Need help with predator idenfiication, please!

[oherin]

While on vacation, our chicken caregiver forgot to put to bed our banty cochin mama and her 6 month old chicks in their portable brooder / coop. We lost the mama and 2 chicks. The remaining chicks were able to escape.

The mini coop was placed in a cornered off section our garden for the birds to enjoy. That "run" was enclosed with 2 inch field fence and covered with deer netting.

I have read the sticky notes on predators and still do not know what I have on site. Near the bottom of the field fencing was chewed so that the openings were compressed in the middle and made larger on the sides. It looks like the mama hen was consumed entirely or taken off. No sign of her except some feathers. The two chicks were partly consumed: feet, wings and inner organs were left. The deer netting was pulled down as well, so I am assuming whatever ate the chickens entered the run from the top.

The attack happened at night. I know we have hawks owls, dogs, cats, foxes, opossum and bear. I have not seen a raccoon, but that doesn't mean anything.

Any help as to identification would be appreciated. We have a game camera that we are installing to figure things out as well.

 

[Chick Charm]

The game camera will help you determine the predator more so than any guesses by us for sure. Cameras are your friend. Proof will be in the pictures.

My instinct says fox. But that is just a GUESS. It could be that you have multiple predators to protect your flock against.

Wish ya the best.

 

[Irishluck628]

That is the exact same thing that is getting our birds too! All that is left of the birds are the feet, feathers and the inards. It pulls the staples off of the chicken wire in a corner of the run, then eats the bird on the outside of the coop. The opening it makes is small but it eats a lot! Every night it gets mine or my neighbors chickens. It usually eats 3 hens, or 2 roosters, one time it ate 14 chicks! From the size of the opening I think its a weesel or rat...but it devories so much, maybe its a family??? Set up live traps that catch nothing except for cats. Also set up a deer cam, but it went after the only coop the camera couldn't see. I'm really starting to get frustrated!! Hoping for some answers so I know what to do to stop these attacks

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I vote raccoon. They are literally everywhere and originated in the SE United States before Europeans arrived. So I'm quite confident you have them, they come out at dusk and hunt most of the night.
Possum is another possibility but I had raccoons break into my basement and kill all the chicks in my brooder. Like yours they brought them to my back door and left only feet, wings and internal organs.
The day before, I had trapped and killed a raccoon. Payback is a b***h
Check the range map here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/raccoon.htm

 

[oherin]

Sounds like you are under attack. I bet you have an army or whatever the predator is has brought his buddies! Hope you get answers soon!

 

[settingdusk]

The MO sounds like a raccoon to me. Eats a lot, climbs, only eats key portions, attacks weakness at top.