For those who have barn cats, how do they get in and out of your barn? Do you leave one of the doors open for them a bit? Did you put in a cat door? Do they go through the windows?
I don’t have barn cats yet, but I’m hoping to get some. I want to make sure everything is set up for them.
My barn is open during the day and the barn cat comes and goes as he pleases. He has a few spots in or around the barn he likes to hang out at.
At night, he’s fed dinner and locked in the tack room. We have entirely too many predators to have a cat that has freedom to wander at night. He’s kept in for his own protection.
I also don’t have food out during the day. He gets wet and dry in the tack room over night. It keeps him checking in when it’s time for bed, and eliminates other animals nosing around for cat food.
My little 8# Verminator had entrance & egress through my stalls if she wanted. Dutch doors at the back are never shut. So jump in or out through feed opening.
She’d also dig through the sand footing in the indoor, under a wall & get out that way unless the sliding door connecting to the barn was shut.
My stall doors are almost open and when closed they can sneak in under.
They find ways promise.
My eleven member feral colony has a raccoon proof feeding station outside the barn. The ferals reside in the neighbor’s outbuildings where he stores building supplies (insulation for metal buildings) --I see the ferals coming and going from his sheds which are in a woodlot behind his house.
My self-appointed barn cat Gordon lives in the barn at night --he’s learned to come when he’s called, “Night, night, Gordon,” in a high squeaky voice will bring him inside. The barn doors are shut and he’s locked in. Inside the barn he has a mow of 400 bales of lovely alfalfa. He goes there and looks down on me when I work with the horses.
And since Black Friday, Gordon has his own heated cat house.
He pays “rent” with a couple of mice a week.
He is not exactly tame, but pleasant enough.
I often wonder what the neighbors think when I greet my 3 - horse, pony & mini - as I walk the 250’ from house to barn
No “high squeaky”, but conversationally, like they’re people 
The other day the horse infuriated me - tried to help himself from the unopened can of TC Sr by banging it with his ginormous hoof while I was putting on his blanket.
My Bad, as he was loose in my aisle while I did this, but he knows better.
The volume hit 11 
We have 2 sliding wooden doors in the horse area of our barn, and we cut small doors into each one. I figured 2 doors would give them an extra escape route should they need it.
The cats get fed and waterer on the next level up from there, and at the top of the stairs is a door with a small door cut into it too.
It is not ideal as wildlife could get in, but we have not had too much of an issue with it.
Please excuse the mess in the pictures. We were having a lean to added on.
Yes, I forgot to mention, I was worried about this also. I guess I’m not super worried about rodents getting in, as the cats should take care of that. But what about raccoons and possums and such? Those animals could wreak havoc on my feed AND hurt the cats.
If you don’t keep food out, there’s very little to draw critters into the barn. This is a big reason why we just feed the cat overnight, when he’s locked up.
Yes, your biggest concern with allowing the cats to go in/out as they please, is that other critters (skunks, raccoons, etc etc) can also come and go as they please.
Ditto to not have “free will” good out at all times, as the critters will realize that quickly. Or if there is feed that they can get into, they WILL get into it.
I don’t currently have a real barn yet, but we do have 3 cats. When the temperature is above freezing, we leave the garage door cracked just enough they can get in and out (but our yellow lab dog cannot get out). Since we do have the dog, we’ve never had a critter wander into the garage. The dog takes care of that! The cats do sometimes bring live mice or live gophers into the garage when they lose interest ; again, thankful that our dog takes care of that.
During the colder months, our garage is heated so we do not leave the door cracked. Sometimes our cats choose to stay outside for the night (that’s when they like to hunt) so we do have a small heated insulated cat house outside for them. We don’t keep any food by it or anything but it’s just a warm place for them if they need it.
I do have a run-in shelter for my horses, which is where I also store my hay, but it’s not closed up so the cats (and critters) have free reign. My cats keep the mice pretty well contained over there. I did keep all my feed bags in it one winter and the mice NEVER got into them! Impressed with my cats. 
We have an old bank barn and built a walk through (about 1.5 feet long) with cat doors on either ends of it. We live in Ontario so have very cold winters so can’t leave our barn doors open. Our cat love the little tunnel and can come and go whenever she wants.
We have not had any issue with other animals going into our barn. The cat doors can lock if I need them to, but I have never had to do that so far!
The double cat doors helps prevent the cold wind from coming into the barn as well, so that’s an added bonus! My barn cat doesn’t go out in the winter at all and prefers her bed and not going out in the snow. In the summer, she is barley even in the barn, just in to eat and then back out again. I leave our door closed for most of the summer as well to keep the cool in the barn and to keep the birds and flys out.
Gordon!! He has a pretty good set up and looks like he 100% approves of his accommodations!
for those cat doors. a RFID tag controlled cat door would only allow pets with a RFID tag open the flap… cheap at $79.99
I have a cat flap in my lounge and tack room and the main barn doors are rarely closed. If it’s going to be sub zero then we make sure the cats are in before we close them all the way.
When we replaced the tack room door we didn’t add a new cat flap but a mouse pooping in my riding helmet quickly changed that. Sure, they get my pads hairy, but it beats poop.
I have a “standard” stick-built barn that’s 60ft x 30ft maybe (?). A couple of the stalls have doors open to the outside (horses can come in/out) and then another door that has a broken piece of board at the very bottom. The cats have always come in and out of the barn through the stalls and through the broken board spot. And then I have a cat door into my heated tack room where their food is kept.
IME, cats are very resourceful about getting in/out places, and though I don’t have anything else blocked off anywhere, no other critters seem to try to come into the barn (other than rats - which the cats, of course, help with).
I follow something similar to Simkie in having the barn open during the day with no food and then locking them in at night with their wet/dry food. While I know a coyote could show up during the day I feel better knowing they are tucked away at night.
I have a bank style barn with hay/tack/misc. storage up top and stalls/run-in down below. The cats “live” in the upper portion. They have a cat tree and multiple beds in the summer and in the winter a couple of heated beds and an insulated box with a Hound Heater as we’re in MN and can get pretty darn cold.
Every night around dark I round the two of them up with the lure of wet food - Chaps is pretty much always waiting but in the summer Sam sometimes likes to stay out late. I’ve got a cat door that I’ve set to only open inwards so he can put himself to bed once he’s done on his walkabout. In the morning I open up the doors and let them out. This summer I came across a new challenge - how to let cats have access but still keep our free-range chickens out. That was fun.
I haven’t really had any issues with other critters coming into the barn except for the occasional opossum around Jan/Feb when they’re actively looking for love. I learned that they like horse treats so no longer keep those handy by the door (much to the chagrin of the horses) so thankfully haven’t had any the last few years.
Same. We have coyotes and owls as large as drones. Cat goes happily into the feed room
At night. Let out every morning to be free at 5:30 am.
My sweet Caspar. Been here since 2016
image
I want to be Gordon.
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