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["Robert Walton" <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

> I'm frustrated.  My chicken count is going down quickly.  Yesterday,
> remember I said I was in and out of the house, something killed a
> chicken in the middle of the afternoon.  All signs point to a raccoon,
> except that it happened in the day.  I found a headless, neckless
> chicken in the middle of the pen, at least 10 feet from a fence.  The
> kill spot, the feathery spot, was less than 10 feet from the carcass.

I understand your frustration. I had big problems with this in the
summer. Mine happened in the daytime also when I was at work. Once, on
the weekend, I was out when whatever it was came up and scared the
guneas. I ran after it, but never identified it. It was dark grey and
ran fast (was in a wooded area).

My chickens and guineas free range. Sounds like yours are in a fenced 
enclosure.

Some ideas:

Sprinkle powdered lime around the hen house. Maybe you can get some
tracks to identify what it is and where it gets in.

Leave a radio playing in the hen house on talk radio if you can get it.

Make some sort of scarecrow, but putyour dirty shit on it each day
when you come home for the fresh scent.

The dog might help. I lost some birds to my LGD when she first got
here this summer, but now she is OK with the birds. She is usually not
where the chickens are when whatever comes around. But since yours are
penned up, any dog should bark if something comes up.

Do you have an electric fencer?

Once I noticed that most of my predator problem was coming from the
woods on the property line nearest the livestock, I put a fence in
with field fence. I put a hot wire about 6 inches from the ground and
at the top of the fence. Predation stopped fast.

If you have a fencer and can put a hot wire or two all the way around
the coop that your predator would have to climb under and can't hop
over, you might just zap him.

As far a what the predator is, doesn't a weasel work at night? Mine is
a fox/coyote/stray dog and maybe also a bobcat. I found the kill site
with feathers, but the bird was gone. Maybe yours just ate the head
cause it had to get out quick and couldn't drag the body with?

Good luck on this one.

Rob - Va