At first I couldn't tell what happened; I let the dogs out and they flew out there and jumped around the base of the tree, barking. I got the big flashlight and shone it around, trying to see. A good 25 feet from the enclosure I found the dead hen in a flower bed. She was so torn up and disemboweled, it looked like she'd been hit by a car a few times (it was sad and bad!). After I got a sense of what happened but no real details, I got a garbage bag and picked up that one. (Fashionable, I was in my nightshirt and garden shoes.) She was cold, so I'm not sure when that happened. I think maybe the animal came back after killing the first one and attacked the second one. Or vice versa--heck, I don't know. I found the other hen huddling in the left corner under the nest box. I let her stay there. I thought she was dying or dead and I didn't expect her to make it. She's still alive after two days and trying hard, but I'm not sure about her. Part of her comb was torn off and I think she's blind in one eye from bites or claws. A doctor friend doesn't think she'll survive. If I lose her, I'll be down to one chicken and I'm not sure she'll do well alone.
I can't imagine what animal is out there that could do so much damage. It can't have been a cat, or even a skunk. Skunks don't climb trees as far as I know and I don't smell anything. Most people I asked said they thought it was a raccoon that got my poor hens.
BUT--Would a raccoon drag a chicken up a fence and all that distance before killing her? There are a ton of feathers in the yard. I'm heartbroken.
Now I'm locking these two survivors in the hen house at dusk. I'm having a new house assembled from a kit this weekend, and I think maybe I should shore up the base with a row of half-buried rocks. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.
Alexis