Will cats get my chickens?

[cluckcluckluke]

in my experience my cats are scared of my hens ive evn taken the cats fown into the run just to see what would happen and the cat just sits and watches them and if a hen comes up she'll run away.

 

[catsbully]

most of my hens we 6mths to 2yrs old whne I gave up on trying to keep my cats in-house! well this spring when I threw my hands up and said forget it just let them out!! if the coyotes get them oh well! not thinking at that time about how they would react to the hens...well one day I was out in the yard with the hens and looked over to see one of the cats stalking a hen...OH NO! but before I had a chance to react the cat lept...the chicken sqawked...then the hen ATTACKED with about ten more hens on the charge as well all of them getting a peck at the cats butt! I have to say the cats will try every once and awhile but the hens win every time! but what a hoot to watch!!! I have never seen a cat tuck tail and run!!!!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

most of my hens we 6mths to 2yrs old whne I gave up on trying to keep my cats in-house! well this spring when I threw my hands up and said forget it just let them out!! if the coyotes get them oh well! not thinking at that time about how they would react to the hens...well one day I was out in the yard with the hens and looked over to see one of the cats stalking a hen...OH NO! but before I had a chance to react the cat lept...the chicken sqawked...then the hen ATTACKED with about ten more hens on the charge as well all of them getting a peck at the cats butt! I have to say the cats will try every once and awhile but the hens win every time! but what a hoot to watch!!! I have never seen a cat tuck tail and run!!!!

oh thats great!!! well... not for the cat, you should defiantly get a video...

 

[fowl farm]

My cats LOVED stalking the birds at first (they've grown out of it), but they would never get closer than a foot or so.

 

[PrairieChickens]

We lost two chicks to my mom's cat when we first got chickens, but once they stop peeping and start clucking, the cats all seem to lose interest. Even though the chickens were still small enough that a cat could have easily attacked and killed it, they just didn't seem to recognize the chickens as a potential prey animal anymore.

 

[Joe Jordan]

I agree with PrairieChickens. There seems to be a size issue when dealing with cats. Mine will go after any chick that is smaller than them, but once the bird gains the size advantage, no matter how skilled the cat is at stalking and killing, the cats seem to avoid the birds entirely. This may not always be the case because cats are known to prey on larger animals which appear sick or disabled (may explain the silky incident) so proceed with caution.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Cats are capable of killing chickens. Some cats will and some won't.

Just because you hear from a couple of people that their own cat doesn't kill chickens does not mean that every other cat (and there are millions of them) will never kill a chicken.

 

[PrairieChickens]

Oh, I'm sure if they were hungry enough, they'd try their luck with a chicken--especially the smaller ones--but they'd have to get past three roosters and a couple of ferocious little hens to do it. When in doubt, it's best to err on the side of caution, but in my experience, cats don't go for chickens once they're at that certain age. Something about the peep-peep of baby chicks sets off their prey drive, while clucking apparently doesn't.