As you might imagine, chicken farmers are not big fans of foxes. Foxes on the other hand love chicken farms. To them they are an all you can eat buffet, if they can get past the defences of high electric fences that is.
Every now and then I give the rats on my chicken farm a break and concentrate on the foxes instead. And thanks to the fact that all the neighbouring farms are my permissions as well, my .243 and I usually manage to create an effective fox-free exclusion zone.
Having claimed nine foxes in a week, I’d not seen any for nearly a month and neither had any of the farmers.
I was surprised then to get a call from my chicken farmer asking if I could pop up to the farm because he ‘had a fox problem’. It’s only 10 minutes down the road and I soon pulled up in the yard. The farmer took me into the free-range scratching field and pointed at a pile of feathers marking the spot where something had enjoyed a chicken dinner.
He then showed me where he thought the culprit had got through the fence. Something didn’t add up though. The hole was very small and the fox, if that’s what it was, would have had to perform the limbo under a couple of electric wires.
When I voiced these observations to the farmer, he agreed with me but, very reasonably, pointed out it couldn’t be anything else. I still wasn’t convinced and asked if he’d ever known a fox break in and kill just one chicken in what would have been a field of 3,000 birds. I had him there.
Below: Fox predation can be a serious problem on chicken farms but Rich suspected a different culprit on this occasion
We spent five minutes hypothesising what the culprit could have been. The best we got was a bird of prey. Neither of us was convinced though. And then I glanced across the field to the nearby river.
“A mink?” I asked.
All of a sudden that made sense. I’ve fished the river for decades and, when I thought about it, had occasionally seen one patrolling the bank. However, according to the farmer he’d never had one attack his chickens, but with only a couple of hundred yards between the river and the farm, it was only a question of time.
The hole was repaired and I positioned a trail camera just in case the mystery chicken murderer came back. Sure enough, only a couple of days later, my phone pinged with an alert that clearly showed the black body of a mink skulking around the fence.
The farmer was pleased the culprit wasn’t a fox and delighted when I told him I’d shot several mink in the past and was confident I could tackle this one as well. All I needed was a few dead chickens to use as bait. The next day he gladly gave me one that I’d like to think came to a natural end, but farmers are pretty candid about these things. I tied the dead bird to the fence and re-set the trail camera.
I’d barely got home when my phone pinged again to alert me to a series of images that showed the mink tucking into its free chicken dinner. I replaced the chicken the next day and was encouraged by more mink footage, especially as the last thing I wanted to do was prolong the baiting period and attract any new foxes to the area.
Below: A dead chicken tied to a fence soon lured the offending mink back to the scene of the crime, and Rich's Hikmicro M15 trail-cam provided all the evidence he needed
A few days and the third sacrificial chicken later, I was sat in the hedgerow about 30 metres from the bait with a couple of hours of daylight left. The trail camera indicated what time to expect the mink so I was poised, ready for my opportunity.
If you’ve seen one, you’ll know that despite their ferocious reputation, mink are quite small – typically anywhere from 18 to 24 inches long and a big one will weigh around 2lb. As a result, a 12 ft/lbs rifle is more than adequate. However, seeing as I have several, I took an FAC rifle with me – a 30 ft/lb Daystate Wolverine R, which seemed appropriate, in .22 calibre, fitted with an MTC King Cobra 6-24x50 F2 scope.
I loaded the Wolverine’s magazine with JTS Dead Centre pellets and, having slipped it into the breech and put the safety catch on, placed the rifle on my Trigger Sticks. All that was left was to wait.
Below: Rich paired his high power Daystate Wolverine with 18.13 grain JTS Dead Centre pellets for the mink shoot
The trail camera footage showed the mink turned up a 6.28pm the first time and then 45 minutes later on the second occasion. By 8pm, I noticed the biting and stinging insects for the first time.
Then my back started to ache, and I had a feeling nothing was going to happen. There was still a little daylight left but it felt the sun was hanging on reluctantly and couldn’t wait to call it quits for the day.
“Another 20 minutes” I told myself with a sense of anticlimax. I started to wonder how I’d explain my failure to the farmer, especially as the success with the trail camera had made me cocky. Then I detected some movement to the right from the river.
As slowly as I could, I reached for my thermal and could make out a heat source in the long grass. It stayed there for some time but eventually the mink, for that’s what it proved to be, decided it was time for its chicken takeaway and made its way boldly across the 20 or so yards of open field to where the bait was tied up.
Clearly emboldened by the free meals of the previous few days, it slinked its way directly to the bird, gave it a sniff then started to pull at it.
Below: Rich used his Hikmicro Habrok binoculars to track the mink before taking aim with his Daystate Wolverine
I watched all this through the King Cobra scope and once satisfied the mink wasn’t going anywhere, despite its efforts to tug the chicken free, I slipped the Wolverine R’s safety catch, took a deep breath and settled the cross hair on the creature’s head, aiming just behind the ear as I would have done with a rabbit or squirrel.
The mink chose that moment to freeze – perhaps it had heard, smelled or sensed me in some other way. It mattered not though as it was just what I needed. The 18.13 grain pellet zipped across the corner of the field and hit home with a hollow smack.
The mink jumped in the air and performed a full somersault. I re-cocked the rifle and lined up for a follow-up shot. I needn’t have bothered though as I could see through the scope it was dead.
Below: Rich's airgun mink hunt concludes with a precise shot and a humane kill
I left my position in the hedgerow to take a closer look. The sight of a fearsome set of gnashers made me take the precaution of giving the mink a poke with the muzzle of the loaded rifle. It wasn’t playing dead but had expired for real, the pellet having struck exactly where I’d aimed, and I could see blood on its nose and mouth as well as on the stones on which it lay.
Close up it was a beautiful, if menacing, thing with jet black glossy fur. I picked it up by the tail and walked back to the chicken farmer. He was less impressed by the mink’s beauty and invited me to ‘sling the *”@*! thing’ in the fire pit.
So that’s what I did. Mystery solved.
GUN: Daystate Wolverine R HiLite 30 ft/lbs .22
SCOPE: MTC Optics King Cobra 6-24x50 F2
SCOPE MOUNTS: SportsMatch two-piece mounts
PELLETS: JTS Dead Centre 18.13 grains
TRAIL CAMERA: Hikmicro M15
THERMAL SPOTTER: Hikmicro Habrok PRO HX60L
JACKET: Jack Pyke Hunters Jacket
SHOOTING STICKS: Primos Trigger Sticks Gen3 Tall
Article first published 30th August 2025
