Introducing new chickens to outdoor cats

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Hello Fytnfyr! Welcome to the chicken world. I can say from my personal experience, I would start with pullets over chicks. Regardless of if you start with chicks or pullets, the chickens will get use to you within the first week or so. I although I have a Border Collie who absolutely LOVES my chickens (including the rooster), when introducing a new pullet you should never allow them to be alone. Even turning your back for a second could be potentially dangerous. After a few weeks animals will get use to each other, but even then, they should be watched. Free range or not. Cats will try to eat your hens at first, so be careful.... Yet chickens are a lot smarter than we think and they will learn to defend themselves soon enough. And trust me, the cats will learn to kick rocks or be pecked!

I agree with everything everyone else has said about dogs. Even the most friendly and trust worthy of pets can turn a little crazy when they see something small, fast, and furry cluckin' around the yard. You SHOULD however be VERY VERY VERY careful while free ranging in regards to predators of the sky. I free ranged my first chickens for four months with no issues at all, never once had I noticed a predator, until one day I went outside to put the girls up for the night and found their life-less little bodies scattered in my backyard. A hawk had attacked and killed them. Luckily my roo got away and was sitting at my backdoor waiting to be picked up.

Since that attack, I've been very wary of leaving my babies outside when I'm not there. If you are going to free range, make sure you've got enough chickens to compensate for the few you may potentially lose. I started off with two hens and a roo... Was left with a roo after the attack, and decided to buy more than enough the next go around .

BE CAUTIOUS, There are predators EVERYWHERE. Otherwise, HAVE FUN! Chickens are amazing creatures and I couldn't imagine my life without them.
 
Thanks to everyone for your input!

To touch on some of the comments....

We are starting with a dozen chickens which is way more than we "need" to feed the family with eggs....these won't be meat chickens for us, we have the rabbits for that.

We've already had experience with some of this stuff....we don't have a LOT of aerial predators in our area...YET, but we have had a bear come into the yard and take several rabbits before we got our fence up...my bad for putting the cart before the horse (or rabbits, as it were). Weather was a factor and delayed the fence for several months...lesson learned! The fence went up, the dogs moved outside 100% of the time and we haven't had a problem in two years.

The dogs: Another lesson was learned when we had several rabbits and the dogs were great with them in the yard. One day we introduced new rabbits and thinking the dogs wouldn't bother them, we left them unsupervised. Lost both rabbits that day to the dogs. A neighbor saw it all go down and said the dogs appeared to be "playing" with them. When the rabbits tried to flee, the dogs stopped them..permanently! After that, new rabbits were introduced slowly so the dogs would get used to their scent and we've not had a problem.

I do plan to slowly introduce the chickens the same way...protected in a chicken tractor for several weeks so that all the animals can have a look, a smell, and realize they're staying.

The cats are my big concern on this one, but I'm hoping that the same plan will work for them. It's good to know that for most of you out there (and previous posts I've read thanks to the links that were sent) that the cats don't seem to put two and two together as far as the Chicken=Bird equation goes.

I really appreciate all your help....don't stop, all comments are welcome and I plan to research everything I can til the day they are formally allowed to free range and beyond!

Thanks again,

Fytnfyr
 

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