[Badger]

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

[hughesy]

Yes I think so. We had a suspect cat we caught stalking ours a while back.

[SallyintNorth]

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."

[sokel]

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

[doganjo]

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.

[clydesdaleclopper]

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.

[SallyintNorth]

Certainly possibly as my cats catch pheasants.

Yup, mine took pheasants.  But not hens.  (LF)

[shygirl]

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..

[Hevxxx99]

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.

[plumseverywhere]

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.

[Roxy]

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.
 

[mojocafa]

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!

[Mammyshaz]

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. 

[madchickenlady]

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.

[jaykay]

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')