This is the first time I've lived in a neighborhood with a lot of cats, some probably feral and some indoor/outdoor cats. Will they attack my hen when she's free in the yard? I've seen one cat come into our yard in the day light,, although our hen was in her coop at the time. We have dogs, but that doesn't seem to be a deterent at this point in time.
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thanks for all the input. My dogs are quite agressive towards cats, and if they were fast enough, the cat would be history. Only one of my dogs is still young and agile enough to catch a cat in the yard, though. I'm thinking that the dogs are also a deterrant for the predator birds, and i also have seen good sized hawks circling in our neighborhood.
I've seen the bobcats, coyotes, etc. that Chris mentioned in the north Scottsdale neighborhoods where my mom lives, but do they get into the Tempe neighborhoods? I live near Mitchell park. That could be worrisome if they wander around in downtown Tempe!
I own 4 cats which roam all over this acre. They never bother the free roaming hens, BUT chicks are another story. I hatch approximately 100 chicks every month and raise them for one week before selling them. The first three days they live in a brooder but I cannot allow them to feed or water from the outside trays because the cats bite off their heads. This week I had two hundred chicks so put 100 of them in a large stock tank with a light. Remembering the problems with cats, I put a metal dog crate panel over the top and weighed it down so the cats couldn't move it. Alas, not enough to keep one cat from snatching two chicks. He simply put his paw through the space of the metal panel and caught one, pulling it up to the top where he managed to get it out. I have 100 meat chicks I'll be putting outdoors in another two weeks and think it will be easiest to lock the cat away for a week or two until the chicks get large enough where he won't bother them. My experience is that once the chicks are larger than the size of a grown starling, the cats leave them alone.
Our neighbor across the street has about 5 cats that think my front yard is for their playground/toilet-- the neighbors don't let them in the house. Our hens are in a coop in a semi-enclosed area in the back yard and for the first month or so the cats were very interested in them and would stalk them on the fence, even were seen jumping on top of the coop. We give the hens supervised yard time with our dogs locked in the house. We haven't had the neighbor cats come over during the yard times, but wouldn't take the chance of leaving them alone. I think if cats were proportionate to people-sized, they'd have eaten all of us years ago.
My cat hunts full sized gophers, sparrows, dove and mice. He's curious about my 4 hens and made a run at them once. Now he just lays around nearby like he's watching cat TV. When I get chicks I will definately segregate them until 8 weeks or so...when they are almost full sized.
When we get a new cat in the neighborhood it comes around thinking it is going to get a free meal. Then after the chickens chase it around their run they decide just watching the chickens is easier and more fun.
Now I would be worried if you just have one chicken.
I would think it would depend on the cat. One of mine is scared to death of them. The other is curious. But they are both house cats. Personally, I've seen a cat stalk a peacock. Then it turned around and looked at the cat, and the cat suddenly realized how big that bird was!
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thanks for all the input. My dogs are quite agressive towards cats, and if they were fast enough, the cat would be history. Only one of my dogs is still young and agile enough to catch a cat in the yard, though. I'm thinking that the dogs are also a deterrant for the predator birds, and i also have seen good sized hawks circling in our neighborhood.
I've seen the bobcats, coyotes, etc. that Chris mentioned in the north Scottsdale neighborhoods where my mom lives, but do they get into the Tempe neighborhoods? I live near Mitchell park. That could be worrisome if they wander around in downtown Tempe!
Now I would be worried if you just have one chicken.