Cats and chickens

[handbagofoblivion]

Hello. We are thinking of keeping chickens and we'd like them to have free access to our garden in the day.

We already have a cat. He's a bit of a wuss so I am sure the chickens will be fine. My question is how can we ensure that the chickens don't escape from our garden whilst ensuring the cat maintains his freedom to roam the neighbourhood?
Our back garden is fenced all round. There are a couple of gaps which our cat uses to get out and the neighbourhood cats to come through. We will be closing these so the chickens can't out.

We wondered about putting a cat flap in the fence. I see online that chickens can be trained to use catflaps. However is it safe to assume they wouldn't figure it out alone?

Any other solutions?

My parents cat used to jump up onto the fence to get out of the garden, right up until when he died he was still climbing up the fences, he got chased by the chickens once after trying to stalk them and never tried again lol

Is your cat not very agile or quite old? Our fences were easily 2 metres high and he still found a way to get up them and he was 10 years old when he passed away, I think he used to jump over from windowsill sometimes. I suspect if your cat is healthy and really wants to leave the garden he'll find a way out somehow or another.

One of my current cats is so lazy thpugh, even if she did go outside I'm certain she would just lay on the grass and sleep and couldn't be bothered to even try and get out of the garden lol

Edit: he didn't used to jump out the window but would jump onto the outside ledge of the first floor window, turn a bit and then jump onto the fence

He's lazy but agile enough so perhaps he would learn to climb the fence once the handy gaps are not an option.

My chicken enclosure fences are mostly 6ft which seems to be enough to contain the chickens.

Cats (not mine) can get in and out of the enclosure.

How high are your fences?

My chickens don’t go over the fence of their enclosure even though they could if they wanted to, it’s 5ft. As long as they have food and water they’re happy. If they run out of food they send a volunteer over the fence and she will come and sit by the back door to tell me! But otherwise they stay put.

My cats are terrified of them and leave them alone. Remember you can always clip their wings (one wing per chicken). It’s easy to do.

The back garden fences are 1m90.
We are planning a small coop with a house and run but most of the time the chickens would be free to roam in the whole back garden. I'm not concerned the chickens will be able to escape the garden but that the cat won't be able to.

Don't let the chickens roam freely round the garden as they'll just get eaten. Also you just get chicken shit everywhere and chickens eat anything you are trying to grow. Build a nice big, safe (but be aware foxes may still get in, they are amazingly determined) enclosure for the chickens and let the cat be free to roam.

We live in an urban area. Are predators a still a problem in the day? Chickens would be safely shut up at night.

I'm not too worried about them eating the garden. We only have shrubs and bulbs because I'm a lazy gardener.

I think predators can be a problem anywhere.
I live on the edge of a small village backing on to fields.
I've had chickens for 10 years, they free range in the fenced front, and have also done the same in the back, and I don't shut them up at night. I've never had a predator problem (yet - ekk!).
My friend lives in a smaller village a mile away and shuts hers up at night. In the same time frame she has had lots taken by predators, including during the day when she is about, and only this week lost a lamb and several hens.

Thanks. Lots to think about.
I read that chickens poop approx 7 cherries in volume a day. We would have 3 max so I think we can cope with that amount of free range poop!

It depends if you also have kids running around. It's nowhere near as bad as dog poo (and makes great manure) but I'd still want them contained to a section of the garden in a big enclosure if I had them again.

Thanks. Youngest DC is old enough to poop scoop and redistribute should this be necessary.