Anyone have large predator issues?

In reply to Rons :

We can shoot him no problem, and my son owns an arsenal. But he is very fast. In and out in less than a minute. We have been caught by surprise every time. 

The cougar (not the one with the CO's) visited overnight. He came right up and had a look inside. If it was a live chicken we would be done here but he was not interested in the dead one of course. And they were not allowed to use live bait and forbade us to as well. My neighbor is desperate for us to use his aggressive rooster. And there is a game camera set up to ensure we don't do anything illegal. 

Have you tried placing a cardboard box out for it instead of a cage? It is a cat afterall. 

Hmmm...disappointed by the lack of military drone conversation promised by the thread title...

Happy?

I hear this guy's good,  but no one's heard from him in a minute:

I'm actually surprised he even showed without live bait.  Good luck and stay safe.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

And they were not allowed to use live bait and forbade us to as well. My neighbor is desperate for us to use his aggressive rooster. And there is a game camera set up to ensure we don't do anything illegal. 

For real??  Is it actually illegal to use live bait? Like ummmmmm say fishermen use? How many chickens a day are slaughtered in this country?  And were they actually wearing bulletproof vests? Are 4 legged cougars armed? I find this comical coming from an agricultural background. Even the animal folks at the Ag schools I went to would tell ya to just use a live chicken. It's just one chicken.........

Daryl and Darrell went to buy a mule. Paid $20 for and said they'd return the next day to pick it up.

On the morrow, when they got to the farm, the farmer said "Bad news. The mule died last night. Here's you money back."

Daryl said "Keep the money, we'll take the mule anyway." and proceeded to put in the back of the horse trailer they brought.

Confused, the farmer said "what you gonna do with a dead mule?", but put the money in his pocket thinking 'City slickers'.

About a month later, farmer sees Daryl and Darrell in town. "Hey!, what you boys ever do with that mule?"

"Why we raffled him off at $2 a chance. Sold 200 chances."

Stunned, the farmer said "Wasn't anyone upset the mule was dead?"

"Well, yeah, the winner was. But we refunded his $2 and he was happy."

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

Have you tried placing a cardboard box out for it instead of a cage? It is a cat afterall. 

Actually there is a disco ball in there! For the very reason. Not that he will see it at night. 

I may let this trap idea run its course and when it and the cougar popo are gone I will leave the chickens locked up but stake the rooster out and keep a gun in my office where I can work and watch out the window.

Not the cat we were hoping for.

Large predator issues?  No.  WELL.... Not until today!!!!

Wife and I are chillin' after lunch.  She's in the kitchen, I'm on the living room sofa.  All of a sudden she like yells "Hawk!" And I'm like "Eh?"  And seconds later she yells again "Hawk!" and I'm like why is this woman YELLING at me?  I ask "Where?"  She says "In the coop!"

This gets my attention and I grab my shoes and head to the back door, from where I can see an impossibly large white object clinging to the gate inside the chicken run--a completely fenced area about 20 x 40 feet.  And when I say completely fenced, yes there is chicken wire over the top to prevent circumstances such as these.

At this point I decide to forgo putting on shoes and run out in my socks and with the dog, who by this time is pretty excited.  We get to the gate and I get a quick look at this thing and I'm thinking "OWL?"  I swear the glimpse I saw of it, it had a big broad head like an owl.  It flew to the back of the fenced area and I'm thinking how are we going to get this thing out?  The dog and I head to the back side while my wife opens the gate.  The bird did not hesitate, flying out low with the dog in hot pursuit.  For a couple seconds I was half afraid the dog might catch it, as it stayed very low to the ground for some 50 feet or more, but it stayed a few feet ahead of the dog and made good its escape.  The wingspan was huge, at least five, nearly six feet.

After we settled down a bit, I was looking at pictures of Virginia owls and now I'm not sure what I saw.  Not many Virginia owls are likely that big, and the Great Snowy Owl is a rare visitor to Virginia.  Could I have mistaken a red-tailed hawk for an owl?  I'm pretty darn sure it was an owl.

So I spent some time zip-tying some seams in the fencing that have gotten a little sloppy and loose in the ten years or so since I build the run.  This large raptor was pretty determined to get a chicken dinner.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

If you are really using chicken wire, that's your issue. Chicken wire will keep chickens in, not predators out. You need wire cloth. 
  That being said, no clue how a hawk would get through it unless it cut the wire. 

I did, but counseling, drugs and restraining orders ....

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

How far east are you in VA, great snowy owls are very common in the tide water area, but normally not until October then the leave around March. 

In reply to Steve_Jones :

I hear you.  The bulk of the run is 6' high chain link, with a second layer of chicken wire in an attempt to keep out squirrels and other small mammals (Good luck!).  The chicken wire over the top was insurance to keep out attacks by air, but we've never had an intrusion of this nature before.  It's been years since I've lost a bird, knock on wood.  None suffered a mark this afternoon, so we noticed the intruder in time.

I like to think I've gotten at least competent at this keeping chickens alive thing.

At night the birds are cooped and any openings are securely screened with hardware cloth. 

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

How far east are you in VA, great snowy owls are very common in the tide water area, but normally not until October then the leave around March. 

I'm just east of I-95, very near the James River, below the fall line.  I was thinking great snowy, but thought them rare around here.

This is getting silly. Different cat.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

Clearly there's a cougar lounging in the cardboard boxes that they'd regularly lounge in. 

At least you know the Bluetooth speaker playing a loop of psssbbhht psssbbhht is working as an attractant. 

Also start taking the cats to a rescue.

Then once you trap the cougar, take it to the rescue. It's only really funny if you take them some standard felines first. 

Obligatory "found a lost dog" posting on Facebook too. 
 

Also I am anxiously awaiting the outcome of this! After unwisely reading a book of all recorded bear attacks in N.A. and having the nightmares to prove it, I started reading about cougars. It was a lot less interesting, mainly just a lot of "farmer Bob went out in the middle of the night to check out the commotion with his pigs..."

In reply to P3PPY :

There's a great video clip from about 4 years ago of a reporter in Utah who has a cougar walk right past her and practically brush up against her during a live shot and she thought it was a dog and the anchors and studio were telling her that she may want to get into the station van immediately

Nope. No no no, nope, no thank you. 

Well the trap went away today. I thought it was kind of a dumb idea anyway. We are going on holiday for a couple weeks so I think the plan is to leave them in the coop until we get back and start letting them out and see if it comes back or has moved on.