Backbone of local economy grew out of perseverance

It was this same kind of perseverance that led early mink farmers in Digby County to turn a fledgling industry into the backbone of our present day local economy.

Mink ranching in Nova Scotia began over 100 years ago but it was men like Wallace Mullen of New Tusket and Minot Mullen of Havelock, along with his four sons, who were instrumental in developing the industry in the area south of Weymouth in the early 1930s.

Wallace Mullen got his start in the mink business as a young teenager in 1930 when he and his brother Leland along with their hound ‘trapped’ their first mink in the wild, providing the stock for the foundation for their ranch.

For over 30 years Wallace and his brothers, Edsel and Leland, persevered in their breeding for color to achieve a herd of dominant black mink.

By the early 1960s after breeding predominately black males with standard females, the resulting kits were 50 percent black. “We knew we had something different,” said Mullen. “Something we had been looking for 30 years of mink ranching.”

However, on April 28, 1964, a disastrous fire broke out in a feed shed on Mullen’s ranch. “The fire spread to the many rows of mink sheds and burned thousands of kits and their mothers,” he said. “Most of the black males were in a shed away from the fire and they were saved.”

The following year, these black mink helped produce a new stock of black kits.

In 1965, the Mullen brothers advertised their ‘Mullen Jet Black’ mutation and within three years sold every Jet Black they produced for breeding purposes in North America and Europe.

After seeing the Jet Blacks first hand at Mullen’s ranch, H.A. Graff of the animal feed company Ralston Purina, said: “It was quite a thrill seeing this real breakthrough in mink breeding. What it will mean to the industry is impossible to predict.”

Mullen’s wife Hilda said the Jet Blacks were a major breakthrough in the industry. “The Jet Blacks put the industry ahead by leaps and bounds, especially for Nova Scotia,” said Mullen. “It put our area on the world map for the top breed of mink.”

Wallace Mullen, now 94, retired nearly 40 years ago, and the impact his Mullen Jet Black mink made worldwide in 1965 has continued to influence fur markets today.

Minot Mullen and his four sons began an operation that has continued down to the present except for a time during the Second World War. His one ranch later expanded into three of the largest operations in the Weymouth area generating much needed employment.

In November, 1931, Mullen traded 10,000 feet of spruce logs to his brother Frank in return for three ranch-raised mink. Three pens were built for the mink and while Mullen worked in the woods to pay for his investment, his sons Earl and Walton were put in charge of raising the animals.

Earl recalled receiving $2.50 for the pelt from one of the females they lost early on and with the remaining two mink produced three kits to keep the herd growing.

The diet for their small herd consisted of ground cornmeal cakes to cure rickets along with fish and rabbits the boys caught.

Austin Mullen remembered that prices for fur of all kinds went sky-high to as much as $40 a pelt in 1936 just before the 1937 coronation of King George VI.

Later, with Earl and Austin in the army it was decided that they would pelt out starting again from scratch in 1945 after the war.

Although the fur markets fluctuated in the 1950s and ’60s, the Mullens persevered to improve the quality of their mink pelts in order to be more competitive with other Canadian breeders.

Earl, Donald and Austin divided the ranch in 1956 with Earl starting up Hillsdale Fur Farm in Easton.

Austin formed A&J Fur Farm in 1963 while Donald started Brookside Fur Farm in 1964.

Although Earl and Donald have since died and Austin has retired, all three farms continue to be operated by their sons and grandsons to help maintain local economic stability.

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