I am not sure where to put this, Cats killing chickens

[adjecyca]

A family member has been having issues with cats killing their smaller chickens, she has a chicken coop with a high fence and they go inside a shed at night, she is not willing to put a roof on he fence and she cannot sit there and watch her chickens 24/7. She has already lost 15 young birds this year  to the cats, her husband wants to shoot them, is there anything she can do to discourage the cats from killing her chickens? I told her she could trap them and take them to the shelter but her husband says "they are just gonna kill them at the shelter anyway" . Does anyone know of a way to solve this without killing the cats?

 

[furmonster mom]

Where are the cats coming from? 

I'm guessing there is a feral colony or barn cats nearby, and they are breeding. 

Trap, Neuter and Re-home? or release on more neutral property? (not an expert in this, I'll let others weigh in)

 

[adjecyca]

Yes there are feral cats nearby! Most of them HAVE been fixed by a neighbor, How would one pick a suitable place for a release? i am not sure if they could be rehomed

 

[detmut]

i don't know exactly what the fence looks like, but they would need to have something like flexible netting at the top angled out to make it difficult for the cats to climb. if you google cat fences, there are a lot of examples. are there other animals that could be doing this too. coyotes? raccoon? 

 

[adjecyca]

I will look it up and send it to her, she KNOWS it is the cats, and has caught them in the act multiple times :/ 

 

[furmonster mom]

Totally forgot about cat fences... good solution!  

 

[kittywhiskers]

How about tacking some netting over the top. That wouldn't involve as much work as building an actual roof. It probably would be cheap and quick to do too.

 

[starbuk]

Moving them to another location would be easiest.