In the thickly settled districts where the most valuable fur-bearing animals, such as the silver foxes, otters, etc., are not to be found, the mink is the most valuable and is eagerly sought by the trappers. The fur is at its best during the first two months after it becomes prime, which in the north will be about November 1st, and in the south perhaps a month later. After the first two months, the fur commences to fade, especially where the country is open and the animal is exposed to the bright light, for the mink is not, strictly, a nocturnal animal. The darkest skins come, as a rule, from the timbered parts of the country. While the female is smaller than the male, she is also darker, and the skins have about an equal value.
The food of the mink consists mostly of rabbits, partridges, quail, squirrels, muskrats, mice, fish, frogs, birds' eggs, etc. While they will eat stale meat, if hungry, they prefer strictly fresh food. Occasionally they will pay a visit to the poultry house, for like most animals of the weasel family, they have a decided liking for the domesticated birds. They are very fond of fish, and when same may be secured easily, they will kill large numbers, merely for the sake of killing.
They are active and hardy little animals, apparently almost tireless, as they will travel long distances in a night. They are perhaps most active during the fall months, and in the north they travel very little during the cold part of winter.
The burrow or den of the mink is usually located in the high bank of some stream, but they frequently inhabit deserted dens of other animals, but always near the water. It is in these dens that the female and her offspring spend the summer months, never straying far from home.
The first two weeks of March is the minks' season for mating, and the young—from four to six—are born about six weeks later. When confined in enclosures where the diet, water and temperature are similar with each animal, there is so little difference in the time of mating and bearing their young, that five or six litters may make their appearance within twelve hours of each other.
The young are blind from four to five weeks, but are very active and as playful as kittens. The mother weans them when they are eight or ten weeks old. At about four weeks the mother begins to feed them meat, and they learn to suck at it before they have teeth to eat it. The young are fed by the mother on frogs, fish, mice, etc., until they are three or four months old, when she leaves them to shift for themselves. The young soon separate and do their hunting alone. They do not pair and the male is a rover and "free lover."
Mink are extremely cleanly and as soon as the den becomes foul, the mother moves the family to some other nest.
Mink Breeding.—There are a great many readers of the H-T-T who live in the city, that long for some way to profitably spend their idle time. I will give a successful way of breeding mink, according to Mr. Boughton's Guide:
"Wild adult mink are almost untamable, but young ones readily submit to handling and are easily domesticated. The time to secure young mink is in May or June when they begin to run with their dams. The streams must be quietly watched for mink trails, and these, if possible, tracked to the nest. When they leave the hole, the young ones may be secured, or they may be dug out. Those who own a breeding stock of mink ask very high prices for them, but if the aforesaid plan is carried out, it is an easy matter to get the young wild ones.
"Management of Mink.—Mink being by nature solitary, wandering animals, being seldom seen in company except in mating season, it is impossible to rear them successfully if large numbers are kept together constantly; therefore, their enclosure should be a large one. The male and the female should be permitted to be together frequently from the middle of February until the middle of March. At all other times keep them entirely separate.