I'm so mad!

[7L Farm]

It's opening day of dove season here so I went hunting. Let the chickens out & off I went to the other side of the farm. Got back & saw a bobcat approaching one of my coops. Gun was loaded shot three times at that sucker & he went into my barn.I had to reload & went into the barn & couldn't find the cat.
Then I went out to my garden that I'd just planted & the dang chickens ate all my plants.Gosh darn it I can't leave for two hours without something happening. Well, no chickens got hurt I did a head count . I hope that stupid cat got the message. Now, I'm scared that the cat is still in the barn. O to top it off I got zero doves. What a nightmare. The garden incident was my fault I left the gate open like I said I'm just mad. I guess at myself. Gotta buy more plants & replant. I had a bad day.

 

[Marty1876]

Oh, what a drag! Glad that ol' bobcat didn't get to dine at your place (unless he catches some rats in your barn). Hope your coops keeps out bobcats. I'm guessing he just cut into the barn to escape you.

Maybe you'll get some doves tomarrow. What do you hut with?

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Ah! The one is never gonna get the message until the day it dies.

It acts all casual and stalking invisible gophers. *Bam* It runs behind the neighbors coyote bush. Then it comes back out less than a minute later.

Then can hear our other frightened neighbors.

THEN OF COURSE somebody walks very slowly down the PRIVATE road with some other people talking about "Does this road lead to the highway?". "Ooo look at this vegetable garden? Let's take a picture." (Yes, yes, that happened once.)

The bobcat slowly leaves with a cat smirk on his/her face twitching that tiny tail.

Sometime.... sometime...

 

[7L Farm]

Oh, what a drag! Glad that ol' bobcat didn't get to dine at your place (unless he catches some rats in your barn). Hope your coops keeps out bobcats. I'm guessing he just cut into the barn to escape you.

Maybe you'll get some doves tomarrow. What do you hut with?

Yes, the cat took that route to escape man I should of killed it. I'm terrible with a shotgun. I was shooting a remington 16 guage pump wingmaster. Yes, my coops are safe. I just did another head count I have a bunch of coops. Everybodies fine. Thank god. I'm going in the morning but leaving the birds locked up. I always stay with them when I let them out. I had just got back & looked out my window & saw the cat. I've seen them frequently it was a young cat. Hopefully, I scared the POS.

 

[azygous]

I had a bobcat two summers ago that broke into the pen and flushed out all the hens and killed one. It came back the next day, or maybe two days, I forget, and tried to break into the pen again. I watched it as it circled the pen, jumping on the fence to find a weak spot.

I have a 12 gauge and I loaded it with rubber shot. I got off a shot, but didn't hit it. It stayed away for a couple weeks and came back. This time I got two direct hits with the rubber shot. It never came back.

So, my advice is to be alert. It will come back. Don't let the flock out at all until you shoot the *******. If you continue to have trouble, you might consider doing what I did - run electric wire around the coop and pen. Barn, too, if he keeps showing an interest in it.

You may be mad you lost your plants, but if the cat had gotten one of the flock, you'd be feeling heart-sick. That's worse.

 

[7L Farm]

Rubber shot never heard of that. I'm using lead. I'm gonna carry my 5mm rifle I shouldn't of ever taken it out of my golf cart. Last week I saw a coyote pup. Had my shotgun & couldn't get a shot. I could of gotten both of them with a rifle. I'm a better shot with a rifle that's for sure. Yes, I'm leary now about letting the birds out. One of my coops has hot wire the other 5 are built pretty tight. I think the big problem is that the predators are hearing all my birds especially the Bob Whites. You can hear them whistling from quite a distance.
Another problem is when you let three different flocks of chickens out composed of 50 birds its hard to watch them all. The predators I'm dealing with are all young & are not as skittish as the older predators.
Guess, I'm faced with some trying times ahead. My thoughts are the predators are trying to fatten up for possibly a cold winter ahead. I'll be on the hunt. Deer seasons coming up so I'll be out & about. I won't hesitate to shoot any coyote I see. I normally let the bobcats go but I've been seeing a lot of cats at a distance. Not sure if its the same one are different ones.I probably need to thin some out. I see 4 or 5 every year here so there's definitely no shortage. Before someone starts with they might be protected their not. Plus, I have to protect my livestock its all I got.
I'm real mad at the chickens right now for eating my newly planted veggie plants although it was my fault for leaving the gate open. I can just picture the chickens in my garden going down the rows eating my plants one by one. I wish they realized that once the plants got bigger I would give them some..