a part of her head missing skin but she has both eyes and so far she's healing well in her private "hospital room" in the brooder. The other half of the brooder It's occupied by my newest 16 Indian Runners. I was so happy to see that eye peeking at me! Once she's healed she'll go back to the hen house and will have a normal life. I can't do anything about the hawk as they are protected but I have taken measures to make the chicken area safer including a scarecrow I move every few days.

Thanks so much! BTW, minks can carry COVID - the Dutch had to cull a bunch from their farms last year

I feel you Morgan...my neighbor's dog killed 5 of my chickens not long after I started to keep them. I got home from the store and there were feathers and chicken all over their fenced in area. I walked over and one of them picked her head up, I thought I could save her but she literally had the skin on her back ripped off with her meat showing...I had to put her out of her misery, I couldn't watch her suffer anymore... It really sucks, I started to cry because I felt like a failure and I felt responsible for it being in pain and then having to die for no reason. After a while though I accepted that this is going to happen. Predators can get the best of us, we can only learn from our mistakes and move forward.

When I worked at a wastewater treatment plant that was located next to a federal wildlife refuge, I had a couple of run ins with weasels. One summer a female weasel made a den in one of the outbuildings at the plant. Nearly every day we, the maintenance crew would see her hunting on and near the plant. She would catch and kill field mice and birds regularly. One lunch break she returned from the field without a meal for her brood. I ran outside to throw a piece of lunch meat at her, and I have to admit that she turned and looked at me, then the meat, like she was trying to decide which choice she was go serve to her litter. I was in the menu! I retreated from the area and never offered her a scrap of meat again!

A little tip for when you feed your cows your alfalfa cubes, don't grab it like how you've been grabbing it. Instead when you feed them the cubes grab one and open one hand flat. Then lay the cube out on the palm of your hand and let the cows lick it off your hand. That way you don't get accidentally bit by one of your cows. Better to have cow saliva all over your hand then getting your finger bit.

It was so sad to see all those duck hurt like that I'm really glad you fixed the problem it's also nice to see how the cattle is following you now big difference from the beginning you got loving it

Hello to you & your wife from Green Bay Wisconsin. I really hope all goes well when you move your cows to the barn.

‘The Usual Suspects’, one of my favorite movies.

“But before we do that I would to talk about our sponser” Me: Rapidly double tapping the right side of my phone

Mustelids are *absolutely* the most dangerous predator for birds. Weasels in that were introduced to New Zealand are known for not only killing the endemic adult or juvenile birds there (being a major reason many are threatened species) But also eating or smashing eggs as well, even when well-fed.

I think you missed an opportunity here to make a "deadliest catch series with your own - "the deadliest Minx" or "Minx Wars". The audio and video quality of your videos are going up. I loved the music and storytelling in this video.

love your story of working in DC then switching to the farm life. My husband and I are thinking of doing the same. Life is so short. Live it the way YOU choose!

Fun fact about mustelids; Croatian currency is called Kuna, which is Croatian word for mustelid(more specificly the Martens subspecie). The reason why mustelids are honored by Croatians is because in history when plague came around carried mostly by rats, government at the time introduced mustelids in order to catch and eat the rats to stop the spread. Just goes to show u how nasty and vile mustelids are, even though they are celebrated in Croatia and honored.

A couple of years ago my dog caught a ferret on a walk in the woods, it did not go gentle into that good night. The ferret fought back like hell and won against my 60 lbs dog

Every video you post brightens my day. And the consistency of your posting makes for a lot of bright days. Thank you.

Catching up with videos I've missed and oh my lord this broke my heart for you both and the flock. Thank you for educating me on the mustalids, so sorry for your loss

When or if you get calves from the highlanders do you plan on halter training them? Just to make transporting them easier over the next few years from the barn to the pasture

Awesome wrangling method, Morgan! Luv your vids, every story is skillfully presented to make it feel like you’re talking to just me and Mom.

You’ve got a great big heart, and it makes your videos more interesting. I can’t wait to see footage of the bovine migration to the barn!

