[Excited Mum]

I'm a newbie and took charge of 3 bantams 3 weeks ago (1 adopted from a friend who is emigrating and two babies, about 12 weeks old).  I've just witnessed a cat get into the garden and go in for the attack, one of my babies is really tiny, she was the runt, and if I'm honest doesn't seem the full ticket, and this is the one the cat went for, the other 2 ran off squarking and flapping but she just went round and round in circles in front of the cat!!

The adopted one, has always been free range and as I have a large garden, I was quite happy to let all three free range but now I'm totally freaked out!

Any advice would be much appreciated

ps, the girls are called Naboo (the adopted one, named by my friend after a character in Star Wars), Spangle & Liberty (named on an American theme as my friend is emigrating to America!)

[newhen]

sorry, no advice. Just hope your chickens are ok.

[Hawthorn Harry]

Catapult springs to mind............. or maybe a cat-o-poult!!  Just to scare it away of course. 
You can get some plasic type balls that wouldn't hurt the cat but would scare it away.

[North Devon Dumpling]

Interesting that the cat went for the bird, but as it is a baby maybe not so odd.  Our cats are much more scared of the chickens than the chickens are of them. I should also say that the local farms' semi-feral farm cats also don't go anywhere near our hens either.

You can get sprays to spray round your garden to stop cats (as long as you haven't got your own), or powder, its called something like 'Get off' (I can't remember exactly), but you can get it in some supermarkets, garden centres, hardware stores and I should think places like Homebase would have it too.  When the local farm cats decided to set too with our pet cats we got a water gun and that did the trick for a while (mind you now our pet cats have got braver and they see off the farm cats themselves!)

You could also go for the electric poultry fencing if you wanted, would give pussy cat and nasty jolt on her/his nose and they won't go near it again. 

You do have to consider though that Mr Fox will go for any hen/bantam, baby or adult so if your hens are free range you may want to think about how you are going to protect them from this predator too (electic fence is good for this too!)

.

[iowrooster]

Hey

When mine were younger the cats used to show interest, now they wouldn`t dare!!  A cat did get into their run once( forgot to tun the  electric fence on), it was the chicken that we used to describe as special that the cat went for- she had one of her funny five mins and scared the cat off!  How is the chick?

[karlooben]

hi there and welcome to the site  , you say you have a large garden well i would suggest that you build a secure run where the birds can always remain safe from all predators wether that be a cat, fox , hawk , magpie or anything esle ,free ranging is fine if you know they are totally safe an your there consently to watch them .  yes it can be expensive to do but it gives total peace of mind knowing they are all safe 

[Excited Mum]

Thank you all so much for your responses, and for welcoming me to the site.  I've been visiting the site and  taking away advice for a while but it's taken my little trauma today to actually post something!

All the girls are fine thanks, think I'm more traumatized! Although they had only this week found the house end of the garden, and I've had a lovely week sat working on my laptop in the kitchen watching them all day, they have now retreated back to the other side of the house where I can't see them.  I'm hoping they will be brave and come back to the french doors so I can enjoy them all again.

I have a strange shaped garden (imagine a zigzag!) and I am now seriously thinking of getting a large run built.  My daughter uses a strip of land at the side of the house that is covered in recycled tyre bits (she has a slide etc on there cause if she falls off we are hoping she will bounce!) and they like kicking about on it and seem to find plenty of things to have a peck at and eat so I think my daughter will have forgo it for the girls (yet to tell the Husband as it will the most expensive chicken run base ever known!).

Hopefully we will never see a fox, live on a small new build development and have never, ever known foxes in the area, fingers crossed.

Am off to town tomorrow to buy a very large water gun!

[karlooben]

i dont mean to scare you but foxes will go anywhere they please , even though i am close to heathrow airport ppl would think that we would not get many foxes well we have tons around here plenty of places for them to breed etc an i had never ever seen a fox in the town centre i drive though at 5 am every morning but i saw one the other morning and i had to laugh 

[Excited Mum]

No don't worry, any advice excepted! My girls are in bed til at least 7.30/8.00 am so hoping that if there is ever a Mr Fox I'll see it before it sees the girls!! My daughter is only just turning 3 and adores the girls so I need to be on the ball, if anything happens I need to get the story sorted in my head before I have to explain things to her! 

[coco]

Foxes are everywhere ... we live in a large town, and once its dark they can often been seen nosing around peoples gardens and under parked cars waiting for the local chippy to shut.  My Mum even found a nest (?) with young cubs in a hedge at the top of her garden, nearly drove her dog insane as the youngsters played on their back yard in the evenings and the dog could see them through the patio doors .. its amazing how close they are to you.

xx

[Excited Mum]

Now I have a whole new thing to have nightmares about... foxes!! Although the nearest thing we have ever had to wildlife in our garden is a singular hedgehog and a singular frog! Definately have to give serious thought to a run for when I'm not at home! Will definately keep looking at this site for much appreciated advice 

[karlooben]

theres ton of advice on here on building fox proof runs etc and also plenty of ppl with experiecne to give top advice as well