Tuesday, October 9, 2007

1 is the loneliest number

I went out this morning to find two cats eating the remains of one of my last 2 hens. Now all I have left is my silver duckwing rooster. He's the biggest and probably why they didn't go after him. I lost six GREAT hens, and a gorgeous blue gold duckwing rooster. not to mention all the eggs and chicks I lost this year. Hundreds of dollars worth. Now my vet tells me that the cat feces leads to sickness in my ruminants and coudl be the cause of my stillborn/aborted fall kids.

Let's just say I had to protect my livestock from animals that crapped in their mineral tubs, in their hay, made my animals sick and killed generations of my chickens. My Grandpa said he'd take the majority of them and they can live their lives as house cats. I'm glad he can have some company again, and glad to be rid of the problem.

Now i need spayed/neutered animals that will tolerate poultry.

Or kittens that are raised with them. Most of my pigeon friends have done this and have loft cats that kill mice, and not the pigeons. At an early enough age the cats regards them not as prey. I'll have to give this a try next spring when I get my new chickens.

4 comments:

Sabrina Wille Erickson said...

Garrett, I'm sorry to hear you've had such trouble with your cats and chickens this past week. Good luck with getting a fixed kitty. Around here they are sometimes given away in the classifieds. Our animal shelter adopts them out for about $70. It seems a ridiculous price for a cat (my opinion) but it includes a spay/neuter and all the shots. That is a bargain compared to the price of a free cat that needs to be fixed and needs it's shots. (At least in my neck of the woods.)

Really sorry about the losses in your poultry flock.

Becky Utecht said...

I'm so sorry to hear about the cats getting more of your chickens Garrett. I'm glad you can be rid of them. I was worried that they might start in on your ducks next. Kim has some nice barn cats, but you would have to get them fixed and it's really expensive now days. We had our mama cat and her son fixed this spring and it came to well over $200.

Michelle said...

This is a bad fall if you're a fowl, it seems! Between you, Becky and Lauren, the count is heartbreaking. I never imagined that regular ol' "house"cats would kill and eat chickens! We have one spayed barn kitty (our old neutered male cat died this summer). We do feed her, but she also hunts.

Nancy K. said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your chickens Garrett! I recently brought home four, young Silkies and I've been keeping my cats (2 of them) in the HOUSE because I'm afraid that they'll get my chickens. I'm off work today (Sat.) so will let the cats out while I'm around to watch them....

A long time coming!

 It has been a long time. Too long in fact. We lost access to our farm website and ebonwald website when WEBS.COM was closed by VistaPrint. ...