I sincerely hope you do something to block the cows path to escape. It isn’t just a hazard for the cows, but for anyone driving by who could harmed if they hit cow. PLEASE don’t do that move without putting a barricade in place!! Put the tractor in the aisle with the bucket down, or park your truck to block the way. Also, if the cows get spooked and panic, that wire fence is not going to do anything except maybe cause injuries. They make “cattle panels” for a reason…they aren’t too expensive and down the road they can be reused for MANY things, so it isn’t wasted money. Sometimes, exploring new ways to do things is how innovations come about, but with animal husbandry that innovation has come about at the cost of injuries or death. Barbed wire, for example, is far less effective than an electric fence, and the cost is not much different. But I would spend more to ensure there is no barbed wire anywhere near my animals…why? Well, having 40 year old scars on my arm from a barb wire fence convinced me it sucks. I don’t even know how I avoided those scars being on my face, or possibly losing an eye to it. So yes…build a better mousetrap, reinvent the wheel, but please don’t ignore the simple realities of handling animals.

Pablo was awesome helping frame that duck house!

I recently found your channel from a FB video, and you have awesome content man. You're a great guy. 👍👍

I would watch Joseph Carter the Mink Man, he trains mink to hunt for him and it’s insanely interesting.

As someone who follows both you and Joseph Carter I find it so fascinating to see the differences between wild mink and semi-domesticated trained mink. Thank you for the very interesting video yet again Morgan!

That shot of cat on post at sunset is EPIC.

I will mention it again. Your hoop house has a potential flaw. RATS. Rats dig and the dirt floor is in the hoop house is an open invite for rats to tunnel into the hoop house dirt floor giving mink, weasels and such a way into the hoop house. And NO a goose or even geese are no match for these predators. Your best bet is Toby dog or a concrete floor.

Toby at 15:10 is like, human doesn't like me anymore because I'm not a cyow.

Thank you for publishing this video Morgan it is so helpful I actually sent your video to my friend who has lost a lot of ducks and geese and chickens to what I believe is a mink

Back in the 1970's someone we knew bought a 5-10 acre hobby farm complete with a pond that had an island in the middle of it. Chickens were followed by a Shetland pony, a horse, some ducks, and a few geese. This led to clearing the blackberries to the pond and re-homing the water fowl there. It seemed to them that the numbers were declining a little over time until it became obvious and the guy actually saw a duck simply dissappear from the surface of the water; no noise, no particular ripple. Those that woild were moved back to beside the house, the hunting dogs had a definite aversion to the pond, he soon figured it was some type of weasel and even wondered if it was an escaped ferret. Asking around in town, it turned out that that a mink farm some 3-5 miles away and on the other side of a freeway tupe tupe divided highway had lost a number some 5-7 years prior. A number were recaptured, hunted, and trapped, but no one knew how many escaped in the first place nor thier demise out in the wild. It was formally determined that they couldn't have crossed the freeway nor survived for any length of time on thier own. The=e was some u official hunting and trapping u til the dogs felt comfortable at the ponds edge. Still, every so often a suspected mink or few would show up for years after.

Love your channel. I keep binging videos. What was that sound at 2:53. Lol I’m sure it was a duck but I can’t stop laughing 😂

I love this channel please keep making videos

On a less serious note , man those clips in between are perfect 😂

You did good to work on prevention rather than focussing too much on trapping it. In the end, there could always be another mink even if you catch the one that got in first, better to make a better duck-house that simply takes the ducks off the menu

Balantynes Scotch destillery in Dunbartonshire Scotland used to use geese to protect the premises.

I have two indoor/outdoor cats and a couple dogs out in the countryside here. My cats do try bring in their kills and I notice quite a few weasels & stoats in there. They don't eat them, but the dogs sure love their scent and roll around in them! I always pick them up and put them out for the crows and magpies. A few years back a fisher was on the road and my male cat sat there and just watched it. I was ready to go scare it away; I was sure there was going to be a fight, but nothing happened! lol It saw my cat, but just kept on its merry way down to the riverside lol We have quite a lot of the mustilid family up here in central Canada. My grandpa was a trapper and saw a lot of them as a kid.

This is why you don't kill the bobcats who live around your property.

Wow. What are the odds you would release this video. Saturday night, going in to Sunday morning I was just like you - cheerful and feeling good, then I found five of my chickens slaughtered and three badly wounded. I thought it was a racoon so I added some chicken wire. I came back later that evening and three more were dead. All of them were exactly like you described on yours. I'm having to go through all of this right now. Thanks for the video!

