Are cats a major predator?

[Gossie]

So I was walking down to the chicken coop, and I saw a black cat with green eyes 10 feet away from the run. Will it hurt my chickens?

 

[BantamFan4Life]

So I was walking down to the chicken coop, and I saw a black cat with green eyes 10 feet away from the run. Will it hurt my chickens?

How big are your chickens? Sometimes cats might attack bantams, but we have 2 cats and never had a problem.

 

[Gossie]

My chickens are mostly bigger chickens, but I do have 3 silkie bantams.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

My chickens are mostly bigger chickens, but I do have 3 silkie bantams.

I wouldn't worry about it, unless the cat(s) are unusually interested in your birds. The larger chickens should scare the cat away from doing any attack. A cat won't attack a predator that is larger than it is.

 

[Steve J]

I remember when I was a kid of about 12, we had a few chickens in a pen not far from the house. I woke one morning and heard a lot of noise coming from the pen. Grabbed the 12 gauge shotgun and took off, When I got there a thin grey cat was attacking a chicken,seeing me it jumped up into a overhanging tree. I blasted it in half with the shotgun. So, yes cats will attack full grown chickens if they are hungry enough.

 

[Bigwig]

I blasted it in half with the shotgun.

Now that's what I call pest control.

So I was walking down to the chicken coop, and I saw a black cat with green eyes 10 feet away from the run. Will it hurt my chickens?

A dog will usually keep a cat from coming near a coop. My great pyrenees dog once cornered a cat that jumped into our yard and and scared it so bad that when it succeeded in jumping around my dog it ran like crazy and then climbed (clawed) over the hoop barn in the corner of the yard and escaped. It hasn't come within a hundred yards of the chicken coop since.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

I have lost three hens(possibly four) total to stray/feral and neighbors cats. We nearly lost two more but we chased the cats down and got the hens back. They were full grown hens i still have some cats theat come around and our cats attack them and protect the hens. Some cats are good with chickens and others are not just depends on the cat.

 

[ryanhodapp]

Will cats carry away a chicken? I'm missing a 6 yr old barred rock.

 

[Steve J]

Be proactive and live trap them, I've caught 11 since July 80 feet from my chickens.

 

[ryanhodapp]

But do cats carry them away? I have trapped through the years but never when I had chickens.