[Ag-eq] Chicken Killer

[Susan Roe]

We haven't seen the orange cat since we've been putting the hens up, but I'm 
sure he has not gone on yet.  We are pretty watchful during evening feeding 
time that none of the roaming cats eat with our barn cats.  Now that Matt is 
home, the hens will be put together where they will be the safest in coop 1. 
Little Hen, my oldest, won't be too happy with 3 other hens in her private 
coop, but she will get them all straight.

I've decided to start trapping the cats a few at a time and sorting out 
which ones we are going to fix and keep and which ones will be leaving and 
not returning.  I'll have to call around and see what will be charged for 
fixing the ones we want to keep.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewel" <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>
To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Ag-eq] Chicken Killer


> 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
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> 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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