first of all I know from personal experience how heartbreaking it can be to see the devistation an animal like the weasel can wreak when you see your beasts dead and injured. But you expressed an interest in the weasels evoloutinary motivation for it'as predatary methods so... I suspect that the reason that mustelidae attack in such a *seemingly* vicious and bloodthirsty way is the same reason a fox will kill as many chickens in a coop as it can in a very similar fashion. In the wild outside of a coop birds can scatter and so it's rare for a fox or in this case mustelid to grab and successfully attack so many birds. A fox is evolved to scavenge and has a metabolism which can digest extremely rancid meat. It therefore makes sense as a scavenger to take advantage of a situation of plenty and metaphorically "fill the larder". Any dead birds that are not eaten can be returned to on succesive days, injured birds can't wander too far away and become easier future prey. In observation foxes have been known to return to dead prey for over a week after the initial kill. In breeding season such behaviour is extremely advantageous for nursing vixens who cannot expend a large time hunting whilst feeding and caring for her litter and must spend large ammounts of time in the den with her pups. A coop filled with already slaughtered birds is just a stocked larder. No consolation to you I understand but an example of survival tactics rather than "bloodthirstiness" by which I take you to mean wanton unnesessary killing This doesn't help you with preventing their killing and stealing but I must admit I get bored and tired of hearing the trope of how bloodthirsty vicious these type of animals are. It shouldn't be necessary to demonise a creature when all that's needed to stop the problem is a secure coop. I know an animal that regularly kills large numbers of beasts at once for food and then keeps many of them dead in cold boxes and regularly discards uneaten a large proportion of those animals if they remain uneaten passed the sell by date, and does so as nations in the millions of tonnes I'm one of those. Whilst I may see myself as careless and wasteful in that situation I can't say I ever saw myself as bloodthirsty. It's just an animal trying to survive taking advantage of it's evolutionary quirks. Your experience of weasels not taking fresh food left by humans rings true but is as likely to be because the meat smelled of humans and so had an unappealing scent, which is more likely the reason the food is passed over rather than the animal "needs to hunt". Animals (like human animals ) do not like to epend any more energy than is necessary in gaining food, a free meal is a free meal. Animals are not stupid they are as aware as we that there is no such thing as a free lunch and will be suspicious, wild animals experience such tidbits mainly in the form of baits for traps and poisoned bait remember. Anyway I was relieved to see how many of the ducks involved survived and glad you now have your birds in more secure housing. Hopefully you won't experience this again now you know. Here in the UK the myth of "bloodthirsty " behaviour of the fox was used to stifle the anti fox hunting calls for many years. Really It was a strawman arguement to allow the upper classes to ride around peoples properties with no regard for trespass or the damage they caused to properties or the pets and wildlife that the uncontrolled hound packs they used which often ran well ahead of the hunt, would cause. Does that sound familiar too you? To be clear I know my foxes but not my mustellids so I stress this is speculation on my part based on the similarity of the behaviour of the species. Evolutionarily speaking they sound like similar strategies but I confess outside of the fox I am speculating based on that knowledge concerning the weasel. Finally I love watching your vids and am afraid you re my second favourite Gold Shaw Farm inhabitant. Please give Toby my regards. :D

Look for the Mink Man. I absolutely love his content and how he trains his mink to hunt rats and other pests. :) And his dogs are super awesome!!

Skunks are the least of a poultry farmers worries. They're much slower than their mustelid cousins, like minks and weasels. They'll go after eggs--and probably small chicks. Anything that can fly or run away is off the menu. They DO, however, like to wipe out mouse and rat nests...so they--and sweet opposums, are VERY welcome around my farm!

Weasel in past: eats/kills duck Weasel now: what is that?!?! *looks at Toby*

Can I just say THANK YOU ! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! For the Stoney - Encino Man Reference 😁😁😎😎

Lmfao - those cows running like dogs for a treat.

My parents chicken farm had a mink that kept coming by to slaughter them. It didn’t eat them, just killed them. We used a live trap and put bits of the dead chicken inside of the cage as bait and caught it the next day.

We have raccoons, foxes, and skunks here in Southeast KY. We have various sizes of live traps in the bldg in case we have to use them but haven't had to for years now. We do have coyotoes, bears and bobcats around too. Geese are really great for guard and Barn cats running around helps out too.

I failed at keeping my ducks safe, they were attacked and killed....anyway, check out this ridge wallet. 🤣🤣🤣 man I laughed so hard at the transition lol

Just a note here weasels have a brown coat in the summer, white in the winter. That's also the ermine fur royals used to wear, every black spot was the tip of the tail of a weasel.

I don’t see myself ever being a poultry farmer, but if I am this is definitely good to know. Thanks for the knowledge/insight.

Hey Morgan. I just saw a story about certain seaweed meals (aspergopsus) can reduce Methane in cows, which is better for the environment.

