Heartbroken -- Bobcat attacked last night

[EggSTOREYdinary]

Most of my flock was wiped out last night. We thought we had built Fort Knox. Totally fenced yard, hawk netting on top and double strands of electric wire around the perimeter. The only weak point was the entry door, where we don't have electric wire strung across. I'm guessing that's where it got in, as there is a small gaps there.

Anyway, last night I did a chicken check after the automatic door had closed. Everyone accounted for and on their roosts. The automatic door opens into the fenced yard, around dawn (I've since moved the time back to 8 a.m.). At 7:30 a.m., about an hour after it opened, I go out to check on the chickens. I see only handful of birds wandering around the yard squawking. I got that sick feeling in my stomach and run to the coop. Total slaughterhouse inside. 9 out of 17 dead with their necks broken. One more is injured with bite marks on her head but still alive. All of my original flock of 5 year olds, save one, dead. My best, wonderful broody hen, dead. My little pullet who laid her first egg yesterday, dead. One of my favorite sussex, who followed me around talking to me, dead. The cat also spooked the rabbits in the hutches, and one of my pregnant does must have panicked because it look like she injured her back last night, her hind legs are paralyzed, and we may need to put her down. She was 5 days from her due date.

My sheer happenstance, I had given my husband a game trail camera for Christmas and he was testing it in the chicken yard last night, so we got a clear picture of the culprit, a very small bobcat -- probably a juvenile. Small enough to squeeze through the little gaps, big enough to do plenty of harm.

My husband just left to buy materials to encase the entire door area and every small gap in hardware cloth and also string a third line of electric fencing higher up the fence (which is a no-climb fence, not hardware cloth), so that the cat would hit it, if it tried to jump on the fence over the existing wires.

I've separated out the bite victim, washed her wounds and applied triple anti-biotic cream to them. The wounds are not big (I had to peel back the feathers to even see them), but they are puncture wounds, so I imagine they are a few mm deep. I'm going to check today to see if the tractor store sells any type of oral antibiotic. The hen is alive, but she's fluffed up and hanging her head, so I am very worried about her. I'm not sure if there is anything else I can do.

This has been the hardest day of my chicken keeping. I needed to vent (and cry). I really feel like I let those poor birds down. Thanks if you read all the way to the end.

Don’t you dare blame yourself. Just like there are Fort Knox style prisons -people can always Escape! so sorry for your loss

 

[Morrigan]

Update 2: At least one bobcat is dead, but I'm worried there are more. We saw a small bobcat again, near dusk yesterday on the other side of our main yard fence, and my husband got a shot on it. The shot knocked it over, and it fell into a ravine, but by the time my husband was able to walk outside the fence to get to it, it must have drug itself off because we couldn't find it. He saw fresh blood on the ground, so we know it was hit. We felt bad about leaving a wounded animal to die. It seems that there is sadness about everything connected to this episode.

This morning, I went out at first light to check the chicken yard. To my dismay, I find a small bobcat inside the chicken yard, camped out right next to the coop, presumably waiting for the coop door to open. Our new security measures were not adequate to keep it out of the chicken yard (but good enough to keep it out of the coop, thank goodness). This one husband shoots dead. He checks it over for a sign of a second shot wound, but he can't find one. So, that means there were at least 2 bobcats involved. From my reading, it looks like bobcat give birth to 1-6 kits in the spring, the young ones start hunting at 5 months and then the mother drives them out of her territory at 8 to 11 months. So we are guessing we are dealing with some very young, bold bobcats who are either still hunting with their mother, or, more likely, have recently been driven into our territory. That means there could be more depending on the size of the litter. We are getting more trail cameras to set up to try to figure how they are getting in.

 

[Percheron chick]

Disconnect the automatic pop door.

 

[Morrigan]

I'm closing and opening it manually for now. I'm also physically blocking the door at night, in case of a malfunction.

 

[Poultry4Health]

Try the rolling railing on top of your railing, cats cant climb it.Many videos on youtube.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Try the rolling railing on top of your railing, cats cant climb it.Many videos on youtube.

This is giving me some good ideas. Well, good if they pan out once operational.

 

[Abriana]

My flock of six was noticeably affected when Dune Buggy died a few months ago, and Rosemary the Head Hen kept circling the workshop where we kept her and where she died, doing a mournful squawking as she paced back and forth around the structure. She did this for about a week.

I could feel their awareness that someone wasn't with them anymore. It was startling and also heartwarming to observe.

Awww, poor girl. How sweet

 

[turtlelaura67]

We thought we had built Fort Knox, also. The top of our gate was the problem as well. We think that's the only place that possum could have gotten in. It's the only weak spot I can find. I am so, so sorry for your loss.

 

[lazy gardener]

I think you could fairly easily make the "cat proof" rails using 2 pieces of PVC, with one being a sleeve over the other. The weak spot would be corner posts, and where the rolling rail meets corner or other posts.

So sorry you're still dealing with BC, Morrigan. Hope you can get rid of the rest of the kits.