Mink and other fur animals

Your dept of ag may have listings for mink ranches. Range raised mink are much larger and come in variety of colors if that matters BUT you do have to come up with a bunch of feed between birth and skinning.

Mink are easy to trap once you find them. Just look around streams, ditches, lakes and ponds. The tracks look like small cat tracks with toenails showing. There are trapping association websites that can guide you.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Do you have any idea how bad a mink farm stinks?

You better be ready for some upset neighbors.

MYneighbors are far enough away they won't smell anything.

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Chinchillas are NOT cute. They're mean, nasty, horrible little creatures.

But their fur is mighty pretty.

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the coat market is driven by weather/economy in russia & eastern europe, believe it or not the right furs are cheaper than synthetics (like southern raccoon, sheared beaver, brown coyotes & red spotless bobs). the luxury market changes w/ the fashion industry (large pale coyotes, large pale otter, large pale bobs w/ dark clear spots, large dark brown mink & sable/marten & ranched fox). the trim trade is also mostly driven by fashion (red & grey fox, smaller mink, ermine, muskrat, lynx, and off versions of high dollar animals).
but the market has been pretty steady after the crash in the 90s.

Around here most are members of a large fur bearers co-op. They get their food delivered every few days. They feed things like ground up carp and road killed animals. They will also process your dead animals if you deliver them to the feed plant.
I used to skin every Thankgiving vacation for a local guy. My mother would set up a cot in the garage for me for a few days because of the odor. The smell gets in your hair and in your clothes. Its tough to get out. I made good money though.
You could always tell when one of them bit through the 2 pair of welding gloves. Usually was a male because they have longer teeth. That one would come pretty bloody.
Most of those fellers are pretty leary of folks they don't know.
I think the Co-op is Intermountain Fur Bearers. Maybe they can put you in contact with someone in your area.
Just thought of something. I have a fleshing machine if your interested.
The real money is made from the musk glands. They are sold for the base in making the more expensive perfumes.
Most mink farmers around here have bred their own colors.

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That which is tolerated by the first generation is magnified in the next.

CIW

....yeesh. You must have dealt with some possessed chinchillas. Mine play with the cat, or tease the dogs, or love on me.

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Knights and Dreams Farm

I'll tell you now that your dogs will not eat the mink. Nothing eats mink. Well, except another mink. Crows won't touch them, coyotes won't either.

I remember skinning season - the farmer's wife would bring us out soup and sandwiches to the skinning shed. We used to joke that they were mink soup and mink sandwiches, because that was pretty much all you could taste!

The market for chinchillas is pretty pathetic right now. The big market for mink pelts is Russia and China.

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"Crivens!"

Half Caper Farm - breeding Saanens, Boers and Nigerian Dwarfs

I've never raised mink and don't intend too, but this one very interesting thread. Homesteading today rocks.

Getting breeding stock isn't too hard with mink. If nothing else, catch a few and start there. Far cheaper this way as a start, while you work the bugs out of your system.

Feeding them is expensive. Meat only, and it's got to be fresh. You need a good steady supply of it.

They must be kept in seperate cages, less they tear each other up.

If your primary interest in mink is simply for your own furs, you might really want to consider wild minks, naturally reared. Just trap them and take the fur. It's much cheaper this way.

My favorite fur is muskrat and there are lots of them.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

You are already in WA. Attend the Seattle Fur Exchange during sale days and visit with some breeders.

Don't know why I didn't think of that....

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Know why the middle class is screwed? 3 classes, 2 parties...

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself. ~ Einstein

I know several mink ranchers and they make a good income some years. It is a hard way to make a living though. The feed is expensive, the mink rearing sheds are almost unbearably smelly, the mink themselves are always trying to bite and can spray like a skunk, they have to be vaccinated by hand, and after all of your work and time and expense you are at the mercy of an extremely fickle market.
Any time a mink worker goes straight from the farm to the store or the bar, everbody in the place immediately knows it.
If you want a few mink pelts to make something to wear, you would be better off getting a trappers license and catching some mink from the wild.
We have a depredation permit for mink and other predators at the fish hatchery. We live trap a dozen or more mink every winter and release them on the river about 5 miles away. They are beautiful animals to look at but are killing machines and unpleasant to deal with.

Wanting to raise a few mink. Have been searching the net for info, but not a lot out there. Wanting to find a mink breeder in SD, NE, or MN. feel free to PM me if you dont want to post on the thred.

A freind of mine is a trapper, he brought me a mink as the fur makes great dubbing for tying flies. That was the first animal I skinned myself. He said their fairly easy to catch as he gets many each year.

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Arctic fox stink to high heaven, almost as bad as mink to my smeller.

I grew up on a mink ranch, blackgama to be exact. You'll need to learn about their weird habbits to raise one, even more so if you intend to breed. They are pretty hands off. Don't think you'll ever train one to be a pet. They are vicious. The are extremely nervous creatures so any noise during breeding, birthing, and before separation season will send them into fits where they eat each other alive and will even eat themselves if it gets that bad. Lots of vaccines to do on them. Their diet, at least the one we fed them, is seriously disgusting. Their smell is everywhere and it will never ever ever come out of your clothes. I swear, it never came out of gramps or dad and they both were doing it since they were kids. That's probably enough for now

Invalid,

I worked for a mink farmer for almost two years when I was in high school a long time ago. The farmer worked construction off the farm, so , although I was just a teenager, I really ran the farm.

We built sheds and the cages that we put in them. I ground the feed in a grinder and then mixed it in a big mixer. I fed and watered them once a day in the evenings. I moved and segregated mink. I put the males in with the females for breeding. I killed a bunch of mink, skinned them, stretched and scraped the hide and then froze the hides for storage until the farmer had time to take them to his buyers. I cleaned under the cages in the sheds.

They are vicious animals, but I guess I would be too if my life consisted of living in a wire cage from birth to death.

I have no idea what the market is for mink, but if you are really interested in a 7 day a week job, go for it.

Tom in TN

Here is your source for buying mink:
Fur Commission USA @
Fur Commission