Cats eating my chicks!

:cryOh No! Just last week be built an enclosure for the chickens, complete with a large roost. However, two nights ago, our numbers dropped from 6 chickens to 3! We managed to throw an extremely heavy stone at the cat, hit it on the leg and it vanished.

We have a 1.8m fence that's falling apart, but our neighbours are too crappy to consent for us to fix it.

Do my friends here have any solution to protect our chickens?

 

Completely enclosing the chickens at all times is about all I can think of. Just until they mature, then they should be able to protect themselves.

 

There isn't a fence alive that'll keep a cat out of somewhere it wants to go no matter how tall it is, unless it's completely closed in as collinsl said. Is there any way you can keep them in the coop until they're old enough to fend for themselves?

As a cat owner, I'm appalled at both a neighbour who lets their cat roam freely and a neighbour who thinks an acceptable response to a cat doing what it does naturally is to throw a large heavy rock at it.

 

No, the coop isnt large enough.
Our neighbours were probably acting in the heat of the moment - they're fond of out chickens. Anyway, that cat looked seriously maltreated.

EDIT: Although we could probably install a retractable roof over the enclosure

 

i have one but i don't think is appropriate.it has to do with a bb gun and nails.

 

Get a couple of ornamental dogs that should do the trick, also you can buy some cat repelant from your local pet store you just spread it on the ground and apparently the cats don't like the smell, also if you have any friends with dogs get them to bring the dogs round and let the dogs out in the garden for a couple of hours everytime they call and let the dogs do their business in the garden and the cat won't bother because of the dogs scent !

 

The picture I attached is what my chicken coop looks like. Standard chicken wire and 1/2" electrical conduit and 6' T-Posts are what it's made with, with a dimension of 20' long by 15' wide. It's attached to the shed, and would be quite difficult to get into.

I have more pics. You can see then on my photobucket page here:

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll299/Tux_Rules/Chickens/

 

Nice setup Tux!^.^

 

Don't spend much time with cats, do you? LOL Mine used to curl up and sleep on the backs of my mother's ornamental dogs. :-D

 

@Tux: Looks awesome - it's just that our garden could fit into your coop.

 

Let's see, we had problems with a cat, and solved it with six sheets of OSB, some 2X4's and a couple of hinges. It's a 4X8 box with two foot high sides two sheets on the top and one half a sheet on either end forming a peak. Split one top sheet down the center and attach hinges. Use hasps and snaps to secure it. Nothing without thumbs is getting in. When they get too hot, secure chicken wire over one opening and leave the lid open. Viola, cat proof chicken house. We had 150 chicks in one of this size, so it will hold 6-8 full grown chickens more than comfortably.

 

Um, no. The cat will walk up to the ornamental dog to taunt it and when it doesn't move, will dismiss it as another dumb human device that superior feline creatures can outsmart in an instant. LOL The scent of dogs is not enough to dissuade a cat, not at all.

My cat goes outside when the weather allows, she hunts, she attacked a neighbor's bulldog and won the fight, and she has brought home countless birds. The only way to keep her out of a chicken coop would be to bribe her. Or you can do what Tux_Rules or Triaxx2 suggested... the thing is to realize from the start that if you are dealing with a hunting outdoor cat, you are dealing with a creative and very intelligent creature that can do nearly anything with its paws that we can do with our hands. If cats had thumbs, they would run our planet.

 

L:-DO:-DL.

I'll try what Triaxx said.

 

I agree. Crafty critters, they are . . . and mans only domestic animal that is not actually domesticated.

Triaxx's advice seems sound

 

I put moth balls in my iris bed to keep the cats from digging in it and it worked. Perhaps if you sprinkle moth balls around your coop it would repel them. Poison works too. LOL

 

Don't worry about the one I built, I have those out door hunting cats, and they couldn't get in, despite some fairly ingenious attempts.

 

You do that to my cat, I'll poison your kids and forget to tell you about it. Deal?

 

I had a problem with neighbour’s cats attacking the chickens at night in our old place. I ended up completely enclosing the fowl house in swimming pool fencing covered with every wire. But, as said, it did look a bit of an eyesore.
Ended up getting rid of the chickens. I'm allergic to eggs, so it was not a big loss, (for me).

 

Creepy.

Swimming pool fencing?

 

How about building a moat around the coop. Cats hate water. Although if it gets cold enough to freeze where you live the cats could walk on the ice.

 

If only my garden was large enough.