West Texans

[BigBirdHatcher]

I need some more chicken buddies out here !!
Im in Odessa, anyone else around ??
What kind of chickens do yall got ??

 

[kari_dawn]

Does North Texas count?

 

[BigBirdHatcher]

Sure why not lol

Couldnt hurt to have to many friends I suppose.
But I am very interested in meeting people close by that I might be able to get eggs from at some point. ;D

 

[ClintD]

im in the sticks. East of lubboc.k Kari, youre a bobcat expert, huh?

 

[BigBirdHatcher]

what kinda chickens you got clint

 

[kari_dawn]

Quote:
expert is a strong word...but I have lots of experience with them

 

[ClintD]

I have a bobcat situation. Ive trapped 2 in the last month after losing some birds. Couldnt bring myself to kill them. How far away do i need to carry the next one off to relocate. Took those 2 @ 15 mi. to what looks like good BC country (near a creek and stuff). Will that work.

 

[ClintD]

I have a bobcat situation. Ive trapped 2 in the last month after losing some birds. Couldnt bring myself to kill them. How far away do i need to carry the next one off to relocate. Took those 2 @ 15 mi. to what looks like good BC country (near a creek and stuff). Will that work.

 

[BigBirdHatcher]

I think as long as they have enough food and water they shouldnt come all the way back to you. But with the lack of water this year it might push them to desperate measures and cause them to range further then you would think.

 

[kari_dawn]

Relocating them isn't really a great solution, especially this time of year, and considering the bobcat population density here in Texas. They have huge territories in rural areas (by the way, are you rural or suburban?)...female territories overlap male territories (male territories do not overlap), and if you remove a male, all the young males in the area will come around and try to claim the freshly vacant prime territory full of females for the choosing. if you remove a female, most likely she will have young cubs that still need her. This year because of the severe drought and hard freezes all last winter, the cub season is quite late, and babies will be around six to eight months old right now. They stay with mom for up to a year, and are poor hunters until they leave her, which translates into 2-6 orphaned starving cubs per removed mother looking for easy food (think domestic chickens)...of course, as older males die, the same thing would happen with new males trying to claim established territory...but bobcats can live up to 20 years in the wild, so by removing cats like you are, you are just speeding up the cycle, and increasing the numbers of cats in your area...and as the numbers climb, prey dwindles, and they come looking for easy meals...again, your chickens.

As for the bobs you relocate, if you managed to relocate them outside of their territories, they are now in unfamilar grounds, inabited by other bobcats who probably don't want them there. They don't know where to go for shelter, they don't know where to go for water, and probably most importantly to us humans, now do not know where to get food. SO, again, they seek out easy prey...with a good possibility they will find your neighbor's chickens long before they find their prefered wild food (they LOVE squirrels)

On the other hand, if you leave them be, their territories are so large, that they may only be in your area for a few weeks, or even just a few days before they move on again. They can have one main den, and up to 12 "sub-dens" throughout their territory, which they rotate over time. This ensures that they can give their hunting grounds a rest, so to speak...they are great regulators of other pests like snakes and rats (both of which, by the way, will eat chickens, chicks, or eggs). Bobcats are very lazy, and would much rather catch and eat a smaller, quiter prey like a rat or a squirrel.

Can you give me a better picture of how you lost your birds? Do you free range? What time of day did you loose your birds? Was it one at a time, or several at once? What kind of coop do you have? What kind of run? How did you trap the bobcats? Are you sure it was a bobcat and not a raccoon or a coyote?

I appreciate you not killing them...people don't realize the complexity of their social structures and the strength of the bonds they share with other members of their species. They do mourn the loss of a "loved one", and are hyper intellegent.