We have three Bantam hens, with 8 chicks, and one Bantam roo. All twelve are housed together. Prior to this group of peeps, our second this summer, our cats stalked, attacked and killed several babies. Of course we were heartbroken and we made lotz of unsuccessful attempts to stop the behavior, but nothing worked, so we placed the remaining babies. This group of 8 babies are different in that we decided we simply could not monitor 24/7 and we let the chickens, the roo and hens and babies be chickens. Guess what? We didn't 'help' these three hens & the roo take care of the babies, the four are wonderful parents and share all duties, the roo even has babies in his nest at night and he points out special food for the babies and often lets the babies take food from his beak. The hens are wonderful but being girls, they have occasional spats, that amount to zero.
So, here's what happened with the cat. Earlier, our reg sized chickens jumped the cat but there were no babies involved, so the cat went right back to stalking/killing baby biddies. One day, my granddaughter grabbed the cat as he was stalking the babies, the cat overpowered her and, unfortunately, jumped right into the middle of the roo/3hens and 8 horror stricken babies - my word, was that an error or what, whew!! They jumped all over the cat, made loud noise, flapped their wings and pecked his tail as he fled, like lightening, and straight up a tree. He's fine, but no longer has any interest in the Bantam babies. We had a similar incident with our other cat and he's lost interest in killing babies. The man that works for me brought his mother's cat over to use our roo/hens to 'biddy proof' him and it's working, so far. Their momma hen was killed by a varmint and now an adult chicken with no biddies has taken over being momma and it's working out well, the hen is very protective of 'her' babies. If you try this, please let me know how it works...
What works for us - chicken killing cat(s)
I've noticed that my hen that hatched a little one is very protective and will fight any of the other chickens on it's behalf.
I wondered what would happen to a baby that hatched out, since all the chickens will gang up on a new-comer. But if it's one that a hen has hatched or mothered, nobody wants a piece of that. I guess not even a cat. lol