What is killing my chicken

[Happyhiker]

Last month I had two of my chickens free ranging and in the evening (they usually go back to their coop before dark), when I went to lock them in for the night I found both of them dead, one was next to the coop and it looked like it was sleeping so it wasn't until I started to pick her up to put her in the coop that I realized she was dead; she didn't have a mark on her. I found the other chicken about ten feet away with her guts torn out.

After loosing my first two chickens I decided I was not going to let my next ones free range for now and I thought that would solve my problem of loosing chickens but tonight before going to bed I went to check on my chickens and found the door was opened and one of the chickens was laying on the ground dead. There was not a mark on her. The two others were up in their perch untouched. Like the chicken the previous month she didn't appear to be hurt, all her feathers were in tack. Does anyone have any ideas what could have killed her?

 

[subhanalah]

Dis you inspect under all of the feathers? Feathers can very easily hide wounds.

I'm thinking weasel or something along those lines.
wait...you said the door was open? Had you closed it? What kind of fastener do you have on the door? If it's any sort of complicated, raccoon...If it's not complicated, I guess it could be a dog.

 

[subhanalah]

Where exactly do you live? That'll make a big difference...I was assuming you lived in North America.

 

[Happyhiker]

Rural San Diego, in the mountains. It's a clamp that you have to pull open. I was very surprised to see it opened. I was certain that I closed it then I started questioning myself. Do you think adding a sensor spot light will deter predators? Thanks for your post. It's just really weird to me and I want to do everything to prevent it from happening again.

 

[subhanalah]

Can you take a picture of your clamp? It may simply be a case of reinforcing the closure and being sure the bottom 2-3 feet of exposed wire is covered on the inside with 1/4x1/4" or 1/2x1/2" hardware cloth to prevent them from reaching in and pulling the chickens out in pieces through the wire.

 

[subhanalah]

Do you have or can you get a trail/game cam?