This was some kind of cat. Certainly not a raccoon or coyote. And there are paw prints. We had a previous run in with a raccoon that got half my flock.
My middle daughter has a warped mind. “Dad, we should use a leg trap, and then feed the dead bobcat to the chickens so they can get revenge.”
I’m definitely considering the electric fence and probably check it out on Saturday. I’ll have to redo the coop area this summer. It’s too wet now and I’m super crushed at work. I swear I’ve secured the perimeter but that dang cat keeps trying new stuff.
Are you English? I follow the North American definition, and was redundant to boot! Was surprised to discover the first definition, so thanks for pointing that out.
ADJECTIVE
1.(of a person) surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react:
“he would be completely nonplussed and embarrassed at the idea”
synonyms: surprised · stunned · dumbfounded · confounded · taken aback ·
[more]
N. AMER.
informal (of a person) not disconcerted; unperturbed.
synonyms: unperturbed · unruffled · unfazed · composed
I worked on a farm in California and we started losing our chicken and looked around and found a rat nest and there a piles of feathers near the nest. There was a piles of rocks that the rats lived in so we had to move the rocks to break up the nest . There chicken bones etc in the nest too. So there could be some rats stealing your chicken too.
We had a couple of rats about a year ago. I put out some rat traps and took care of that problem. Speaking of which, since this bobcat siege has begun, I put out those same plastic rat traps just to annoy the bobcat (I snapped one on my finger so it stings but wouldn’t do real damage to anything bigger than a rat).
Like I wrote earlier, I saw the damn thing last night. Definitely some kinda cat even if I couldn’t see clearly that it was a bobcat.
Contrary to what someone might tell you, bobcats do in fact dig.
If they know there is a free and tasty lunch right there, they will dig quite well.
They will also eventually go right through chicken wire, so will coons (or did you mean hardware cloth?)
to fix the digging, clean out the coop, level out the bottom, and pour in a few inches of Sakrete or what ever ready mix concrete your hardware store sells, they can not dig up through that. Makes cleaning the coop floor easier too.
If your coop is chicken wire, go over that with hardware cloth, or you could wrap the bottom half of the coop with a 4’ wide roll of semi corrugated tin (looks like above ground pool siding)
Also, and this might sound disgusting but bob cats do not like the scent of human male urine, dont ask me why, it’s an animal thing i guess, so if you take a walk around the yard and mark the fence perimeter it helps some. Not sure why, maybe it’s the scent of much larger male carnivore that does it?
If you have a dog of some sort, putting out in the general area is good too, they can hear and smell the dog, and dont like that much.
Cats roam a territory, so keep watch, it will most likely be back if nothing has happened to it, it already knows what you have on the menu
Thanks! I always wanted permission to pee in the yard.
The bobcat came back maybe last night. It’s going around and testing pretty much every log round I’ve put on the perimeter to see if it can move it out of the way and dig. Each time I just get a heavier log.
Damn Bobcat. I bought a couple of pullets a while back so back to half a dozen chickens. Yesterday, we had 5. No feathers, no muss, no fuss, the sun had set but not yet twilight. Looks like I have to get the chickens in while it is still broad daylight, or keep 'em in the locked up run.
