Bobcat mitigation?

[Nicoliosis5]

Hello all.

We lost our first hen a few days ago to a big ol' bobcat.

It attacked in broad daylight (about 4:00 PM) while the girls were free ranging. I was in the garden, only about 30 feet away from them at the time, and we were also about 20 feet from the house.

Brave kitty.

When I heard the commotion and saw the girls freaking out and a patch of fur moving quickly thru the leaves, I charged down the hill towards them (at that moment I believed it was the neighborhood mink who I was planning on just chasing off). I got about 15 feet from the cat before I saw it, hopping across the stream with one of my girls hanging from its mouth

It didn't even bat an eyelash about me being so close which makes me a little uncomfortable..

The rest of the girls are of course locked up in the coop/run for the time being cause I know it will be/probably already has been back, but I really don't want to keep them locked up in there forever. They are only 17 weeks old and have had just a taste of the big wide world (had been free-ranging for 10 days).

Is there ANY way to keep a bobcat away short of putting a bullet in it? Any type of fencing or something?

UGHHH

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[cavemanrich]

You need to have a secured run including the top to protect from a bobcat. An electrified fence may be a solution, but it gets costly to purchase. I do not advocate killing any predator, so securing run is only advice from me. Here is a link to electric fence fabric. It does not include an energizer. That means more cash.
https://www.amazon.com/Premier-Elec...sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1471982738&sr=8-10&keywords=electric+fencing#feature-bullets-btf
WISHING YOU BEST...

 

[ejcrist]

I'd check the rules for your area and lay down a couple of foothold trap sets when/where legal. If you're not familiar with trapping or can't legally trap him I'd hunt him when/where legal. Forget about box traps because it's difficult to lure animals in them and even if you do, what are you going to do with him from there? Other than that you'll have to keep your birds locked up permanently because he'll certainly be back for more and won't quit.

 

[Phoenix2015]

I am in the same boat as you. We got hit yesterday. I lost 5 roosters and a male duck to a predator attack, from the size of the prints we believe it was a bob cat. Mine were penned up. We have two layers of wire around both the chicken run and the duck run. Poultry wire (which I know is basically to keep the birds in) and a heavy duty 2 x 4 rectangle vinyl coated welded wire and they still got through, so these must be some tough predators. I have started locking my birds in their houses at night, I use to let them put them selves up for the night and not bother to shut the doors to the houses, but from now on I will lock them up. My hens that were in the house did not get hit at all. I had my roosters in a pen under the hen house so that they were covered and it had wire on 2.5 sides giving them some protection from the elements, but what ever it was that got in tore a hole through the welded wire fence and the poultry netting. On the duck pen they found a weak point where we started the welded wire and pulled it loose. That of course has since been corrected with 2x4's screwed over top sandwiching the wire between.

 

[centrarchid]

I have had limited trouble with a bobcat. It took roosters (fully adult) almost exclusively and from flocks that were outside the electrified poultry netting. The cats can easily clear the netting by jumping but seem not to want to get that close based on tracks I could see. Ultimately my dogs had to run it off with a little help from me. Dogs at first had trouble locating cat in tree by smell where cat sat tight with dogs present. When I approached tree but still from some distance (cat very concerned about me seeing it) the cat bailed from tree so dogs could see, hear and smell it before running it hard for at least a couple hundred yards. Thereafter dogs new what to look for and bobcat appears to steer clear of poultry area.

 

[Flock In Texas]

I used to have a pair of boxers who ran a bobcat off a few years ago. My big male had a big claw mark on his hip to show for it. I miss those dogs. I'm hoping Pork Chop will carry on and protect his yard from coyotes and bobcats. He is a Dalmatian/Pitbull. I hope I can teach him to protect the flock when I complete the coop.