For three days, I've had a large, male bobcat hanging around my coop and pen, trying to get to my chickens. He's been completely fearless, not even bothering to run away when I yell at him. Once I even fired off the shotgun with 12 gauge rubber shot at him. That evening he came back and was waiting for me as I was coming out of the pen with the feeders, which I always bring in at night because it attracts bears. That cat was only four or five feet away from me, standing there like it was someone's pet! I hollered at him, " Get off my property, you filthy beast, and don't come back!" Well, what else could I do?
Around mid- morning, I went out to take the chickens some squash, and first thing I see is a huge pile of golden under-belly feathers. I think - OMG! He got Irene (the GLW)! Then I run up to the pen and find the gate wide open and THEY'RE ALL GONE! I think- that SOB wiped me out!
But there was Stan the SLW roo, still locked in his guard shack, adjacent to the pen. But there weren't any piles of feathers in the pen. I glanced up then and saw three SLW's strolling over to the coop from the direction of the compost pile. They were kind of in shock and weren't sure they wanted to go back inside the pen. So I ran and got some grain and that convinced them.
That encouraged me. Maybe others were able to survive. Then I saw some light grey shapes on the compost pile. I'm excited and run over there and find all three Brahmas picking through the compost. They weren't all too eager to go back into the pen, either. I got them all back inside, and I'm counting my blessings that I didn't lose them all!
I'm walking over to re-rig the electric around the pen, and I hear a mad clucking coming from the coop. I think - the bobcat's come back! So I grab the pepper spray and get ready. But the clucking's coming from inside the coop. I open the coop and Irene hops out of a nest. She had just laid her egg and was announcing it like she always does, and it always sounds more like a warning of danger than bragging.
So I didn't lose all of them - Alice, Claudia, Lilith, Irene, Betty, Diane, Nancy are all okay. And Stan, bless his ornery heart, is also fine.
But I'm so traumatized I can't remember the name of the one that got killed and eaten.
I was certain the bobcat had moved on. I had only latched the gate with the "S" hooks, not the carabiners. And the electric had been off. That's all corrected now. The bobcat will be back, but it probably won't be today that the cat returns since it's got a full belly now.
This is tragic, but it could have been so, so much worse.
And there are the six new babies in the brooder in the house. Life goes on.
Around mid- morning, I went out to take the chickens some squash, and first thing I see is a huge pile of golden under-belly feathers. I think - OMG! He got Irene (the GLW)! Then I run up to the pen and find the gate wide open and THEY'RE ALL GONE! I think- that SOB wiped me out!
But there was Stan the SLW roo, still locked in his guard shack, adjacent to the pen. But there weren't any piles of feathers in the pen. I glanced up then and saw three SLW's strolling over to the coop from the direction of the compost pile. They were kind of in shock and weren't sure they wanted to go back inside the pen. So I ran and got some grain and that convinced them.
That encouraged me. Maybe others were able to survive. Then I saw some light grey shapes on the compost pile. I'm excited and run over there and find all three Brahmas picking through the compost. They weren't all too eager to go back into the pen, either. I got them all back inside, and I'm counting my blessings that I didn't lose them all!
I'm walking over to re-rig the electric around the pen, and I hear a mad clucking coming from the coop. I think - the bobcat's come back! So I grab the pepper spray and get ready. But the clucking's coming from inside the coop. I open the coop and Irene hops out of a nest. She had just laid her egg and was announcing it like she always does, and it always sounds more like a warning of danger than bragging.
So I didn't lose all of them - Alice, Claudia, Lilith, Irene, Betty, Diane, Nancy are all okay. And Stan, bless his ornery heart, is also fine.
But I'm so traumatized I can't remember the name of the one that got killed and eaten.
I was certain the bobcat had moved on. I had only latched the gate with the "S" hooks, not the carabiners. And the electric had been off. That's all corrected now. The bobcat will be back, but it probably won't be today that the cat returns since it's got a full belly now.
This is tragic, but it could have been so, so much worse.
And there are the six new babies in the brooder in the house. Life goes on.
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