Chickens and cats

[Lou573]

Has anyone had a problem with cats and chickens? Our own cats give the chickens a wide berth and have been no problem at all. However, the ladies were out in the garden for a wander while I was out there today (they’re in a run unless someone’s out with them) and they came scurrying out of the flower bed clucking worriedly. When I went over to see what the problem was there was a neighbours cat who shot off, so I assumed they were just a bit perturbed by him, but then later I spotted about a dozen feathers from one of the girls in the same spot -
Could he have had a swipe at her? I’ve never heard of cats being a problem before. I inspected her and couldn’t find any injury and she seemed fine immediately after, carried on digging up the veggie bed and eating and drinking fine for the rest of the day.

My cats wouldn't dare touch my chickens, but perhaps the cat hadn't met chickens before, and snuck up on them unawares?

There are a lot of cats where I live. My chickens have free ranged in my back garden for over 6 years. I think the cats are scared of them.

I've posted below, but my cat had a lovely first week stalking our new chickens, the chickens had a lovely second week chasing the cat.
They now ignore each other......
We do have an aggressive cat down the road, but even he isn't really up to taking on them.
We are getting a puppy in a couple of weeks, so that could be interesting.

Thanks all, reassuring that it’s not a common problem. Hopefully he maybe had a halfhearted effort but realised he’d bitten off more than he could chew and will think again next time. Chickens didn’t seem overly concerned by the incident, just did the usual complaining that they do when there’s something they don’t approve of going on.

My neighbour has hens that roam around freely and they are in my garden most days. They are gorgeous girls and I love chatting to them when they visit. I've spotted my cat, who's a prolific hunter, sunbathing within six feet of them. Neither cat nor hens were remotely bothered about each other, I'm pleased to say.