Hey All!
Any ideas for protecting my flock and discouraging visits from a mountain lion? I have heard of electrifying the run but I'm wondering if there is anything less expensive I could do. Is it the smell of chickens that is attracting them, my coop doesn't really smell at all but my Flock Block does smell a little bit? Is there a certain smell that discourages or turns mountain lions off? Montana Fish and Game will come out today to confirm, but they will not trap or relocate a mountain lion, they said that all mountain lion habitat is already claimed. I'm 95% sure we had one on Saturday night, the hens were pretty anxious/nervous and all the area farm dogs were going nuts. I thought that someone was hurting a woman in my backyard because I woke up to a horrible sounding high pitched/woman-like scream for about 10 minutes. I almost called 911! (stupid) I turned on my outside porch lights and made a bunch of noise while I went out to check on the chickens with a flashlight. It never occured to me until yesterday that it could be a mountain lion, I really just assumed that it was an injured dog or deer or maybe farm cats fighting. We live in rural Montana about 1/2 mile from the Swan Mountain Range in one direction and 1/2 mile from a lake in the other direction. Most of my neighbors have wooded or partially wooded lots but mine is in alfalfa...no trees, we all have 5 acre lots. (I keep the coop closed up at night and the run is 5 foot tall with 1 foot dug into the ground, chicken wire over the top. The whole coop is inside my 1 acre orchard and garden area which is surrounded by a 6 foot heavy gauge deer fencing but I'm sure if a mountain lion wanted to get in he could. I found a web-site that let me hear a mountain lion scream and it really CONFIRMED my assumption....any suggestions for me? Thank you for your input!
Any ideas for protecting my flock and discouraging visits from a mountain lion? I have heard of electrifying the run but I'm wondering if there is anything less expensive I could do. Is it the smell of chickens that is attracting them, my coop doesn't really smell at all but my Flock Block does smell a little bit? Is there a certain smell that discourages or turns mountain lions off? Montana Fish and Game will come out today to confirm, but they will not trap or relocate a mountain lion, they said that all mountain lion habitat is already claimed. I'm 95% sure we had one on Saturday night, the hens were pretty anxious/nervous and all the area farm dogs were going nuts. I thought that someone was hurting a woman in my backyard because I woke up to a horrible sounding high pitched/woman-like scream for about 10 minutes. I almost called 911! (stupid) I turned on my outside porch lights and made a bunch of noise while I went out to check on the chickens with a flashlight. It never occured to me until yesterday that it could be a mountain lion, I really just assumed that it was an injured dog or deer or maybe farm cats fighting. We live in rural Montana about 1/2 mile from the Swan Mountain Range in one direction and 1/2 mile from a lake in the other direction. Most of my neighbors have wooded or partially wooded lots but mine is in alfalfa...no trees, we all have 5 acre lots. (I keep the coop closed up at night and the run is 5 foot tall with 1 foot dug into the ground, chicken wire over the top. The whole coop is inside my 1 acre orchard and garden area which is surrounded by a 6 foot heavy gauge deer fencing but I'm sure if a mountain lion wanted to get in he could. I found a web-site that let me hear a mountain lion scream and it really CONFIRMED my assumption....any suggestions for me? Thank you for your input!
