The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Badger on January 26, 2014, 11:34:30 am
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I wonder if somebody could enlighten us. In the past few weeks we have had two hens taken during daylight (on different occasions ). All we found were a pile of feathers in the field next door. Last night we put out a humane trap, suspecting a possible stoat. I also put out my wildlife camera trap. This morning the baited trap was sprung, but no captive. On inspecting the camera footage, it was a domestic cat around midnight. We think it turned over the trap to make the bait fall out onto the grass. Question is...could a cat (possibly ferral ) kill and take a large hen.
Badger
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Yes I think so. We had a suspect cat we caught stalking ours a while back.
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I have had cats that were good hunters wouldn't dream of attempting a hen. (large fowl.)
So I can't say categorically no, but certainly I can say "not in my experience."
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We have had a feral take Bantam and bantam/LF crosses that where a bit smaller than LF but never LF
This was in the depths of winter when food was very scarce for them, they where in the wood on the other side of the river and the river was frozen so they could come over the ice
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None of my own cats have been remotely interested in my chooks. More likely to be a large feral one than a domestic one I think. But certainly possible.
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Certainly possibly as my cats catch pheasants.
We lost some ducks a few years ago and a Scottish wild cat was suggested as the most likely culprit as it escaped from a humane trap that we'd set.
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Certainly possibly as my cats catch pheasants.
Yup, mine took pheasants. But not hens. (LF)
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we had village cats kill my 10 week old chicks, and my childhood cat used to catch rabbits.
not sure about hens but i dont see why not. mine never have but they have spend alot of time in their orchard - but possibly after mice..
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I've had chicks killed by cats but never full grown hens, to my knowledge. I think they are a bit pecky and scratchy for most cats but I guess a hungry feral might risk it.
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My cats have always kept their distance from the chickens (even before we had Zola the cockerel) and although they will hunt rats in the enclosure they never show hunting interest in the hybrid and bantam sized chickens.
We have had lots of daytime fox attacks though.
I suppose with the weather turning as cold as it is, a feral will hunt whatever they can get.
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I have a lot of cats around the farm - some are half feral. One in particular would stalk the half grown chicks, even managing somehow to get them out of the pens. But - he never bothered with either the hens, or the small full grown bantams. Our neighbour had a lot of problems with hens going missing, and the culprit there was actually a badger, who she caught on cctv. Another neighbour had hens taken by birds of prey, and they plucked the hens in the field.
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I have had l/f Araucana, Cochins taken by cat last year , it also took 15 ducks and I have had a duck taken last week. I know whose cat it is but what can I do...it's nature.
However...my 3 German shepherds could make light work of it and what could anyone do...it's nature!
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Our hunt-mad cat takes large wood pigeons and would have taken our chicks last year given half a chance but isn't interested in the adult hens.
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I have three cats ranging from 13yrs to 8 months and they are all good hunters but they learnt early on that chickens were not to be messed with!! The kitten and a couple of the hens take in turns chasing each other but with no serious intent. In my (limited) experience cats don't like being pecked, that said, I guess a truly hungry cat would probably think it worth while, and if it has been productive before would probably be more inclined to try again.
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I've got three feral barn cats, one full grown and two nearly-grown youngsters. They have to walk through the chook yard to get to the goat-byre where they sleep and eat - don't even really look at the chooks as they walk through them.
The overly-bold rats though, got their come-uppance once these three were released (penned for four weeks initially, while they 'hefted') ;)
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like some of the others have said, most domestic moggies generally won't mess with full grown hens (our hunting mad cat has always shown an interest in them, but the hens show her very short shrift). But she happily takes pigeons, so I can see bantams being at risk. Your ragged eared scrapper of a feral cat on the other hand is a much more desperate and canny operator. I'm sure they will take a full sized hen if the opportunity presents.
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Our mog OSCAR was a big cat who weighed 10 pound plus and there wasn't a bit of fat on him . He managed to drag full grown partridges , pheasants rabbits young and older , mice , rats and bloody big rats through the cat flap into the sun lounge.
In the mornings if he wasn't home we would whistle to call him and hear him meow back and then see him coming up the single track road with any of the above in his chops usually with their legs and head dragging on the road either side of his head .
He was wary of Leopold the goose but not bothered about or by Rasputin the goat , so I reckon if he was hungry he would have snaffled one of Pauls chooks if he'd left them out and the foxes hadn't got to them first .
One time before we moved out to the sticks ....Around lunch time we saw him take a flying leap over the fence ,. take two bounds across next door's lawn and see him launch himself over another four foot chain link fence to land vertically on the wire of old Bills budgie aviary, then hang there for a while looking at the budgies whilst pawing towards them before we managed to call him back .
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I've got two big hunting cats too - both 12 or 13lb of pretty solid muscle. One loves rabbit hunting and will happily bring in full sized rabbits, the other brings in pigeons and magpies on a regular basis. They both, however, steer well clear of the LF poultry. One did take a chick last year and looked mighty proud of himself >:(. Having said that, I'm sure they would be capable of taking an isolated adult hen who didn't have a cockerel close by to protect them - but they would have to be very hungry and desperate.
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Cats have always bothered me Badger. Our little Bantams I think would stand little chance against a standard domestic cat. Our Wyandotte large fowl encountered one yesterday and all just stood upright and stared at it. The cat ran off, but I have no doubt that the chickens would have attacked it if it came any closer- they see them off as a group and I have witnessed it several times in the UK.
However a feral cat will be a whole different issue. They are hunting to survive and I can easily see one taking a chicken. I would treat them in the same way as mink and foxes.
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Not in my experience or in anyone else's I know who owns both cats and hens. All my neighbours do and even the local cat sanctuary owns hens to raise funds through eggs. I'd say it's not likely a cat it the killer of your hens. :&>
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Hi there from my experience I have 2 Feral cats that catch and eat the Rabbits,pigeons and smaller birds but never looked near my hens.Last year i had a problem with my fencing and the hens and ducks were wandering around and the cats stayed well clear
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We had a couple of British Shorthair neutered toms that caught squirrels, rabbits, moorhens and wood pigeons (they pulled one of them in through the cat flap - kitchen was covered in feathers). They also cornered a stoat on one occasion. They're the reason we no longer keep cats - we keep wildlife alive instead!
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Thank you to everybody who has taken the time to reply. Caught the cat this morning, but somehow he squeezed out of the trap before we got there. I am going to make an alteration to the trap to make it harder for a captive to escape. We still feel, that this cat anyway is not the culprit....but we could be wrong. Will keep you posted of any developments.
Badger
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there was a cat that would come around and killed some of are hens killed a large marrans cock