Suggestions on what to do with barn cats during re-roofing?

[PonyRiderMom]

I have had my barn cats for about two months now. They were part of a feral colony and were relocated successfully to my barn. They are comfortable here now and feel like the barn is their safe place. They particularly like the one part of the barn that has a small loft – it is above the ground, out of sight, and dark.

I need to get the barn re-roofed. I am scheduled for them doing that work in August. We just had the house re-roofed and the cats hated it – they hid all day. The house is maybe 100-200 feet from the barn. Based on what they found in the house, my belief is that they’re going to need to remove a lot of the barn decking, including what is right above the loft area. So the cats will certainly run away. I’m wondering if there is any way to encourage them to not run too far. We do have a hay barn that’s not too far away from the barn that I’ve found at least one of them in, and I’ve seen one of the others near it. Will they just maybe somehow go in there?

If I put a temporary shed thing, might they go in there?

I could try to trap them in bring them in the house for a few days during the work, but I don’t think anyone would like that. I just don’t want them to run away and not come back. Any ideas on what to do? I expect the work to take 1-2 days based on how they did the house.

[luvmyhackney]

They will be fine. Have a consistent place and time to feed them. They might disappear for a couple days, but mine always show back up.

[LCDR]

What’s the coyote situation nearby? Here, I’d definitely want mine corralled and safe since I see coyotes almost daily crossing my pastures. Not actively hunting but in their energy-saving cruising from place to place pace. But beware any cat in the wrong place without their safe space to bolt into.

[endlessclimb]

How long is the re-roof scheduled for? I’d be tempted to buy a small shed to lock them up into. Once they learn not to trust their former safe-space, they may leave for good.

[PonyRiderMom]

Ugh, that is a really good point. The coyote situation is that we have lots of them. We do see them in the daytime sometimes, too. Although I suppose if there’s re-roofing noise the coyotes will probably not be hanging around.

We do have a lot of trees that I guess that cats could run up if they have to.

I’m hoping that the cats will come back to the barn in the evening, as that’s when/where I feed them.

I wonder if it would be better to ask the roofing crew to try one long day or two short days. The long day would mean less time overall that the cats are stressed, but then those guys would be out there working in the evening when I wanted to feed the cats, so they’d probably miss a feeding time. I guess I could leave it out for them at night.

[PonyRiderMom]

That’s what I’m afraid of, especially since this isn’t even their original home.

[endlessclimb]

If it’s only two days, I’d start now in teaching them to be fed in a shed-type situation just outside the barn. Save the lock up for the day(s) of - do not let them back out until the roofing is done-done.

[Mosey_2003]

I’d put them in an X-large dog crate for it.

[endlessclimb]

I was thinking this, but it would be hard to coordinate the catch. Maybe if there was a crate per cat, and the OP didn’t mind starting a week or two early in case a kitty plays hardball.

[trubandloki]

@PonyRiderMom

I have had my barn cats for about two months now.

This is the part that makes this worrisome for me.
They have only lived there for two months.

How long have they been free (not caged)?
How friendly are they?

You have at least a month and a half to get them used to something.
Can you move their feeding station to the hay barn?
That way you can still feed them in the same place while the work is going on.

[PonyRiderMom]

I have one live trap and I also have a large dog crate. I believe I could live trap at least one of them. I might be able to get them in the dog crate also. I could also maybe live trap them one at a time. I’m wondering now if I could try to trap them and move them to the hay barn a few days before the work is supposed to get done. Then keep them closed up in there until it’s done. Once it’s done, I could open up the barn and presumably they’d find their way back to the main barn, as it’s less than 200 feet away and visible from there.

The “hay barn” is just a separated one-car garage where I store hay so it’s not big, but it has plenty of places to hide, rafters, stacks of hay to climb, and the occasional rodent, so it wouldn’t kill them to be in there for a few days. They are all from the same colony and all get along as far as I can tell.

They were confined to the main barn for one month, and they’ve been living there for another month with the door open, with them coming and going as they please.

One of them is fairly friendly and the other two are hesitant, but they’ve gone from hiding full time to coming when called (mostly; at least when it’s dinner time) to being willing to eat with me sitting right there.

ETA: I appreciate all of these thoughts. I feel like I’m starting to maybe come up with a plan.

[trubandloki]

@PonyRiderMom

I believe I could live trap at least one of them.

Some TNR cats get very good at not being live trapped once they have been live trapped once in their lives.

[PonyRiderMom]

I’m leaning toward trying to trap them and move them to the hay barn. This might create some setbacks with how they feel about me personally, but at least then they won’t have the memory of being driven out of the main barn by scary strangers making a lot of noise and ripping the roof off. Once the barn was done, they could just go right back in there and they’d still feel like it was their safe place.

[PonyRiderMom]

I know at least one of them is trappable. I’ve fed her in the live trap since she’s been here and she went right in. She’s the one I would most want to keep, too. I am not sure about the other two. I feel like if they were hungry enough they might. Or if not, I could start feeding them in the big dog crate and see how they feel about that. I’m glad I still have some time before the work will get done.

I do feel like I may have a limit on how many times they will allow themselves to be live trapped, and maybe this will create problems when/if they need to see the vet in the future, but I’m willing to try to spend more time working on getting them used to the live trap, again, after we get past this.

[cardinale]

What about an enclosed chicken coop as a temporary home?

This one is ~$250 from TSC:

8 x 7 chicken run

There are other models/styles. You could put boxes inside as shelters.

[Aussie_2020]

I’ve moved cats by slowly moving their food source. If you started putting their food maybe in the large crate for a few days, and then move that crate 20ft each day until you were at the other barn.

We’ve successfully done this with ferals that are left behind and someone in the neighborhood says they’ll take over their care. Once we moved three cats about two city blocks. We let the other neighbors know what was going on in case they saw the feeding spots and wondered.

[Mosey_2003]

With that long to go I’d probably try to get them all eating together in a big crate and then close the door on them a week ish in advance and set them up in your hay barn. They’ll find their way back after.