Hi Irishdave, Sorry for your losses - yes it really, really sucks. I understand about wanting revenge!! I know exactly how you feel. We have all had this awful experience at one time or another. We have all learned from our mistakes and from others on this forum. It could have been anything. I had a far away neighbors dog come to my house one day and killed almost 20 young pullets - I was only gone about 30 minutes - some of the heads were missing and could not account for at least 4. Needless to say I found out who the dog belonged to and boy did they pay. I also had a problem with weasels they were dispatched too, the weasel got inside my coop through a 2-3"gap in the coop along the base of the wall where the floor meets the wall, In the middle of the night.(heads missing, some maimed, some just gone, some stuck in the whole where it got in. Has been repaired since. I have seen all kinds of preditors, could have been a possum,coon,fox coyote, do you keep your girls in a coop or do you let them stay out at night? I lock mine up at night and they do not get let out until it is full daylight. You could put out live traps and see what you get. I know you said they were all over the place - but were they in the coop or outside. Once you get chickens you will find out exactly who and what your preditors are. If you are letting them roost in trees at night my suggestion would be to lock them in the coop at night and make sure it is preditor proof. Leaving them out all night is just going to cause you heartache and money. I am soooo sorry for your loss. I have been there twice and I was sick at heart and mad as hell.

I too am sorry for your loss. Now that something has killed, it will be back. We've not lost any to predators, but we had one of our own dogs kill 2 and maim 2. He doesn't live at our house anymore.

My husband carried him to animal rescue (or so he said), he was pretty pissed off too.

Unfortunately, most everything eats chicken. Make sure as Nelda said and have the chickie babies a fortress to roost at for the night.

Sorry again.

Here is a link that might be useful: MY BLOG

I am so sorry for your loss! I know that must have been such a shock to witness all your birds like that. We all learn from our mistakes. Personally I am glad you posted on here for help so you can learn from your mistakes and move forward. I also personally like it when people on the forum are respectful of others feelings and speak to people as they would to their face. That being said... Here is a link with information about different predators and how they kill so you can try to identify the predator.

Darn predators

I hope it helps.

I also get a very good newsletter free to my inbox every month. I believe I had to register to receive it and each month there are different things in the newsletter. More like questions people ask along with answers, phots and basic info.

Keeping Chickens newsletter

Also there are several posters on this forum who are more than willing to help you out in a nice way. Lots have websites with chocks full of information. I hope they post links to their sites for you.

Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrow's good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: chicken predators...