Our chickens have been vanishing one at a time during the night. We were suspicious that people were jumping over the fence and taking them for food, so we filed a report with the sheriff's department. We began closing the chicken yard gate at night and then letting the chickens out during the day to run around in the bamboo, and for the last month none of them vanished. So thinking that the threat had moved on, we began leaving the gate open again. Very soon after, though, 2 more chickens vanished over a 2-day period. So we called the sheriff's department again. They got in touch with the Fish and Game Department about the issue, and they thought perhaps a mountain lion was getting into the coops at night and taking the chickens.
Additionally, we have had a javelina problem in the past where they dig under the fence and get into the chicken yard and knock everything over to get to the food. Last night about 8 o'clock I was out with Findlay before going to bed and heard a sound in the chicken yard. Thinking I was perhaps catching the mountain lion in the act, I ran to get a spotlight. It wasn't a mountain lion that I found but instead 5 javelinas wandering around the chicken yard eating all the food they had just knocked over.
So today we had a fish and game agent come to the house to check it out. He said it was probably a bobcat that was getting in and eating the chickens. He said a chicken was too much bother for a mountain lion to go after -- just a light snack -- but a bobcat would stay around the area and eat chickens on a regular basis. He is going to set up a trap to hopefully catch the bobcat if that's what is eating the chickens. Maybe we'll have an update on the situation in a few days. For the javelina, he suggested getting an electric fence to run along the bottom of the fence.
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