We have five barn cats and none of them have bothered our chickens, even when they were peeps. If there are any feral cats you can either trap them and take them to Feral Fix (they have a website) to be released, or a 410 will take care of the problem. I am not a hunter nor have I ever killed anything other than a bug, but feral cats can be such a problem in our area, "offing" them might be doing everyone a favor. (There is such a thing as feline HIV- which can be potentially fatal and our cats have tested positive for)