Anyone have luck catching a feral chicken?? UPDATE: Rooster caught, no hen

[staceyj]

@Sassysouth
@peckpeckpeck

 

[guineapeeps]

I shared this on another post, but I thought you guys might enjoy a little Storytime. Yesterday evening my daughter and I went to the coop to let the chickens out for a bit. They were all out roaming the yard for about 1/2 hr and I was about to start cleaning their water containers and my daughter tells me she hears a kitten meowing. I tell her no and walk towards her and she sees a full grown black cat sitting next to the shed. RIGHT next to the chickens. We see it, it sees us and meows. I see a white patch on it's chest and smile b/c we had had a black cat like that several years ago, but he disappeared & I thought it might be him (This has happened to us before.. it's a little rural here and cats come and go and miraculously reappear years later - Spoiler, it's not our old cat). I squat down and it cautiously walks towards me, meowing. I'm worried it's hurt & afraid it's interested in a fresh chicken meal, my daughter is freaking out b/c of her chickens. She's almost in tears running back and forth like people do in cartoons. He comes up to me and smells my hand. My daughter is trying get the chickens back in the coop to save them from this ferocious beast. Her running around like a chicken w/ it's head cut off scares the cat and it runs into the woods through where the chickens were. Initially we thought he was trying to attack the chickens, but later realized he was trying to get away. We got all the chickens back in the coop, my daughter pacing and circling the coop, board in hand to defend her flock from the monster. She calms down & I go to tell my mom about the cat. She knows about him, he lives in the woods and comes through that spot by the coop to get to the house for food we leave out for our cats. She just now tells me there's been a strange cat by my coop?! SMH.. I watch as he comes around the coop, expecting him to try to hurt them through the fence. Nothing. Walks over the tree sits down, stares at us and meows. I go back to him and squat down to take a video of him and he comes to me again. I pet him and my daughter watches then comes up, he backs away. She squats down and he comes back. I move back to get a picture of him. "Mom, he's purring". His name is Tubbs. No idea where he came from, but he's people friendly. He's fat and fluffy and not fixed. My cat hates him. The chickens are ok though they were squawking up a storm. We always watch our girls when they're out of the coop, but we'll be extra cautious now that we know there's an outsider around. Our bantam pullet is a little too much bird size for us to be comfortable.
This is Tubbs.

I swear I have the twin to that black cat at your youse! He showed up at our place about 4 years ago in a similar situation as yours. He just showed up one day around our coop. He was really skinny, but super sweet. I think he must have been someone’s barn cat, who wasn’t very successful at it. I guess it’s not surprising he was so skinny, as he was scared to death of my birds, so probably wouldn’t have killed much for a meal.
Fast forward to now....Toothless (chose the name from the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” because he looks like the dragon in the movie) is now a neutered 15 pound cat that is more like a dog. When we moved recently, he just sat in the back seat and roamed the car along with my dogs. Best cat ever......

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

My mom got black walnuts from some lady, a LOT of them... my dad cracked one open and it was the most pitiful walnut ever. There was 2 tiny chunks of meat about the size of a kernel of corn. My mom's still going to crack them all. IMO it's a waste of time, but she doesn't work, so this has been keeping her busy for a couple weeks so whatever.. I'm also not a fan of walnuts so even if they were huge I'd still think it was a waste of time.

I tried getting one out of it's outer skin and it was impossible! It stunk and stained my skin. The squirrels line them up in knots on tree branches or in crooks then let them get rained on several times. Then they grab them and peel that outside off no problem!

 

[Sassysouth]

I know y’all are tired of hearing about Buff Baby. I think she must be younger than the others and growing more slowly. I pick her up and she so quiet and snuggley.

I read so much how Bantam Brahmas were favored over Cochins, but I am not enjoying 3 of them. They are not as sweet as the Cochins.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I shared this on another post, but I thought you guys might enjoy a little Storytime. Yesterday evening my daughter and I went to the coop to let the chickens out for a bit. They were all out roaming the yard for about 1/2 hr and I was about to start cleaning their water containers and my daughter tells me she hears a kitten meowing. I tell her no and walk towards her and she sees a full grown black cat sitting next to the shed. RIGHT next to the chickens. We see it, it sees us and meows. I see a white patch on it's chest and smile b/c we had had a black cat like that several years ago, but he disappeared & I thought it might be him (This has happened to us before.. it's a little rural here and cats come and go and miraculously reappear years later - Spoiler, it's not our old cat). I squat down and it cautiously walks towards me, meowing. I'm worried it's hurt & afraid it's interested in a fresh chicken meal, my daughter is freaking out b/c of her chickens. She's almost in tears running back and forth like people do in cartoons. He comes up to me and smells my hand. My daughter is trying get the chickens back in the coop to save them from this ferocious beast. Her running around like a chicken w/ it's head cut off scares the cat and it runs into the woods through where the chickens were. Initially we thought he was trying to attack the chickens, but later realized he was trying to get away. We got all the chickens back in the coop, my daughter pacing and circling the coop, board in hand to defend her flock from the monster. She calms down & I go to tell my mom about the cat. She knows about him, he lives in the woods and comes through that spot by the coop to get to the house for food we leave out for our cats. She just now tells me there's been a strange cat by my coop?! SMH.. I watch as he comes around the coop, expecting him to try to hurt them through the fence. Nothing. Walks over the tree sits down, stares at us and meows. I go back to him and squat down to take a video of him and he comes to me again. I pet him and my daughter watches then comes up, he backs away. She squats down and he comes back. I move back to get a picture of him. "Mom, he's purring". His name is Tubbs. No idea where he came from, but he's people friendly. He's fat and fluffy and not fixed. My cat hates him. The chickens are ok though they were squawking up a storm. We always watch our girls when they're out of the coop, but we'll be extra cautious now that we know there's an outsider around. Our bantam pullet is a little too much bird size for us to be comfortable.
This is Tubbs.

