Cats.

[katie_3487]

this morning my dad woke up to the stereotypical chicken alert/predator noise. We don’t have a rooster and are hens are older pullets but they’ve never been face to face with a predator. When my dad when out there, there was nothing there, just scared chickens. Our guess was that it’s a cat. There’s a cat that roams around my street constantly. I saw it two nights ago. Our chickens are in a protective run (we’re thinking of rapping chicken wire around it too, because our chickens tend to stick their head out of the run) and they have a coop (which no cat is getting into) I myself, don’t have cats, but like I said I know there’s one around here. So my question is, is there anything else (besides chicken wire) that I can do? And does anyone know if it was a cat?

 

[TXchickmum]

Without seeing it, there's no way to tell what it might be. Mine make their usual stirring sounds for cats as well as hawks and Mississippi kites that perch in the trees near the coop. If it was really early, it might have been an opposum lurking around. You could definitely wrap smaller gauge wire or hardware cloth around it for protection from cats.

 

[nuthatched]

There's no way to tell what they were alerting to, we're not clairvoyant.. Mine alert to birds, large bugs and airplanes. A little hardware cloth wouldn't hurt, though unless you have very desperate cats, I'd consider everything but chicks safe.

 

[katie_3487]

this morning my dad woke up to the stereotypical chicken alert/predator noise. We don’t have a rooster and are hens are older pullets but they’ve never been face to face with a predator. When my dad when out there, there was nothing there, just scared chickens. Our guess was that it’s a cat. There’s a cat that roams around my street constantly. I saw it two nights ago. Our chickens are in a protective run (we’re thinking of rapping chicken wire around it too, because our chickens tend to stick their head out of the run) and they have a coop (which no cat is getting into) I myself, don’t have cats, but like I said I know there’s one around here. So my question is, is there anything else (besides chicken wire) that I can do? And does anyone know if it was a cat?

Without seeing it, there's no way to tell what it might be. Mine make their usual stirring sounds for cats as well as hawks and Mississippi kites that perch in the trees near the coop. If it was really early, it might have been an opposum lurking around. You could definitely wrap smaller gauge wire or hardware cloth around it for protection from cats.

Edit: turns out my chicken laid her first egg and we don’t think it was a predator, since apparently they scream for up to 15 minutes after they lay an egg.

 

[want2know]

There's no way to tell what they were alerting to, we're not clairvoyant.. Mine alert to birds, large bugs and airplanes. A little hardware cloth wouldn't hurt, though unless you have very desperate cats, I'd consider everything but chicks safe.

this morning my dad woke up to the stereotypical chicken alert/predator noise. We don’t have a rooster and are hens are older pullets but they’ve never been face to face with a predator. When my dad when out there, there was nothing there, just scared chickens. Our guess was that it’s a cat. There’s a cat that roams around my street constantly. I saw it two nights ago. Our chickens are in a protective run (we’re thinking of rapping chicken wire around it too, because our chickens tend to stick their head out of the run) and they have a coop (which no cat is getting into) I myself, don’t have cats, but like I said I know there’s one around here. So my question is, is there anything else (besides chicken wire) that I can do? And does anyone know if it was a cat?

I agree with @nuthatched A Siamese might go after grown chickens, but generally cats don't go after chickens. I have two cats and many neighboring cats and have never had an issue. As a matter of fact my orange tabby male likes hanging out with the chickens and they seem to like him.

 

[Folly's place]

If a cat is visiting, it's probably wanting the mice that hang around, or some other rodent. Very few cats will attack big chickens, or even bigger bantams. Small unprotected chicks would be fair game though.
And chicken wire ain't enough; get hardware cloth.
Mary

 

[DobieClose]

Cats love chickens!
Through glass …..