Maybe it was a raccoon?? We had one kill our 3 y/o muscovy several weeks ago :(

It also could be weasels. When I had chickens years ago and the children wanted baby ducks, We found the ducks the next morning all dead on the ground. My father-in-law told me weasels will kill an animal and suck the blood out of them.

I'm sorry you lost your birds. :(

Rats can squish themselves unbeleivably flat, and are VERY good at digging under the wire to get to the chickens. Chickens sleep so soundly that they can easily sleep through a predator coming in and fail to raise an alarm.

Check under everything in your coop and make sure the rats aren't hiding in your coop during the day--it could be that you are locking the chickens in with them at night if they are already in there. Also check to be sure there aren't tunnels under the wire, and make sure your coop door cannot be pried open when latched far enough to admit a rat. Whatever it is, is removing the chickens' bodies, right? So it's got enough of a gap somewhere to get the carcass out.

You can also go out to your coop a couple of hours after nightfall with a flashlight, and shine it around looking for vermin.

Rats can and will kill adult chickens, size doesn't matter.

Good luck!

Velvet ~:>