Oh no....

[77horses]

Don't worry; no one was hurt...yet.

I just found out something really worrying.

At 2 A.M. this morning, my dad said he heard a noise outside. It sounded like a growl.

So now we think we may have a(or some) bobcats or something else to worry about.

Back like 3 years ago, before we had chickens, we found feathers from birds EVERYWHERE in our woods. We found two dead pheasant-like birds in our woods, and we found foot prints in our neighbor's field(where the loggers cut down a lot of the trees). And one time we were on our porch and we heard a really loud hissing/growling sound down over the bank really nearby. It was really creepy. It must have been a group of bobcats passing by or something, but then they left and we haven't seen any evidence from them sense then.

But now I'm worried that one or more of them are nearby our chicken coop!

Any advice??!!

 

[77horses]

anyone.....

 

[amazondoc]

My advice -- strong pens, and electric fencing.

Good luck!

 

[Attack Chicken]

maybe get one of the wildlife cameras and strap it where ever you think they have been. That would creep me out to

 

[77horses]

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That's a good idea; but it sounds expensive(?) and where could we get some?

 

[77horses]

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But won't the people get shocked by the fence? Or would we just turn it on at night? Are there invisible fences available, without having the animal wear a collar?

 

[Attack Chicken]

You could probably order offline. I got mine for $50 at a Walmart store. Haven't used it yet though.

 

[amazondoc]

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But won't the people get shocked by the fence? Or would we just turn it on at night?

You can leave it off during the day if you like -- but if you're worried about getting through gates and such, there are special attachments for gates in electric fences. The guys who sell you the fencing will explain it all to you.

Are there invisible fences available, without having the animal wear a collar?

Nope, sorry!

As for the game cams -- you can even get em at Walmart these days. Some are around $50, some much more -- depends on the bells and whistles you get.​

 

[77horses]

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OK thanks!

 

[77horses]

And my dad usually stays up pretty late at night, watching TV, so if he ever heard anything, he has a beebee gun(bullets are NOT plastic...they are like metal or something) and we have 2 dogs; one is a Dachshund/lab mix, but the other I think is considered a bear dog mix. He's medium sized and black, and has had no experience with big predators(if you don't count squirrels and chickens and cats, which he doesn't even care about..well he's afraid of the chickens! LOL), but Bobcats are usually afraid of loud barking dogs, right?