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Originally Posted by snowy
I really, really want chickens. I definitely have enough space for chickens. We have cats, though. I'm not sure how that would work. My husband is adamantly opposed, largely due to the cat issue. Help?
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You may have to protect the chickens as chicks, depends on how aggressively your cats hunt. But once the chickens are adults, the cats will leave them alone after the first encounter. Chickens can peck and claw enough to discourage most household pets. But like I said, it depends on the cat.
I have 2 cats, our neighbor has several chickens along with a mess of other fowl (turkeys, pheasants, ducks, geese..........). She let them roam the neighborhood for a couple of years with no problems. It was great for me, every morning and every evening a parade of fowl would march through my yard eating every slug and bug in sight. One of our neighbors must have complained, likely about the goose poo, so she keeps them penned now. My cats were curious about them, but if they got too close a wing flap or a peck sent the cats running.
If you think it would be a concern with cats, get 1 turkey. Nothing in its right mind will mess with a turkey. The turkey will quickly become the leader, defending the flock and the chickens will follow it everywhere. Then you'll have eggs every day and the best turkey you've ever had on T-Day.
I should add, Geese work as well as Turkeys as guard fowl, but they are much more aggressive and noisy.
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