Farm cats and chickens.

[SouthernMNNewbie]

(I searched the forums for this but I came up with so many results I decided to ask the question myself.)

I'm sure many or all of you have the same situation as us. We have five large, healthy, immunized, neutered tom cats on our farm. They are very friendly to people, and even to our two rabbits and our dog. They actually play with the rabbits. In fact our male rabbit was chasing one of the cats around the yard last Saturday. Our concern is that since they hunt and eat all sorts of song birds, wild rabbits, squirrels, ducks and pheasants (so far....the list continues to grow), will they do the same to our chickens? Or when we get our baby chicks this spring, will we be able to train the cats that the chicks are friends, not food, just like our pet rabbits? We would like to have the chickens be at least partially free range, or at least in a fenced area that isn't covered on top. We don't want them cooped up all the time (I'm so happy, that's the first time I've ever been able to use that phrase literally!!).

I would love some advice.

Thanks!

Tony

 

[elmo]

A full grown, standard size chicken is probably safe from a house cat. Chicks, or small bantams, not so much.

 

[ellieroo]

We have 3 barn cats both toms neutered, are large cats. Never do they bother chickens.One sleeps during the day in the bantys coop! we give all credit to banty hens who give lessons in what a bad idea it is to mess with Mother Hen!!

 

[bad]

I have an 18lb neutered male farm cat that only had to have a hen with chicks ran at him once to know to stay away. He will sleep in the middle of them when they are out in the yard. He has a strong predator instinct but not with the chickens. He seems to know they are not fair game.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

It depends on the cat. Personally, I would only trust a cat around an adult chicken. It all depends on what you are willing to risk.

 

[newchickmom]

My cats are around the full grown chickens all the time. They will lay out in the middle of them when they are free ranging and will eat with them when I take out scraps for them. The cats know not to mess with the hens or they will get pecked.
I still will not trust them with the chicks until they get a certain size though! My cats also eat birds and mice, so the chicks need to be bigger than a Robin before they are really safe.

 

[newchickmom09]

Quote:
I agree. When they are chicks I think they are too much like a wild birds that cats want to go after. My cat stopped giving the chickens that "I want to eat you eye" after they got around 15 weeks old. They are bigger then my little cat though.

 

[Illia]

Yeah it might depend on the cat. I know our main head guy around here is usually the one who hangs around our free ranged chickens the most, and he's just fine. He's good around anything, actually, except other cats. Even little 2 month old chicks, he just walks by, glances at them, and keeps on going.

 

[Matt A NC]

When Barbara was first tossed out here, as a 3 month old Kitten, it did worry me what would happen. She has grown into a great mouser and catches the wild birds out of the chicken lots. About 2 weeks after she got here, she got too close to Momma hen and was educated about chicks for about 50 feet at a full run.

She does not mess with the grown chickens, even though some are 1 pound Dutch. So far she has completely ignored the 6 with Pigie(bantam cochin) that are under a week old.

Matt

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

Experiment and watch very carefully. Every cat (or. Dog, etc) is different. The larger chickens should look out for the babies.