I've got a mink farm bout a mile or so away from me. Only seen one scouting my pond but it left to the ditch soon. From people I know that tried going after the mink farm they always get away with saying there's no way to prove it was one of their mink that escaped. Ive had more trouble with hawks and rats though

Just wanted to say that I enjoy your content very much and have learned a lot watching your channel. I am not one to leave a comment often, just want to let you know that your content is appreciated.

"introducing a guard goose" me: Steinbacher Kampfgans (Steinbach fighting goose)

Brilliant. So so true! Great info!

Morgan, I have to disagree with your goose point. I'd look into Joseph Carter if you want info on Mink. But the gist of it is, mink are vicious little predators. There's photos and videos out there of mink taking on swans.

Keeping a gander about really useful in protecting a flock. A couple Guinnes also are good, they are absolute parimeter alarm.

Favourite KZfaqr Keep it up !

Had a weasel attack our flock of peacocks when I was a kid. It was mostly comical watching it try to bring down those large birds. They kicked it's butt. 😁😁😁

Hi, your videos are amazing. I'm your big fan. The fact that you have new cows is amazing. I want cows too, but I don't have a place for them. I'm 13 years old breeder from Czech republic and I have 20 chickens like wyandottes, silkies and other. Then I have 6 ducks. 3 Mandarine ducks and 3 Indian Runner Ducks. I just had an idea. Can you do a video about cleaning your animal's coops and cages? I would like to see how you clean these places with this big amount of animals. Your tips and things like that. Thank you.

My sister had her whole flock of Chickens killed by a Mink. It was so sad, she loved those chickens! ... I like the way you put clips from movies in the videos.

Great video man love them all

I guess you didn't have all your ducks in a row!! 🤣🤣🤣.

If you spot one of these and you have livestock. You need to eliminate the threat immediately. I promise you you will regret it if you don’t I know from experience.

You should call the mink man and ask him how to mink proof your poultry yard.

Ferret did my whole lot. Buried strong mesh but the littlest hole next to steel post.

Poor Quaki Campbell!!! Mine got clipped by a hawk recently (no damage done) but it was so sad

Very educational thank you.

Merry Christmas

You need to watch Joseph Carter mink man. He uses his mink to kill rats, muskrats, ducks, etc. He's written a book about them. They are fearless killers & I would not want a barn cat to be caught by one.

In the 90s in England several thousand Mink were released by the animal liberation front from a Mink farm. They left a trail of destruction behind them they went after wild animals, farm animals and pets.

“Yummy in My Tummy” says Pablo Barn Cat.

Hey Morgan you're doing great and we support you!

I've lost chickens to mink and weasels. I feel your pain.

A predator proof a coop and run determines whether your flock lives or dies.I worked my fingers to the bone making an apron all around the coop and run I made this year after covering everything with hardware cloth .I pray I never have to make another one and it works. I wish more people knew what they need before any are attacked but most of us learn the hard way.

I only just watched your previous video. What a timing

I learned something new today. Apparently, mustelids are nature’s deranged ninjas

You mean mustelidae?weasel family?mustolytoday😅😂

I remember building our hen house and veggie patch. The chicken run surrounded 3 sides of the patch because I imagined it like a moat and the chickens were the sharks. It worked really well and the chickens prevented lots of bugs etc from crawling to the young vegetables etc. Anyway, I had lots (too much) of advice from other locals about what was the best way to predator proof the structure. Some people became very heated on the topic. Anyway, in the end, for the chicken wire perimeter walls, a trench was dug two foot down, and one foot wide. That trench was filled with concrete and the chicken wire walls were sunk down into that concrete and then the structure was built as normal. Over the years, there were many obvious attempts to gain access to the coop via the bottom of the fence, there was even an big effort at digging underneath it to gain access - this technique had been successful in the old existing structure so it was VERY satisfying to see them failing. We also had two layers of chicken wire for the walls that was slightly offset so that it made the wholes even smaller. Anyway 10/10, can highly recommend. The design also made it super easy to clean out the coop for use on the 3 rotating vegetable beds. It was really funny, having the garden surrounded on 3 sides by curious chicken meant that I could be weeding or something in the garden and the hens would keenly follow me back and forth just hoping for a juicy caterpillar...yum.

Great video man! Love the bevis n butthead clip haha 🤌🏽

good luck moving the grass puppies. it's great to see them run to you and not away

Where was Toby and why he not barking around the duck house, going freaking crazzy barking.

Dude you should watch "The Mink Man" KZfaq channel. Some of his earlier videos will teach you everything you need to know about minks, pine Martin's, fishers, weasels ect. Really cool dude as well.