In the 1960s my parents had a mink ranch in the back yard. This
was apparently a common way to try to make money in the 1940s,
1950s, and 1960s. There were quite a few mink ranchers in the area
at that time. These are my recollections on how the mink ranch
operated.

First, before any animal rights people get on my case, let me
say that this is something my parents did, not something I did.
I was under 12 years old at the time. I agree that raising animals
solely for their pelts isn't a nice or humane thing to do.

What does a mink look like? Like a ferret, but you wouldn't want
to keep a mink as a pet. They are vicious. I remember that if
you put a stick in its cage, the mink would attack it. We had long,
thick leather gloves to wear when handling them to keep from being bitten.

The physical setup was two long sheds with cages, which were called
pens, with nesting boxes, and a 20 foot square building known as
the feed house, which was used for preparing the animals' food,
for skinning and handling the pelts, and for administrative needs.
Almost half of the feed house was taken up by a large, walk-in
freezer, which was used to store frozen cakes of meat used to
make the mink food. We also had two coolers which were used for storing
the prepared food. All this equipment was bought second-hand, and must have
consumed a tremendous amount of electricity. Such equipment, probably made
in the 1940s, wasn't designed to be energy-efficient, because
energy didn't cost that much back then. I would hate to see what
the electric bill would be today from that level of usage.

The mink food was prepared according to a formula which was quite
scientific. It consisted of meat products, cereal, lecithin,
antibiotics, and phosphoric acid. The meat products included
chicken, fish heads, whale, horse meat, and liver. These came
in frozen cakes that measured about 2 by 4 feet, and about 4 inches thick.
After thawing, they would be put through a grinder, and then added to a mixer,
a large tub which had motor-driven rotating paddles. The other ingredients
would be added to the mixer. When thoroughly mixed, the mink food
would be taken out and fed to the animals, and what was left over
was refrigerated for later use. Feeding was accomplished with a
large spoon that placed a scoop of the food on top of the wire
pen. The mink would eat it as it slowly fell through the wire.
Our pet cats were fed mink food too, and they did very well on it.

The pens measured about 20 by 30 inches and were made of wire
mesh that was about one inch by two inches. The pens were raised off the
ground by about 30 inches. A removable wood nesting box,
measuring about 8 by 18 inches, was attached to the pen. Each
pen also had a watering cup. Just before the young were born,
false bottoms, with a wire mesh of about 1/2 inch square, were
placed in the pens, to prevent the kits from falling through
the pen mesh. Each mink got its own pen, except when the kits
were born; then the mother and her young would share the pen
until the kits grew too large, when they were separated.

The annual cycle of the mink ranch began in February, which was
breeding season. The sheds had lights in them, and were turned
on to lengthen the daylight period, which apparently brought
the females into heat. A male would be put into the female's
pen for breeding. The breeding was done scientifically, with
careful records being kept. Breeding would be confirmed by
withdrawing fluid from the female a with an eyedropper;
the fluid would be checked under a microscope for the presence
of sperm. Animals that did not breed were killed and pelted. My
parents had a sign in the mink shed that said "Better bred than dead,"
a play on the Cold War-era slogan popular at that time, "Better red than dead."

In the spring the kits would be born. Straw would be put in
the nesting boxes for the females to make a nest. The kits were born hairless,
tiny, roly-poly looking things. They soon elongated to look like
furry worms, and then gradually grew to look like little mink.

In the summer the mink would be vaccinated. They received vaccinations
for distemper and possibly other diseases, but I can't recall what
they were. I remember a chart showing all the diseases mink could
get: Aleutian disease, viral enteritis, and wet belly were some of
them. Vaccination day was unpleasant both for the mink and for us.
The mink would scream and emit musk. Mink have scent glands, like
skunks do, but their musk is not as strong and offensive. Still,
my parents wore old clothes for vaccination that they would burn
when the day was over.

Most of the rest of the year was spent feeding the mink, watering them,
and cleaning up their manure. As well as generally monitoring them
for illnesses. I personally think the mink got better food and health
care than I did. In the warm weather the manure attracted flies. I
remember the wriggling maggots in the manure piles under the pens.

November-December was pelting time. This was when the fur was at its
highest quality, the winter coat. Obviously not all the animals were killed,
as breeding stock had to be kept. The mink were killed by using neck breakers.
Their bodies were taken into the feed house, where they were skinned.
A few cuts, and the pelt was pulled off like a glove, inside out.
The pelt was then put on a fleshing machine to remove flesh and fat.
Then the pelt was mounted on a stretcher board, fur side in, until
it dried and was ready for shipping to a fur buyer. The carcasses
were sold to a rendering plant, as was the fat collected by the
fleshing machine. I believe the fat was used to make mink oil.

There were associations of mink ranchers; I recall EMBA, Eastern
Mink Breeders Association, and GLMBA, Great Lakes Mink Breeders
Association. We received their magazines. We also
went to a mink ranchers' convention in Toledo, Ohio every year.

The various mink fur colorings had special names. The brown ones were
called dawn pastel. The silver ones were called sapphire. There was
even a "pink mink," not really pink, but a light, almost white shade
that perhaps looked pink in a certain light.

One year, in addition to mink, we had chickens. Once a young
mink got loose and got into the chicken pen. It chased a chicken and
caught it, but then stood there, holding the chicken, like it did
not know what to do with it. The mink had enough instinct to catch
the chicken, but not enough to kill and eat it. I don't think they
would survive very well in the wild if turned loose.

We got out of the mink business, "pelted out," in about 1968. It was
no longer profitable because the market was being flooded by
cheap imported pelts.