The male and 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. The young mink make their appearance about the first of May. When wild in the woods they will seldom vary five days from this time, but when kept in confinement there is greater variation. About this season they should have plenty of fine hay, which they will carry into their boxes to make nests. A box three or four feet long and eighteen inches wide is the shape they prefer. It should be placed as far as possible from the water to prevent the mink from carrying water and mud into it.
The young mink when first born are small and delicate, destitute of any kind of fur, and much resembling young rats. If the old mink is tame the young ones may be taken out of the nest and handled when they are three weeks old. They will soon learn to drink milk, and may feed every day. At five weeks old they may be taken from the mother and put into a pen by themselves, when they will soon become very playful and pretty, and make much better mothers than they would if allowed to run with the old ones.
The shelter should be in the shape of a long box, 5 or 6 feet wide, and 3 or 4 feet high, set upon legs, and with a good floor and roof. Divide it into separate compartments, 6 feet long (or longer would be better,) the front of each apartment to be furnished with a swinging door of strong wire screen, with the hinges at the top, and a button or some kind of fastener at the bottom. A trough 6 inches square, made by nailing three boards together, should run the whole length of the pen on the back side; one end of the trough should be made several inches lower than the other, so that the water can be drawn off. With this arrangement, the water can be turned in at one end of the trough, and drawn off and changed as often as desired. The lower end of the trough should be a little deeper than the other, to prevent the water from running over. Each apartment is furnished with a box 3 feet long and eighteen inches wide. On one side of the box and near one end is made a round hole, 2 1/2 inches in diameter, and provided with a sliding cover so that by means of a stick it can be opened or closed from the outside.
This is so the mink can be shut up when the pen is being cleaned out. On the top of the box and at the other end should be a door large enough to put in hay for the nest and take out the young. It is necessary that they have abundance of pure, soft water, fresh air, desirable shade and plenty of exercise. These conditions secure to the mink a good quality of dark fur and good health. Brush, weeds, etc., are allowed to grow in the yard, but not near enough the wall to admit of their climbing up and out.
In addition to the above directions for breeding mink, we give the following experience of a gentleman in Vermont: “I purchased one female and her litter of five, two males and four females in all, and constructed a building of rough boards, 10 by 4 feet, for a minkery. It had a floor tight enough to prevent the escape of the animals, was properly ventilated, and divided into six apartments, one of which is an ante-room in which to step from the outside and close the door. Water is supplied by a lead pipe running in at one side through all the rooms, and out at the other into a trough where small fish are kept, and occasionally given to the minks.
“They were kept together until December the 18th, when the males were put in an apartment by themselves. On the 10th of March each male was put in with a female, each pair separate, and after a couple of days, one of the males was put in with another female, and finally with the third. They were separated about the 1st of April, each female being kept alone and supplied with a suitable box, with warm material for a nest. When it was supposed they were about to bring forth their young, they were disturbed as little as possible; anything to excite them at this time, should be avoided, for when irritated, they will sometimes eat their young. The first female put with the perfect male, brought forth seven, one of which disappeared after they began to crawl around out of their nest. The other two females had each a pair, all of which (but the one mentioned) are now alive, fine, fat, sleek fellows, and fully grown. They are very easily kept, being fed once a day upon warm milk with wheat bread crumbs—a quart sufficing for the whole lot, and once upon fresh meat, care being taken not to over-feed.
“Any kind of meat and offal that is not too fat will answer. They are very fond of beef liver, chickens’ heads and entrails, woodchucks (being careful not to give them the gall or the liver, which is poisonous), rats, mice, etc. They are more easily cared for than one hog and much more cheaply kept. Nothing was paid out for meat for them until after 1st July, when a contract was made with a butcher to leave a bullock’s head once a week. I am confident that the increase of the minkery would have been fully one-third more if both the males had been perfect. I intend to keep them in pairs hereafter. They are not easily handled, but struggle when caught against their will and exude the thick fetid substance from glands near the vent. They will bite severely, but can be handled safely with thick buckskin gloves.”
