This is why God made .22 rifles....

This kind of thing is exactly why I always keep my chicks completely secure in some way or another until they are 2 months (8 weeks) old. They are far too trusting, niave and clueless about predators. Makes them easy pickin's for cats, hawks, possums, etc.

Depending on how hungry and bold those cats are, once the chicks get to adulthood and gain some weight and size they should be OK, but you never know--you are training the cats early where dinner is. We have had to trap numerous feral cats and take them to the local pound. They come into our yard even when we are out there, and no amount of chasing them away ran them off for long.

Velvet ~:>

seriously, folks have been getting wonderful results with 1" chicken wire for a good long time, now. if one row of three- foot wire STILL lets the cats jump over, use two rows (one above the other - which creates one six-foot fence). you could also get you the loan of a b - b gun, and butt-shoot every cat you see, every tiume you see them. you soon won't see cats hanging around any more.

i say all this KNOWING you're not dam-fool enough to turn a bunch of of baby chicks out in an un-enclosed yard where you know there's a cat-or-so hanging around. i know this; don't i?

owen

My husband is getting on me big time about this because I insisted on feeding "Feral" through the winter because she was staring in the sliding glass doors at me and I didn't want her to starve. I must say, though that my husband was the one that did the feeding once we bought the dry food since he gets up early. So----he is part of the problem, right?????

Well now, he is ready to shoot her and the other couple of cats she has brought to the free food. I think she is pregnant and wonder if she would then teach her kittens to eat chickens too. (Maybe she isn't pregnant --- maybe she just has a belly full of chickens!) It really is frustrating because the cats deserve to eat as much as anything else, but THEY AREN'T PAYING FOR THEIR FOOD.

Our dear neighbors have about fifteen feral cats that hunt in our pastures. They picked off one pullet that was unwise enought to get her self out of the coop.. The little brat was able to fly really early. I was able to keep the rest in their pens until they were full grown. Mine are all heavy breeds and the cats stay away from them. I figured that banties and light breeds would look too much like a quick snack to the cats and hawks. We used an air rifle with only a few pumps to sting their butts.. worked fine.. Kit

Roberta, far be it from me to tell someone not to feed a stray but I hope you realize that once you start feeding ANYTHING on a regular basis they really aren't strays any longer they are pets. They may not be the pet you would like, not all pets are cuddley or pretty or great to have around, but they are the pet you attained by inviting them again and again to dine with you L. My sister started that I got two really great cats from wild ones that were hanging around her house but she ended up with more then 30 that were not one bit tame. She really had a problem when she wanted to sell her place. It was creepy. all those cats sitting everywhere and when you put your foot on the porch and blinked they all disappeared L.

I don't mind the stray dogs that come through the yard but my husband doesn't like the presents they leave us and their eating our dogs food. so he shoots them in the hiney with a pellet gun and we don't really have a problem with them now. its like they tell each other to just avoid that yard, more trouble then its worth. S

As for your problem with the chickens your just gonna have to secure them in a better way until they are too big to get eaten. but I think velvet is right your just teaching them where they can get a free meal. If they are really hungry size might not deter them later when the chicks grow up. Maybe a mean rooster would help out or a dog. our dog really helps keep away cats and other dogs. and she helps with the chickens and rabbits but its hard to find a dog like that.

CI

Thanks all. The big guns come out tomorrow morning. I really appreciate all of the advice except maybe for Owen. Owen --- I may be a "dam-fool" in that I just gave up trying to keep them fenced in. Maybe the "dam-fool" brain waves apply to me but your childish use of no caps in your posts tells me you either are 8 years old or are perhaps a "dam-fool" where writing is concerned.

If your computer doesn't have a shift key, I'm sorry I mentioned this.

Lol, hes going to take a picture of his keyboard and it will have no shift keys and you will feel like a jerk.

Anyways, as far as trapping and releasing Cats elsewere it is important that you not release any cat into the wilds of north America (except for maybe in the far southern regions of mexico, Oscelots you know) because the only native Cat here is the Bobcat, which is very dissimilar to house cats in its choice of prey, habitat, and hunting means. Feral Housecats destroy native bird populations and we need native birds for pest control and for seeds to be spread properly, Anyone who farms or eats for that matter is very dependant on wild life being balanced in some fashion and House cats do not fit into a north american balance at all. IMO Cats should not be outside at all, wheather you are feeding them or not.

I promise I will apologize if he posts the picture! I absolutely agree that house cats should stay inside. I do appreciate the fact that we no longer have a mouse problem in our out buildings but I guess they just aren't happy with only mice.

We are down to 22 hens now, but they are getting larger. A shotgun sounds like the best solution.

Poor chickens! :( It must be horrifying and stressful for them....

By the way, the cats are a major problem in another way--they carry parasites such as roundworms that will infest your flock. The cats can and will defecate in your yard and your chickens will pick up roundworm eggs during their natural foraging. So they are a biosecurity threat as well as a direct threat to your flock.

Also, if the hens constantly have to worry being hunted by feral cats, when they reach adulthood it will contribute to them running wild in an effort to attain safety, hide their nests and/or end up being poor egg producers due to the stressful life they lead.

