Chicks and Cats

[wislandchickens]

I started a interesting conversation about protecting new chicks with a Broody Hen, from house cats.
We lock our cat up for a couple of hours during the day, so that the Broody Hen and her chicks can roam around.
When we let the cat out, after we put the hen and chicks away, she stalks them hourly...
What do most people do in this situation? I'd be interested to hear

 

[Thassa]

My cats have a very healthy respect for the chickens. One of my hens chases them ruthlessly.

 

[wislandchickens]

My hens and my old rooster(just died) get along with the cat fine. It's the chicks I worry about, even with the broody.

 

[Thassa]

Mama hens can be pretty nasty when they need to be.

 

[wislandchickens]

Yes that's true. I guess I just worry that she has enough on her plate protecting the chicks from the other hens.
Maybe it's me that's being way to over protective...

 

[Den in Penn]

Thought you'd like to see the pictures of the current chick and the cats. I wasn't going to let them out tonight, but I wanted to show you the interaction between them. The chick is approaching 10 weeks and wanders far from mom now. She has been out with them around, since her mom started to bring her out of the run with the rest of the flock at four weeks. This one was a late bloomer.

That's the chick by herself under the lilac scratching around. The cat closest at the end of the walk is Hulk my best hunter, just sitting grooming. I thought that would be the closest they would come tonight as the cats were mostly laying around in the heat.

Just before they went in for the night the chick and mom made one more foray to under the bird feeder. That's Hulk again. There are more cats sitting around my feet. To my cats the chickens are part of their community. The rooster may peck at them and they may do a practice stalk like they would another cat or dog, if I had a dog.

 

[kaybee123]

My cat has been indoors her entire life. When I hatch chicks, I don't do anything special to keep her out. She has zero interest in them.

 

[wislandchickens]

Thought you'd like to see the pictures of the current chick and the cats. I wasn't going to let them out tonight, but I wanted to show you the interaction between them. The chick is approaching 10 weeks and wanders far from mom now. She has been out with them around, since her mom started to bring her out of the run with the rest of the flock at four weeks. This one was a late bloomer.

That's the chick by herself under the lilac scratching around. The cat closest at the end of the walk is Hulk my best hunter, just sitting grooming. I thought that would be the closest they would come tonight as the cats were mostly laying around in the heat.

Just before they went in for the night the chick and mom made one more foray to under the bird feeder. That's Hulk again. There are more cats sitting around my feet. To my cats the chickens are part of their community. The rooster may peck at them and they may do a practice stalk like they would another cat or dog, if I had a dog.

Thank you for the pictures, they are very encourging! I'm going to allow the mamma hen to start roaming free agian. Thank you for your help, and advice!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

When I brooded my chicks in the house, my 2 cats were all over that. They were in attack mode from day one. I didn't dare leave them in the same room with the brooder, even though it was covered with a secure top. I feared that one of the cats would knock over the brooder lamp, or knock something over onto the lamp and set my house on fire! This continued even when the "chicks" were 3 months old and almost as big as the cats. I couldn't let them range outdoors without getting chased by the cats. This continued until I put up an electric fence, and the cats got zapped a couple of times by the fence. They now give the chickens plenty of space. I'm guessing that they think the chickens inflicted the zap! Every pet situation is different.