I am struggling with my first serious predator problem--I did catch a feral cat in the havahart trap last night--but I don't think it is the problem. So the trap is out again tonight.
Meanwhile I found this site--nice description of how to identify a predator by the damage it does--also seems to be a good site in general.
I will put it in the reference sticky.
http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickenspredators/
Predator descriptions
Thanks Cat! As usual your a darling, I wish you great success with the predator problem. Haystack
Did you ever catch whatever was causing problems?
I think so...but it wasn't what I thought.
I've had feral cats for years without any problems....for the last 4 or 5 months there have been fewer. But one, a grey and white, used to sit and watch the chickens...the others basically ignored them or ran away when they came near. I hadn't seen the grey and white or any others lately. But when I put out the live-trap baited with catfood--I caught the grey and white the first night. I took it to animal control--feeling awful--they acted like they thought it might not be too wild to re-home.
Since then, I haven't lost any chickens...but its just doesn't seem likely that a small cat could take down such big chickens....it really looked like it might be a raccoon doing the damage...still, I lost 4 layers in two weeks and my one remaining layer is doing fine now that the cat is gone..
None of the bantams were taken...I think they are too fast and they fly very well. The Nankins, however, are very trusting and none of them were taken--or the bantams brooding in a rather flimsy shelter. I think a coon would have taken them, especially at night.
So it may have been the cat.....
This message was edited Nov 9, 2009 3:21 PM
thanks Catscan! That site has helped me to answer several questions about my rights to protect my property and poultry here in Georgia. including the question about the rights of a irresponsible neighbor who allows his intact female Beagle to roam the neighborhood while in Heat. ( Which has happened for the past 6 years, thus at least 11 pregnancies and unnaccounted for pups!)
The feral cats in the area never bother the chickens. I'm not sure they even are aware they exist.
I hate to ask but what kinda of damage was done.
The only thing i saw that i know is not always true was with the predator listing page & damage caused was that dogs, coyotes, foxes can & will take off with a chicken & not leave a trace at times. I've seen it done. no blood, no feathers, its just like they never existed. hawks will too for that matter if the chicken was small enough for them to fly off with.
Glad to help, Eufaula!
It was sad greykyttyn--you could see that the Buckeye had been chased all over the yard with piles of feathers in places where she had tried to hide. I found her body under the persimmon tree with the skin removed from her head and neck...I was upset and left the body overnight (bad idea) in the morning she had been dismembered and mostly eaten.
The others just vanished, sometimes in the day, sometimes at night...one night it was exceptionally windy and part of the fence blew down....it is possible that one wandered out...but it all happened in a two week period--I had never had a problem before--I'd only lost one chicken (she disappeared) and that was over three years ago.
Before this one would vanish and I would think something had happened to it--but I always eventually found them brooding somewhere in the shrubbery.
When we had raccoon problems, they killed the hens and at first ate only the neck. If left, they came back and ate more and hauled the body away for some distance. However I never saw signs of a chase, probably because they were taken off the nest boxes. These raccoons came in the daytime too. They killed mainly the Buff Orpingtons who tend to be very meek. Our feral cats occasionally "play stalk" the hens, but if the hens even look at them they quit and pretend they were never interested at all.
I really thought it must be a raccoon--for the reasons you state, porkpal--but I can't think of any reason for it to have stopped so suddenly with the capture of the cat. It was the only cat that seemed to be interested in stalking the chickens...but it was not a large cat and the chickens that were taken were large (although placid). It also seems like a coon would have been willing to climb a bit higher for the bantams. And the last layer is a large and slower bird....
The cat was the look out man. Without him the raccoon does not know when to act.
Porkpal - or something....
That link is very handy, Catscan! I thought we had the right to shoot an animal that was threatening or attacking our livestock, but there it is in black and white. Nice to know. I bookmarked it.
I hope that the cat was the culprit, as unlikely as it seems. Otherwise you've got to start all over again.
My guess would be raccoon bc that's how ours were & when we captured the raccoons it stopped. I'd guess some untimely death became the "predator" that just coincided with you trapping the cat. Like this morning I trapped my chicken in the live trap... (dumb chicken) but a nice car took care of my possum i've been trying to catch about an hour earlier. :)
I could not find the reference that you mentioned, greenhouse, about not shooting predators. ( but I was looking under Texas laws). Where did you find it?
Porkpal, I looked under New Jersey laws and found this:
http://www.animallaw.info/statutes/stusnjst4_19_9.htm
New Jersey
New Jersey Statutes Annotated Currentness. Title 4. Agriculture and Domestic Animals. Chapter 19. Dogs, Taxation and Liability for Injuries Caused by. Article 1. Taxes and Use Thereof; Injuries to Animals and Poultry. 4:19-9. Right to destroy offending dogs.
Statute in Full:
A person may humanely destroy a dog in self defense, or which is found chasing, worrying, wounding or destroying any sheep, lamb, poultry or domestic animal.
Citation: NJ ST 4:19-9
I had figured that one could do that, but it was nice to see it in black and white. We have never had problems with dogs and poultry, but we have definitely had issues with dogs and sheep, although I don't think we ever lost one. Neighbors' dogs used to get into our pasture and try to run the sheep, and eventually one would have been nipped and then killed.
Texas law is pretty similar. For some reason when I read your previous post, I interpreted it to mean that you found a law that prohibited killing predators...(?)
That was what I thought also porkpal. I was thinking i seriously don't want to live there. I have yet to look at the entire sight but i hadn't seen it listed state by state yet. I'll have to look further this afternoon.
Wow! I walked out today and I had one of my layers back--one I hadn't seen in months! She must have been brooding somewhere after all....how can that be?
I live in the city--there are houses all around--but one in back of me is uninhabited and has a big overgrown garden--maybe there?
So I am only down 3...I know the Buckeye was killed...the other two just disappeared and one of those had been broody before....I am going to look over the fence....
:)
Hooray - sing the Song of the Wandering Layer!