What can make a baby chick disappear with no trace?

[Al Gerhart]

Rats will grab chicks and carry them off. This time of year squirrels are desperate for protein for nursing mother squirrels, they will eat chicks including wild bird eggs and chicks.

 

[GoldenGoober2009]

Thank you for the advice everyone. I checked the roof and found no snakes, but our neighbor's yard is a total mess so it may have been a rat living in there. I sincerely doubt it may have been one of our hens as they have never shown aggression towards the chicks.

 

[BDutch]

. I checked the roof and found no snakes, but our neighbor's yard is a total mess so it may have been a rat living in there.

I don’t know about snakes , but rats live everywhere. If you see 1 rat, you probably have a 10 or more.

 

[charlie1051]

Thank you for the detailed response. The chicks were about six days old at the incident. There are no predatory snakes or snakes in general I know of that could have caught them since we live in a suburban environment in the Central Valley. There is also a roof over the coop, so they are safe from the sun.

I gotcha 100% with "central valley" KINGSBURG