Hi all...I never thought it would happen to me... It has been really cold here, and my husband and I were late getting the girls up last night... Out of 8 (1 roo, 7 girls) we could could only find five... This morning we searched and searched. My DH found one of our 5 mo GLWs, frozen solid, but no sign of attack...however... When he was searching the back three acres, which are wooded, he saw bobcat prints in the snow on the topside of fallens trees and logs. The other two girls we never found, but also we saw no feathers or blood. The two we lost were a 5 mo Australorp (Snowball), who began laying on this past Monday, and our 5 mo RIR (Rocket). I had never thought about bobcats, I had considered all the usual suspects, racoons, dogs, hawks, coyotes, humans, etc... Moonlyghtegirl
So sorry for your loss. They become part of the family. I would think that now that they know where there's easy food they will be back.
Bobcats are super-predators. He will come back until there is nothing left. My advice: Don't leave anything out for him to get. if you have to, box them up in a garage or outbuilding until you can shore up or build a sturdeier enclosure. If he can't get to them, he will eventually quit coming by your property as much.
I was sort of lucky when a bobcat decided to make our place a feline take-out. My chickens range inside my goat pen, which has to have an electric fence to keep the goats from knocking the fence down. I ran a wire along the top of the fenceposts, and Mr. Kitty hasn't been back.
They are fairly easy to trap. Get a dead chicken (or save the dead ones ) and tie them into the back of the trap. My problem bobcat killed 12 chickens,a goose and some ducks.. Once trapped I used a .22
