BorregoMike
Chirping
- Jun 30, 2018
- 46
- 62
- 75
I pulled up to our house this afternoon and my chickens, I’ve got 30, were all loudly making a rhythmic cluck I’d not heard before. I looked over to their run, 24 x 16, and there was a bobcat slowly walking along the wire fence, about two feet from the fence. It did not look like it was trying to get at the chickens, it just walked by. As I walked back there the cat walked, but did not run, away, disappearing into the surrounding desert, which has some narrow arroyos in that area. The birds kept making the alarm sound until I went into the run and slowly, with a meal worm treat, calmed them down. Interestingly about half of the birds were in the coop while the others stayed outside within view of the cat.
I have a 1/2 inch welded wire fence enclosing the run on all sides and top. This same wire is also buried out from the perimeter of the fence a couple of feet AND the entire run is surrounded by four strands of electric wire fence starting about six inches off the ground. The cat may have been zapped before I saw it, I don’t know.
I assume the bobcat will come back. Coyotes are seen around here just about every day. They, along with hawks, are probably the main predators, although I have a friend who has lost hens to scorpions. Being chicks they peck and the scorpions sting back. The sting is painful not terribly harmful to people around here but I guess there’s enough venom to kill a bird.
What was interesting in all of this was the rhythmic clucking sound. I am daily amazed by the instinctive knowledge and behavior that is packaged in chickens. In this case they all knew the sound to make and they all knew what it meant.
Just a normal day for a desert flock keeper!
I have a 1/2 inch welded wire fence enclosing the run on all sides and top. This same wire is also buried out from the perimeter of the fence a couple of feet AND the entire run is surrounded by four strands of electric wire fence starting about six inches off the ground. The cat may have been zapped before I saw it, I don’t know.
I assume the bobcat will come back. Coyotes are seen around here just about every day. They, along with hawks, are probably the main predators, although I have a friend who has lost hens to scorpions. Being chicks they peck and the scorpions sting back. The sting is painful not terribly harmful to people around here but I guess there’s enough venom to kill a bird.
What was interesting in all of this was the rhythmic clucking sound. I am daily amazed by the instinctive knowledge and behavior that is packaged in chickens. In this case they all knew the sound to make and they all knew what it meant.
Just a normal day for a desert flock keeper!