[Ag-eq] Chicken Killer

[Jewel]

Susan!  can you get hold of a trap cage from your local game and fishery department and bait it and, 
hopefully, the feral cat will walk in, and then you can have him shot or destroyed by a  vet but why 
spend more money on the gbastard?  he has cost you enough already!.
The bleeding heart brigade would throw their hands up in violent protest about killing the darling 
creature, but they would take quite a different view if it was their animals that it was tearing to 
pieces!
I have every sympathy for the feral as it is only doing what a wild animal has to do:  that is: 
hunting for its food, and in your captive chooks, he has found a source of easy victims, but those 
captive chooks are in your care so they must be protected as they cannot fly out of harm's way; 
therefore,  either the prey goes, or the predator, and if you don't take vigorous action soon, it is 
going to be the former.

        Jewel


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From: "Susan Roe" <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 8:16 AM
To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [Ag-eq] Chicken Killer

Well, we definitely have uncovered our chicken killer.  Not a fox, but a large farel yellow tom that 
comes around from spring to fall, spreading his seed and then leaves.  He does not get fed with our 
cats along with a few other roaming toms, so he has just decided to start helping himself.  In the 
past month, he has killed 7 hens and my last rooster.  Him killing the rooster is what gave him 
away.  That night, he got into coop 3 and tore a hen to pieces.  The rooster didn't go so quietly, 
he died fighting and it was the marks he left on the cat that gave him away.  The last hen that was 
taken was on Friday morning about 5:30 a.m. and I heard it when it happened.  When my sister went to 
check a bit later, he had for the first time actually gotten the hen out of the coop, through the 
hen yard and outside their enclosure.  When my sister turned the corner behind coops 2 and 3, he was 
pulling feathers out so he could feed.  He didn't run away from her when she approached, just
stood up and slowly walked away like he was telling you he'd be back for more later when he got 
hungry again.

I am now down to only 4 hens, 2 buffs, 1 bard and my one loan black hen who is my oldest.  We've 
even had to stop selling eggs.  My husband is coming home from Seattle tonight and we are going to 
put the 4 hens in coop 1 where nothing has been able to get in and we will continue to shut up the 
coop at night.  Coop 2 and 3 will now have to go through a total strip down to make it cat proof and 
figure out a way so nothing can dig down under the coops to get to the main yards.  All hens will 
now have to be put up at night for added security.

I will really have to get the two flocks of hens next year, 25 hens each and a rooster for each 
coop.  I think Rhode Island Reds are going to be my choices, large brown egg laying hens and the 
roosters are extremely protective.  I know without a shadow of a doubt, that if I still had Big Red, 
a Rhode Island Red rooster, the cat may have come in, but he wouldn't be leaving alive.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
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