One chicken killed every day - picture of predator's footprints included. Help identifying?

[littlechick1005]

Kind of seems like the tracks are in a waddling pattern, perhaps a young skunk? Ive had bad luck with skunks here. Cant see the track well enough tho to be of any good help :-/ Have you seen skunks around your yard?

 

[zando]

Another detail, may or may not connected. During fall we observe "something" digging out ground bee's honeycombs out of the ground. we have seen just the empty honeycombs, the holes being about 6 in diameter, but never the animal itself.
we are next to naturaly wet area (during spring, summer and fall) but in winter everything is one big ice cube

 

[centrarchid]

Another detail, may or may not connected. During fall we observe "something" digging out ground bee's honeycombs out of the ground. we have seen just the empty honeycombs, the holes being about 6 in diameter, but never the animal itself.
we are next to naturaly wet area (during spring, summer and fall) but in winter everything is one big ice cube

That is skunk like but they are very poor climbers. I have same plus armadillos that dig for bees, beetle larvae and eggs (turtle and snake) but they only get birds sleeping on ground.

 

[littlechick1005]

I cant really tell, how many toes do the tracks have? if its 4 toes it not a skunk, although they do love ground bees! Ive been googling tacks in the snow per dif names of predators...doesnt appear to be skunk or raccoon. Closest I see is a fox so far...

 

[centrarchid]

I cant really tell, how many toes do the tracks have? if its 4 toes it not a skunk, although they do love ground bees!

Snow looks partially melted making toes very hard to make out. Drag marks of claws rules out cats.

 

[littlechick1005]

theyre clear yet not clear enough :-/ I wonder how much those game cameras cost? If they arent outragous and you continue to have a problem it might be worth looking into? Or even just putting out one of those friendly traps and catching whatever it may be. I dont use anything but friendly traps because we have too many neighbor hood cats around and I would never want to harm someones pet. Ive had good luck with the friendly trap catching a family of skunks who were a problem for us as well as some ground hogs. If you go that route just make sure you drop the animal off far far far far away...you'd be amazed how far they'll travel to get back to their territory lol

raccoons appear to have longer skinnier fingers...

I googled mink tracks in the snow...do they look like this? (youll have to scroll down the page, its about midway down)....
http://www.baymoon.com/~emanuels/owl.html

 

[blucoondawg]

I don't believe those drag marks are from claws I think they are just from whatever it is dragging it's feet in the deeper snow, to me it looks like cat, in the 2nd pick the track on the far left is the best quality, it is either cat or fox, I cannot tell if it has claws in the print or not, if not it is cat. If this animal can get in and out quickly I would say cat for sure, as fox can climb to an extent a cat is far better at it. If it were a coon or other fat little animal there should be drag marks in the snow from its belly or tail I would think, also coon don't have a nice little round track like that, that is cat or dog, I would bet money on it.

Keep an eye out for more tracks around your place and post some if you can get good quality ones, you need them in shallower snow so the print is well defined and we can see claw marks if possible.

 

[SDHeritage]

If the gizzard is left and the rest is eaten it is most likely a coon. Your tracks look like a cat but not big enough for a bobcat. If your top to your pen is open almost any predator could get in your pen even a hawk would be able to kill and start to eat your birds. A weasel I'm not sure about but they seem to be like mink and they are ruthless. If it happens to be one they could be sleeping under the feeder or under the shed. I would walk the outside of you pen and look for tracks coming in or going out.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I was thinking mink.

 

[12321]

pretty hard to tell from those pics. As blucoondawg said if there isn't claw marks, it's a house cat. It's warm enough now for coons and skunks but skunks don't climb and neither one should have been out when it was really cold. Coons can climb just about any fence. Foxes don't climb, but can jump really high and they're active at any temp. Mink is another possibility. A one inch track is too small for a wild cat or coyote, and too big for a weasel. my guess would be fox. Unfortunately, chances are, whatever it was will be back again. A trap is probably your best bet if you can keep the dog locked up, or put the trap inside the pen and keep the chickens locked up. If you're ok with it, you can use whatever is left of the chicken as bait. If you don't want to do that, canned cat food should work.