A month is a long time but if they are not neutered this is the prime season for female hunting...and since the food is missing, maybe they are coming in at night to get food and returning to their hunting by morning..... males are infamous for being gad abouts and I am not sure what you mean when you call them barn cats....were they raised for this purpose? Were they kittens or adults when you brought them in? Often cats will do their best to return 'home' when they are unsatisfied with their surroundings.....we have barn cats but they are also pets who come in and out at will but also tend to mice etc at the barn.... all of them are neutered and very spoiled, lol..... good luck

I "adopted" 2 feral cats from a rescue organization that was looking for barns for their ferals to live in. They had captured a bunch of cats that were living in a feral cat colony of 50+, and these 2 they could not socialize.

I was only allowed to "adopt" them if I kept them in the large cages the rescue provided, for 60 days. They said the cats needed that time to get used to me, my barn, my other animals, etc. I didn't like it, and it wasn't easy to keep the cages clean ... but I did it.

Both cats remained the 1st year, then one left. But these were spayed females. The other female is still here after 3 years, and she always finds a "boyfriend" to keep her company. My hope is the other female is living at one of the other barns in the area, many dairy farms around. But she could have had a less happy ending.

The reason I put all that, I don't think 3 weeks was long enough to have them get used to their new home. And were they spayed/neutered? I also question why you think the cats could get in to eat the food, but raccoons can't? Raccoons are very clever animals.

Sorry you are worried about them .. I would be too.

Thanks for your reply. The feral "barn" cats came neutered and spayed from a cat rescue that teams a colony of 4 or more cats to be adopted out as a "barn" cats as long as there is plenty of shelter & protection from critters like coyotes - animal control is also beginning to implement this program along side the rescues to help save the feral cats. One barn cat "Hilary" did not leave the barn except to follow me to the house. She had developed an eye infection so I had to bring her in the house to administer medication in her eyes for 7 days - that's when the others began leaving & not returning. Hilary is back in the house since I don't want her to be in the barn alone - she's pretty social & seems to enjoy hanging out as long as it's on her terms - We love her.

Sounds like the same program I got mine from. But neither of mine were social at all.

Glad Hilary is now a house cat! Been there too, with a "drop off" cat that lived in the barn for a while and then ended up as a house cat.