How to make a yard/barn cat "chicken safe"?

[tallyho8]

I have always had cats in my barn and never had any problem with them killing chickens. Kittens will usually chase chicks a little for their play time but never seem to harm them especially if the hen is around.

Sometimes the cats never seem to catch a mouse yet there are no signs of mice. I believe that a smart mouse can smell the cat scent in the area and will stay away. I would much rather repel the mice from my barn than attract and poison them and have poisoned, rotting corpses around.

A mouse can destroy a $1000 saddle overnight if allowed into your tackroom.

 

[toppop52]

Dogs are a lot more of a problem killing chickens than cats will ever be, we had to get rid of or put down 2 dogs when I was kid because they would kill chickens and eat eggs.

 

[Lurch]

Our birds free range during the day. Won't let a cat stay on the place. Stray wanders in now and then but the birds run it off. :confused2:

 

[SandburRanch]

Probably the very best way to be sure a yard/barn cat is chicken safe is to raise the baby chicks and kitten(s) in the brooder/barn together.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Our birds free range during the day. Won't let a cat stay on the place. Stray wanders in now and then but the birds run it off. :confused2:

Lurch,

That is part of my concern.

All the chickens, ducks, and guineas have the run of our yard and maybe 10' into the woods surrounding that. so they have about 2 acres to free range in.

Somehow the cat would have to be in the same area. I don't want the cat/cats to bother the chickens, but neither do I want the chickens to terrorize the cat to the point it is no good.

I will say, I did not get the mouse incident until I started leaving the tractor where I was working. Maybe the birds were scaring off the mice...

I'm going to bring the tractor back to the yard today...

I know there are two neighbor's cats on my property at night. I see them often as the scurry away from my headlights. They visit but did not seem to be helping much...

David

 

[toppop52]

Other than a bad tempered rooster sometimes chasing a cat or anything else he sees, the chickens and cats will largely ignore each other. Domestic cats get blamed for taking chickens when often it's either dogs, weasels or bobcats.

 

[slowzuki]

Sister has a feral cat that hangs around the barnyard to eat pigeons. It won't touch the chickens, they attack it when it comes around them. It also gets along well with the fox. The chickens go in at night as I'm sure the fox could get a taste for them.

 

[toppop52]

Foxes are another major chicken stealer, and they will kill cats sometimes, one killed my next door neighbor's cat last spring. There was a tall cover crop across the road and the cat liked to go in there prowling and the family of foxes that has lived in the woods 200 yds or so back hunt there as well. I suspect they surprised one another because it was broad daylight, the cat ran across the road back home and died within minutes. It was one heck of fight that you could hear all over the place and had the foxes back at the woods barking and the dogs around as well. What was strange is it was the big male fox that's a mostly gray and as big as I've ever seen, he roamed in my backyard under the security light in the wee hours. I haven't seen him since the fight and what appeared to be the female was killed on the road a month or so later. Those foxes have lived there for over 10 years, but the fight and the car may have done them in.

 

[chucko]

It is simple just get a rooster that can put a hurting on the cat

 

[MossflowerWoods]

It is simple just get a rooster that can put a hurting on the cat

I have two roosters now.

Marshall Cogburn (barred rock), and George Washington (Americana).

Be well,
David