Cat stalking chickens?!!

[Steve J]

I merely, meant pet cats often won't bother chickens. I remember growing up my neighbors kept a huge flock of free range and they always had barn cats and there never was an issue .

 

[Diannastarr]

GET A ROOSTER , they will battle most any thing , especially if they hear a hen crying out, so beware cats , dogs & all others with dreams of a chicken dinner , a rooster will take you out...!!!!!!!! & even human intruders on your land, i have raised cockerel chicks together for that very reason , so they wont fight with each other BUT will team up to protect their hens, i also plan to get a goose to free range with my hens, i read they are the best protectors..? dont know if thats true but i plan on finding out...!

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

GET A ROOSTER ,  they will battle most any thing , especially if  they hear a hen  crying  out, so  beware  cats , dogs & all others  with  dreams  of a chicken dinner ,  a  rooster  will take you out...!!!!!!!! & even  human intruders on your land,  i have raised  cockerel chicks  together  for that  very  reason  , so they wont  fight with each other   BUT will team up to protect their hens, i also  plan to get a goose  to free range  with my hens, i read they are the best  protectors..?  dont know if thats true  but i plan on finding  out...!   

Yes I have heard geese are the best for chicken protection, and can remember clearly how mean my Grandparents geese were. (That was one Thanksgiving I joyfully ate goose, hated those birds) I have read that in China Geese are actually preferred to dogs as guard animals.

 

[Hens rule]

That's interesting that geese are such good protectors of chickens, I'll think about getting a goose this spring.

I was also planning on getting a rooster his spring because I want chicks and a good protector of my hens. They're are racoons around here but they never have bothered my hens probably because of the distance they would have to travel from river to my coop. Thanks everyone.

 

[Lelilamom]

Last July (2014) someone threw their pregnant cat into our yard (Oh! They're a farm, they NEED a cat). She had 6 kittens in the woods next to our garden, took her young down to our chicken coop and taught them how to kill. She killed our fully grown Barred Rock Hen. We trapped her and 5 of her kittens and found the 6th one, at 5 weeks old, stalking the chickens. It was an amusing site, this tiny kitten huddled amongst our girls. We trapped it and sent all 7 of them to the shelter.

A few months later, our neighbor's indoor cat escaped and was stalking the chickens. He tried to kill our Buff, and lost the fight only because he was declawed.

We had a feral cat stalk for two years and our neighbor shot it when it came around his place.

 

[Hens rule]

That's little weird how they just throw cats in your yard my other neighbors had a cat once and let it run around the town, they never fed it or took care of it, and finialy when winter came... The cat was frozen. If the other cat my other neighbors own comes in my coop and hurts my chickens that cats going down. Whether i let my dogs handle it or i send it off to a shelter.

 

[Lelilamom]

That's little weird how they just throw cats in your yard

my other neighbors had a cat once and let it run around the town, they never fed it or took care of it, and finialy when winter came... The cat was frozen. If the other cat my other neighbors own comes in my coop and hurts my chickens that cats going down. Whether i let my dogs handle it or i send it off to a shelter.

Wasn't the first time either. Someone saw me standing in my driveway a few years back and thew a kitten right into my front yard and drove off. $300 later, I had the cat adopted to a nice lady and her daughter. But I had to get its shots and spayed and what not so that the adoption agency would put it up for adoption.

 

[Scarlit]

That's horrible! I really dislike people who think it's O.K. to dump their animals wherever whenever.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Before we moved, my VERY close neighbors kept a TON of cats. She "rescued" them from kill shelters and pitched them into her yard to run free....in my yard and anywhere else they pleased. A lot of them were not fixed, so they kept multiplying and she kept "rescuing" them. Aside from fighting and yowling all night, peeing down the windshield of my car and on everything else in my yard and crapping in my garden and flower beds, they took great pleasure in stalking my chickens around the yard. The first time I caught one of her cats gnawing on a chicken carcass in my yard, I locked the chickens in their run in an attempt to reset the situation. Hoping they'd move on to something else. They didn't. They took even more pleasure charging at the run fence, causing the birds to scatter in a panic, sometimes resulting in minor injuries, other times broken necks.

Soon after that began, I started making them disappear. Now, I'm not a "cat person", but I don't like having to kill them either. Especially when they should have an owner thats responsible for them. But, no matter how many I disposed of, she'd just replace them with more "rescues".

I was so happy to move away from those people! But, one of our new neighbors isn't much better. However, when we first met and he told me he had "like 20 outside cats", I made sure the line in the sand was very clear. I've disposed of two of them, and made sure he was aware. Now he keeps them all locked in his basement (yuck).

 

[Steve J]

I have no sympathy for people that allow their cats to roam free. I have to build a fence to contain my dogs. But, the same ones that will shoot any trespassing dogs, let their precious kitties out all night. Then they wonder why they disappear.