Friday July 15, 2022 Guerneville CA.
Hard day for chickens
When I went out to feed the chickens this morning I spotted these feathers on the ground, which was a bad indicator.
And more feathers here. Looks like a white chicken bite the dust here.
Sure enough, not far from the feathers was this white hen with no head.
And in the chicken pen I found this black hen dead.
And I spotted these feathers also, another hen bite the dust.
Lost 4 hens
There seemed to be four hens that bite the dust and two of them got toted away.
I had this cam in the chicken pen but it was facing the egg boxes so didn’t catch anything.
Cams
I reset that cam to watch the chicken pen now. It took most of the day to get that one working as I hadn’t used it in over a year. I had another one of these cams but I couldn’t find it’s power supply. I looked most of the day and finally found it to set the other cam up outside the chicken’s pen to see if it can catch the critters tonight if it or they come back.
Set the trap
And I set the trap up with one of the dead hens and tied the other dead hen to the gate so they can’t just pack it off so easy so maybe I might get some pictures.
Seems to be a bobcat in the area
My brother lost 50 hens one night a couple mouths ago to a bobcat. He had about two hundred hens as he sells eggs at the farmers market. I also heard a neighbor up in the hills lost all his chickens about a mouth ago, so it seems that bobcat has been working the area over.
Big rat eating the peeps
I also lost another little peep today not to the critter. I dug up the pen next to the where the little guys live and found a big rat living there under the ground so filled up all it’s holes and drove the rat off.
Wired gates shut
I also wired all my gates shut at the bottom as this bobcat knows how to push gates open at the bottom, so I hope that helps. I learned that from my brother as that’s how it got into his pens.
Got the cams and software all setup
Then I worked on getting the cam’s software all hooked up and going on my computer so I can watch things from the computer. The software has motion detection so if the critter comes back tonight I should be able to get some pictures of it.
That was sure a sorry day for the chickens.
Here’s the rest of the flock grazing away in the dirt.
Nice day but not so good for the chickens.
Bobcats I have known will take off the bodies and bury them under grass or something. Did your brother find headless bodies? Just left out….? I’ve known great horned owls to just eat the heads of things and leave the bodies. And I think of coyotes as dragging everything off or not confining themselves to heads.
Hm. Apparently, I’ve known some predators in my life. And not a very happy camper about it. But as Nancy says, everybody’s got to eat.
Yes, they ripped the heads off at the bottom of the necks.
Bob
Aww so sorry for the loss of your chickens. I’ve seen my local fox climb a 6′ tall wooden fence and hop over to the other side, as well as climb a chicken wire fence. Obviously bobcats can do the same. I’ve heard of putting a sprinkler on a motion detector. Would that work? I guess everyone has to eat, but too bad the bobcat didn’t get the rat too!!