Please talk to me about bobcat

[birdy_num_nums]

How can I best defend against these guys?

Any tales from the trenches about bobcat losses or encounters?

Would you consider raccoons or bobcat to be a bigger threat?

I am in the planning stage of my hen house and am designing everything from the standpoint of a bobcat and how to keep one out. Raccoons, too, in that they are so clever with locks and whathaveyou.

Hoping to be able to sleep at night once my 11 girls are out in the real world (currently 3 weeks old and safe in a brooder).

 

[Jaybr]

I would think a bobcat is a much bigger concern if your flock is free ranging than when in the coop or run. Bobcats are very stealthy, you never hear them coming. I've seen bobcats in the wild, and watched them from a treestand, only animal that's ever gotten close without making a sound.

I would be more worried about a racoon getting in the coop though, I don't think a bobcat will open a latch or dig under the wire.

My neighbor has lost a bunch of chickens to bobcat, but his freerange all the time.

 

[LynneP]

A few weeks ago a bobcat was killed close to our farm by a nursing sow. The cat tried to get a piglet from an outdoor pen and the sow woke up and trampled the intruder after grabbing him by the body with her teeth. With several species in mind, including raccoons, mink, fishers, ferals, skunks, etc we used 1/2" hardware cloth, some buried to the 2' level. I would assume that a bobcat can climb as well as a raccoon and though they prefer rabbits and wild cats as food that a hungry one would be a formidable opponent. No one in our district free-ranges any more, though there are some solitary roosters who lost all their hens.