Help! My chicks are disappearing!

[MBagel]

I had this happen to me to. I dont have any hawks around where I live that I know of, but I had a large amount of blue jays, I ahve came to the conclusion that the Jays had something to do with the disappearances, I havent had a problem since the jays "left" but now I have the occasional crow so far they havent taken or hurt any of the the chickens. I have heard plenty of stories of crows killing chicks and chickens though.

 

[The Sheriff]

It might be rats. I had one come into my barn through a hole in the floor, tear the hardware cloth off a vent in the brooder, pull a baby chick out, drag it down the hole and dump it in the yard. It was on the ground about fifteen feet from the barn the following morning. At our last house we had rats that came up from the creek. Baby chicks disappeared there all the time. Just a thought.