You need to bite the bullet and secure the hens AND trap and/or kill the cats. Soon you'll be down to 0 chickens. :(

Velvet ~:>

I don't want to sound like a mean person but you should have had a secure pen the chickens could not get out of before you put them outside. If your chickens can get out then any preditor can certainly get in . Four foot chicken wire is not enough. I have 5 foot welded wire and I still have an occasional chhicken getting out . At least the fence slows down the local preditors long enough for the shot gun to be activated. Good luck with your birds.
Linda

Cats are littereally driving seaotters mad in california, the parasites are destroying there brains, bad news.

Anyways, I've seen even fat cats that could jump up 6 foot walls, so long as they could put there feet in for a brief moment about halfway up, and Coons can climb fences quite easily, I still say a bullet fixes all of your problems, and all of the environments problems with the Cat aswell.

The cat that we think was the major culprit is now history. We have seen him stalking the hens many times and this morning was his last. My husband is accustomed to carrying 50# bags of feed and said this cat weighed at least 35# and maybe more. That is a well-fed feral cat!!!

If it looks like the other one is at fault also, it will be gone. I know they are just cats being cats, but they aren't paying for their organically raised cuisine.

For the record cats being cats would be cats in Europe and Asia, not IL

Huh?

Where are all the cat lovers when you need them?!

Aman to Owen.

I have cats outside. I don't want a cat in my house. I love my outside cats. I also have chickens which I keep in a pen enclosed with chicken wire, top and bottom until they are old enough to fend for themselves. I feed my cats. My cats don't get a chance to feed on my chickens.
Just my 2 cents worth.

You shot a pregant cat?!! A 35 lb. pregant cat? Where is the humane side of this story? What is wrong with this picture?

Joanne

Joanne, Roberta DID try to solve the problem in other ways. She was kind enough to feed someone else's, cast-off FERAL cat through the winter, too.

As for the 'human' side of the story--you might just as well ask where the irresponsible owner of the UNSPAYED, left-to-fend-for-itself cat was. THAT'S what is wrong with this picture. True cat lovers are responsible and loving, and do not allow their animals to roam about wild and creating more wild cats that are doomed.

This is The Farm Forum. On the farm people quite often must do things that are direct and aren't pretty, including cleaning up other people's messes. While I agree that the chicks could have been better protected and what happened is unfortunate, people do make mistakes and if they are intelligent enough to come onto a forum and ask for help and advice, they should NOT be bashed. Learning is something that goes on your entire life.

I have had to trap more then 20 feral cats in the ten years we have lived here, and I don't fool myself for a minute about what happens to them once they get to the pound.

Velvet ~:>

Just to set the record straight, the cat we got rid of was not the pregnant one we fed over the winter. We don't think it was the culprit. That said, if it is part of the problem, I sure don't need her giving birth and then showing the kittens where to find food!

Next?

I wonder if oppossum's had been eating the chicks if anyone would have minded, or snakes or rats. To me a wild cat still fits into that category.

Roberta if the cats were going in at night its too bad you couldn't rig up a door I don't know what a hoop house looks like so maybe this isn't feasible. but when we decided to get a couple of hens as a lark. We converted the dog house into a nite roost, we just put on a door to protect them from nite predators and we open it up every morning, and close it and hook it at nite. it was very inexpensive. I realize you feel you have your cat problem taken care of but you still may have other predators around.

CI
Good Luck

This was happening in broad daylight. They all go in obediently at sundown and we lock them inside. Nothing can get in the hoophouse other than possibly a snake, but I really think the cat was the culprit.

We just found kittens yesterday in a storage shed next to their hoophouse, so that is where the "once pregnant" cat lives. Surprisingly, the kittens look to be about two weeks old, so I think possibly the black cat was hunting for or with the mother.

Velvet.....I'm well aware this is the farm forum, I didn't come here to bash or be bashed. Clearly Owen was giving his/her opion and that is where the bashing started. Roberta stated "We can't seem to keep them fenced in no matter what we do".
There is nothing humane about killing a cat.....the humane society in most states would have one locked up for killing any animal that wasn't causing harm to humans.

Birds are part of the food chain for cats and other wild animals. If one doesn't want cats or whatever getting their baby chicks then take Owens advice.....plain and simple.

Don't bother with a reply to me....I'll not be reading any futher in this thread nor will I stoop myself to you level.
Joanne

joanne, whether you read this or reply to it or not, makes no difference to me. But since you are not the only person on this forum, and others come here to learn, I will respond to your comments.

I don't see how Owen bashed the author of the thread at all--only you did, and clearly by your last comment you felt you were jumping on the bandwagon. There is a common code of civil conduct online that most people follow. If peer pressure to maintain this code of ethics annoys you, perhaps you would be happier indeed to stop reading. Forums like this are meant to help and teach with the sharing of knowledge and experiences. Not all of those experiences are pretty and have happy endings.

As for your comment: "There is nothing humane about killing a cat.....the humane society in most states would have one locked up for killing any animal that wasn't causing harm to humans."

Your local animal shelter kills unwanted dogs and cats every day. If people don't spay or neuter, an excess of animals that become unwanted are the result. Do you really think that feral cats are anything BUT doomed to live a hardscrabble existence and die (usually as another animal's meal) before their time? And FAR contrary to your claim, in most states farm owners and home owners have the perfect, legally protected right to protect their livestock from wild animals, even feral cats.

This was obviously not someone's well-behaved, cute and fluffy housecat, but a WILD animal. Big difference.

Velvet ~:>