Bobcat has made it personal

[Swivelhip]

24” from your leg! You have a kill permit, straight up, Shoot it! Your boy is terrifying to walk to the bus, your chickens are caged up and bottom line, what it he does get ahold of you or your boy… Think about that, no rehoming this guy to be someone else’s problem. Yes, he is pretty and we are building homes in “his” yard, but I could not take the risk, #4 or larger pellet.

 

[Project Blue]

Good luck, bobcats are extremely intelligent and they're insanely agile. They can climb a tree faster than you can run on level ground. They're also incredibly brazen. I had one take a hen not more than 30' away from me while I was on watch with a shotgun (my thinking was I would bait it and take it out when it attacked). The attack was so fast I was only alerted when I heard the guineas go crazy and they were charging towards the part of the fence the 'cat had jumped over.

After that, which was the 4th hen I'd lost in as many days, I put the flock into a full lockdown and hunted it for the better part of two weeks. I never put eyes on him (all the visuals I got were on trail camras), but I heard him several times. One time he probably wasn't more than 10' away from me in a dense thicket.

I tried trapping, too, but that didn't work. I did manage to find his den, which he didn't like at all as he left the property a few days after that.

He's been back, but these days keeps to the river and avoids the fence-line that marks the flock's territory for whatever reason.

If you really want to tell the bobcat what you think of him, febreeze his scratch marks on marked trees and if you're a male remark them. A least you're giving him fair warning before shooting him!

 

[astone]

It hasn't returned (yet) I have a tasty treat that isn't my birds for him on the hill. I plan to go check that camera tomorrow. I was told to try the treble hook method as an option also. We have been very watchful but no movement but I know it's close bc we have an ol house cat named Creeper who will not go outside longer than she needs to. Comes back in and hides.. I'm reading a few nature articles on the hunting and movements of a bobcat so I can get a betterment on what I need to do to kill it. I still can't get my son outside unless I walk him to his trampoline (it has a big net around it that zips closed) he feels safe in there. Hes been helping build our new coop to keep our babies safe. Luigi is very excited to be getting a new house. (My golden polish roo)

 

[McChooky]

I know what you're up against because I've had more than my share of the treachery of bobcats. They are clever and they keep coming back.

I think you're on the right track with the idea of using bait. I also have hot wire around my coops and runs, and while the hot wire baited with peanut butter took care of the bears, I needed to figure out how to bait it for a cat.

Obviously, fish is a good bait to use for a bobcat, but how to attach it to a hot wire so that a bobcat can get the full "flavor" of the electric charge. What I did was to take a five inch square of hardware cloth, folded it into a "taco", and I slipped a fish into it. Then I took some thin metal wire and attached it to my hot wire (with the charger turned off, of course). I repeated this "metal fish taco" at intervals of every ten or fifteen feet around my run. Then I charged the wire again.

Yes, it was a smashing success. The bobcat fell for the bait, tried to take the fish and got a 10,000 volt message. I haven't had a bobcat problem since. It's been years now since I've seen a bobcat around my place.

Unless, you're compelled by vengeance to shoot the cat, this is an effortless, surefire way to deal with this problem.

I did this and my fence quit working lol I haven't seen the bob cat though