cat problem

[foxmfan1]

after months of no other animal even knowing our little ladies exist,a few CATS have stumbled upon their existence. The first was a few weeks ago, a cat was sitting on the fence watching my ladies, one of my dogs started growling at the window and I got up to look and saw he was growling at the cat, I ran outside, like a crazy lady waving my arms and yelling at it, it ran away, and we've had no other problems until today!!

TOday, a CAT jumped over the fence into the yard, and was eyeing our ladies, my RIR, started squawking a weird squawk and my bf looked out the window and was like "a cat is in the yard" he ran outside, like flash gorden, and chased it off. not more than an hour later, another cat was on the fence looking at my ladies, (who were oblivious and just peck pecking and scratch scratching away), lol my bf, I call him my Rooster, ran out and chased this one away too, after that he was like "ladies, get in the coop", we put them up early today, which they did NOT like, lol have you ever been yelled at by a chicken, lol I now understand what "hen pecked" means, but i digress, my bf, is now on red alert, he is shall we say "attached to these lil ladies" he is wanting to go get his bb gun and was like "i'll pop that cat in the butt, and he won't be back", I am totally against that and told him he better not.

So what I am asking is how dangerous are cats to chickens, are they a real threat, and what should i do to keep them off my fence line and out of my yard. I wont allow any inhumane treatment, in my house, my bf is banned from using a bb gun.

 

[HS Pye]

How big are your chickens? Cats can be big problems for fowl owners. You could trap them and relocate them (unless they're pets, in that case, I'd talk to the person that owns them)?

 

[enola]

It is illegal to transport and release ANY animal that you trap.

Either call animal control to pick up the cat or kill it yourself.

Cats can kill adult chickens. It has happened here two times this summer.

 

[foxmfan1]

they are pretty big, at least I think, I have 2 RIR, on RIR is pretty big, the other a bit smaller, and one white leghorn, she is the smallest of the three, and prob weighs about 5 lbs

 

[foxmfan1]

To kill is not an option. I could probably trap it, our city provides for free cat traps, and animal control picks them up. I really would rather try to DETER them from evening coming into our yard, are there things I could to do to deter the cats?

 

[enola]

My hens that were killed were a RIR and a black sex link. Both of them adult layers and healthy. I know the cats did it since both hens were found inside the closed barn with the cats eating them.

 

[HS Pye]

You could look into this link for predator protection:

http://niteguard.com/

 

[enola]

I trapped both cats by using the remainder of the hens in a humane coyote trap. They won't kill any more chickens.

 

[foxmfan1]

My hens that were killed were a RIR and a black sex link. Both of them adult layers and healthy. I know the cats did it since both hens were found inside the closed barn with the cats eating them.

Sorry for your loss, that had to be a hard thing to see, in that case, I would want the cat dead too.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

If the chickens are full grown you don't have much to worry about. If the chickens are less than fully feathered consider the cat a threat. I haven't had any problems with full grown chickens. YET.
The cat will tell you what his intentions are if you watch him. If he sits or stands there looking at the chickens in a relaxed, bored sort of way, he's just doing what cats do. If he's crouched down & tightened up and looking at the chickens in a fascinated or fixated sort of way he's a killer.