How are they with cats?

[Grandma D Farm]

My neighbor has "free range" cats and it is making it difficult for my "free range chicks", any idea what to do?

 

[Odelia]

How bad is the situation, are they harming your chickens? If so you could put out live animal traps at night for the feral cats and take them to the pound. You could put up electric fencing. You could put out hot pepper flakes where the cats like to hang out.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Welcome to BYC!
I can only speak from my own experience in saying that in all the chickens I have kept, I have not had ONE loss to a domestic cat. I have seen cats eye ball the birds and even make the occasional half-hearted attempt at getting one, but they have quickly changed their mind. If you are going to be dealing with more vulnerable birds (silkies, for example) who have vision impairment from headdresses, birds with disabilities or extremely small breeds I would be more concerned.

 

[enola]

My house cat will munch down on a chick in a heart beat. But, once they have feathers she ignores them.

But, I have had trouble with several feral cats. I trap and remove them.

 

[Grandma D Farm]

Well they ate one and that leaves two. I think I might try the live trap and possibly pepper flakes. Thanks!

 

[Grandma D Farm]

Thanks, that is good to know. I thought they would be big enough by now to defend themselves, but I still keep an eye out. They did do an "all nighter" last night, and was fine this morning. But I usually put them in their house at night, it completely slipped my mind.