[Ag-eq] Chicken Killer!

[Susan Roe]

Hi Guys,

Thursday morning about 4:00, I was awake and heard my chickens really 
throwing up a fuss.  Sometimes that is not too unusual because coop 3 has a 
rooster who gets fussy when his hens aren't doing what he thinks they should 
be doing and when.  So I lay there and listened until one hen was litterly 
screeching above the rest and continued until she just faded off.  Matt was 
working nights and I couldn't call him because from 4:00 to 4:30 he is doing 
phone confrence calls.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got dressed, 
checked e-mails until 6:00 and my inside dog and I went downstairs and I 
called Matt.  He said he was finished for the night and would be home in 10 
minutes.

By that time my sister was up and asked what were the chickens going on 
about all night.  Apparently, they also were upset about 1:30 as well.  The 
outside hounds never barked.

Let me also explain something with one of Matt's rules that I don't argue 
with.  There are no lights around my three coops, so you have to have a 
flash light to investigate the hen yards and in the coops.  He does not want 
us to investigate the chickens at night when he is not home because there is 
too grate a chance that the problem is not only a wild animal, but a rabid 
one as well.  You have to go inside the coops to check what is going on 
inside and they are long and narrow, 4 feet by 12 feet by 6 or 7 feet tall. 
It is not worth us getting attacked by a wild or rabid animal as they would 
feel trapped and we would be between them and the exit.  I love my chickens, 
but I would not fair well if I were to be injured from teeth or claws with 
me on blood thinners.

So, Matt went in through the back of coop 3 first and when he started 
cussing up a blue streek, I knew something wasn't going to be good.  He then 
checked out coop 2 and then to coop 1 which only has 1 little hen.  At first 
glance, he couldn't find her in the coop or her outside pen.  He looked 
closer inside and he said he just had to smile.  She was sitting way up on 
top of all the nest boxes as high as she could get.  She looked down at him 
as though to say, "What ever it is, it ain't gonna get me!"  Matt then went 
and checked out coop 2's pen and then to coop 3.  He started cussing again 
and then went off, bringing back a piece of ply board and a hammer.  He 
nailed the board up against the front of the coop right along the ground. 
When he finally came back to the porch to get a heavy plastic bag, he told 
us there were 2 dead hens.

We can't burry the chickens on the property any more because dogs have dug 
them up in the past, even when we go deep and put something over them.

We believe, but can't prove, it was a farel cat.  Both hens were parcially 
eaten, 1 still in the coop and 1 in the yard, front end halfway pulled 
through a hole that was dug under the coop.  Evidently, they dug up under 
the back of the coop, and then once they were under the coop, could easily 
slip under the front of the coop where the hens like to scratch in the soft 
dirt after it rains.  The animal couldn't pull the large hen back the way it 
came.  Needless to say, my husband was not a happy camper.

This farel cat population is going to have to be thinned again and the ones 
we want to keep are going to be fixed.  Any others that come around are just 
going to have to go away.  I can't and won't let anyone shoot them, nore 
will I allow the county to trap them, fix them, and then bring all of them 
back.  They classify farrel cats as a part of the natural eco system in 
which they reside and it would not be a good thing to remove a predator from 
the envirement.  I say bolonie, because I'm the one feeding the gang 10 
scoops of food a day and they are hunting at least rabits as well.  Our base 
number of cats, about 8, are the only ones I want to fix and keep.  The gang 
has already started having kittens and it is still early!

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net