Hens at risk from feral cats

Last winter, my small flock of hens was killed by a feral tom cat, says Dick Warner. 

After a suitable period of mourning, I decided to replace them. However, the first thing to be done was to inspect and improve my predator defences to ensure that the new birds didn’t suffer the same fate as the previous ones.

The cat had made several visits to the hen run before he finally finished off my flock and, on the last occasion, I actually caught him in the act. I’d never heard of a cat killing hens before and, up to that moment, I had been blaming a mink or a stoat.