Sounds a lot like the cat that just adopted us. She is a little dark grey kitty. I was adamant that we did not need another cat. I have two indoor Bengals. I actually caught her and was having my husband take her to a shelter about 30 min away. I called the shelter to give them a heads up because he would be arriving close to closing time. They informed me they only take dogs and that the nearest shelter that takes cats is over 1.5hrs away *facepalm*. My sister was coming for a visit in a few days and said she would take the cat to the shelter on her way home if we hadn't found something to do with her. Well, during that time she wormed her way into our hearts and we decided to keep her as a "barn cat" she is so cute. She loves going on walks with us. She loves my almost 16 month old son and she even gets along with the chickens.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

3rd try and she speckled her egg!

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

This little goofball weaseld her way into the family. She was in the garage at our old house. Filthy and so skinny I don't know how she survived. We thought she was a kitten. Brought her to the vet who agreed to see her for free cause I felt so bad for her. Nasty crusty face and what looked like frostbite. She was 4 lbs. And 7 years old! She has an old injury to the right side of her face. A broken fang (that eventually needed pulled), a scar in that eye (she can see out of it), and she snorts. Like a pig. LOL
We figure someone moved and left her. She is the sweetest cat. She's fat and happy now, that's for sure.

 

[Molpet]

We have more bunnies then we know what to do with. Quite a few squirrels too. We have a couple of apple trees they visit. The squirrels love the black walnut trees! If I could sell the walnuts I'd be a wealthy lady indeed.

places from one company, to buy blk walnuts https://black-walnuts.com/discover-harvesting-and-hulling/

 

[apryl29]

I swear I have the twin to that black cat at your youse! He showed up at our place about 4 years ago in a similar situation as yours. He just showed up one day around our coop. He was really skinny, but super sweet. I think he must have been someone’s barn cat, who wasn’t very successful at it. I guess it’s not surprising he was so skinny, as he was scared to death of my birds, so probably wouldn’t have killed much for a meal.
Fast forward to now....Toothless (chose the name from the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” because he looks like the dragon in the movie) is now a neutered 15 pound cat that is more like a dog. When we moved recently, he just sat in the back seat and roamed the car along with my dogs. Best cat ever......
View attachment 1170028

He does look like Toothless! He's adorable, they could be twins. Ours is very fat. I'm hoping it means someone has been feeding him, but since his fur is so thick I'm thinking he's been honing his hunting skills.. Not that our other cats don't hunt. Zoey is constantly murdering things and leaving their corpses by the house. She traumatized my daughter w/ a bird she left in the middle of the yard this summer.

I tried getting one out of it's outer skin and it was impossible! It stunk and stained my skin. The squirrels line them up in knots on tree branches or in crooks then let them get rained on several times. Then they grab them and peel that outside off no problem!

I wore latex gloves and between the oils and my nails it tore the gloves and I ended up w/ black thumbs and stained nails. The lady told my mom to run the walnuts over w/ your car to break the husk open then let them sit for a bit til the turn black and the husks will come off. I took a flat ended shovel and jabbed it into the pile to break the husk on the green ones. It seemed to work, but they weren't fresh & looked like they'd been sitting on the ground for a while. I hope yours have more meat in them than hers did. My mom said she read somewhere that it was a bad year for the black walnuts, IDK where though.

I know y’all are tired of hearing about Buff Baby. I think she must be younger than the others and growing more slowly. I pick her up and she so quiet and snuggley.

I read so much how Bantam Brahmas were favored over Cochins, but I am not enjoying 3 of them. They are not as sweet as the Cochins.

I'm not! Your baby is sooo cute. I want to cuddle it. I call that stage when they're 1/2 feathered the velociraptor stage, like they escaped from Jurassic Park.

View attachment 1170070
This little goofball weaseld her way into the family. She was in the garage at our old house. Filthy and so skinny I don't know how she survived. We thought she was a kitten. Brought her to the vet who agreed to see her for free cause I felt so bad for her. Nasty crusty face and what looked like frostbite. She was 4 lbs. And 7 years old! She has an old injury to the right side of her face. A broken fang (that eventually needed pulled), a scar in that eye (she can see out of it), and she snorts. Like a pig. LOL
We figure someone moved and left her. She is the sweetest cat. She's fat and happy now, that's for sure.

I love crazy adoption stories like that. Like they just find you. We had tons of abandoned cats/ dogs & 'If we don't take it, it's going to die!' pets growing up. My favorite story is Smokey's story. I was leaving for my 1 week honeymoon and left my cats w/ my parents to watch. They're princesses and could NOT be left alone. My newest addition was Destiny who I got from the vet's assistant. She was part Persian and beautiful. My mom was out working in the flower bed and 'Destiny' came up to her. My mom grabbed her and put her in the house and yelled at my dad for letting her out. Then later she saw Destiny... sitting next to some other gray cat. That was not Destiny. They put up signs, but eventually decided he was dumped. We kept him b/c, you know, he would have died if we didn't take him.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

places from one company, to buy blk walnuts https://black-walnuts.com/discover-harvesting-and-hulling/

To get both my town and the place that will take the walnuts on the map I had to zoom out so far my town disappeared. LOL I'm the red dot up north.
Thanks Though.