Feral cat in my run!

[sabrina514]

I have seen the same feral cat in my neighbors' yards over the past several weeks. It watches us and if we come within 25 feet it bails, so I highly doubt it belongs to anyone.
Yesterday when my husband went out to close the chickens in for the night, he said this cat was hanging out in the run. It took off when it saw him. The chickens had already gone into their coop.
If this cat was going to attack, do you think it would have by now? The run isn't enclosed, just a large fenced area around the coop. We live urban and haven't ever had a predator issue in going on 2 years of having chickens.
My mother told me to put food out for the cat, but I'm afraid it may be a bad idea. Thoughts? Don't get me wrong, I love cats (I have 5 indoors!) and I don't want it to starve but I just don't want to unknowingly promote a feral cat problem or encourage an attack on my girls. Naively, I never imagined the cat could be an issue until last night.
We have 5 standard size birds, largest is a buff orp and smallest is a white leghorn.

 

[KarateHorse]

Get some guinea fowl. We only keep a pair. We had cat get into our run and the guineas went crazy. They charged the cat quicker then the rooster did. The cat had to jump the fence and it ran away. We never saw it again. The guineas are fine with our cats but they charge all other cats.

 

[LittlePip21]

personally, I've never had a problem with them, my two cats like to hang out in the coop at night, and my neighbors cat, she just likes chickens.. I did have some friends with a neighbors cat that would stalk them, but then it would just sit in the run them. I'm not sure about a feral cat though, if he's already been in the coop, I would guess he's harmless, do you have any evidence of mice? also, the smell of a cat around the run might even deter predators! I've noticed that a lot of cats have this weird fascination with chickens, and like to hang around with them all the time. Hope this was helpful, andI hope he's not dangerous!

 

[grnidone]

You might have some kittens soon...Feral cats are not a bad thing, but you might want to set a trap to spay or neuter. There might be a feral cat thing in your town that will trap, spay and release.

The chickens usually chase my cats away.

My Misha, who is nicknamed "Misha the Terrible" because she always brings me dead creatures, tried to pounce a chicken.

Once.

The hen charged her, and Misha has avoided all of the chickens since.

 

[beckt]

I had a feral tom get into my duck pen and it was not good. I found 2 of my ducks dead. I used a live trap to catch him. After that no more ducks killed. All cats are different though. My cats don't bother my chickens at all, even if the do get into the runs. They never messed with the chicks that hatched either. But they are well fed.