I have a land owner I trap for that had two chickens killed. Whatever it was chewed a 2.5” hole through the rotted wood coop and killed but didn’t eat one chicken. Same thing happened the next night with a new hole. Any idea what the culprit is? I’m thinking mink but would the only kill one and leave the other half dozen chickens alone?

Hang a 110 in the holes and find out.

We have had coon match all those clues. Its like they go in for chicken and then just eat out of the grain feeder. What ever it is is only going to make the hole as big as it needs to. Seems like extra work for a mink to chew 2.5 inch hole. Was the bird pulled up to the hole?

Barn rats will chew like that

I will go with rat

Same as every other dead chicken story, it could be a very long list of things. Everything eats chicken and they don't put up much of a fight.

House cat

Barn rats likely chewed in for feed, but anything after that could use the entries. Ermine, mink rat could kill. Set a trap and hang a Game camera

Did it eat the whole chicken or just the head? Plucked or ripped open? Skull intact?

Key info was missing for us

A 2.5" hole through rotted wood? . . . I'm thinking Weasel. We had Norwegian Rats go into a coop but didn't kill any chickens. They just ate the eggs.

I've had an entire family of coon chew open and crawl through a hole no bigger than 4", it doesn't take nearly as big of hole as you'd think.

I was thinking weasel except I think a weasel would kill them all.

Think about the size of the culprits head.

My candidates are skunk, possum, cat or coon, and in that order.

Rats will kill chicks, but rarely chickens. Weasel or mink would kill more than one......and not eat much if they did.

Another reason not to have chickens. They get kilt a lot.

This ^^^^

Right. Too many critters out there that like to kill and eat chicken.

They could be a good asset depending on how much the critters in the woods like bloody chicken

I am guessing mink from what you have said. Did the dead chickens look like this?