OK,what am I dealing with here in my hen house:

[hedgehog]

We have woods out back, so we're dealing with foxes, racoons, possums, skunks, rats, etc.

Last week I found a hen on the floor missing her head. I also caught whiffs of a bitter smell in the yard around the barn and hen house.

Yesterday, i had a hen that was going down, so I wasn't surprised to find her dead this morning, except that she also was missing her head!

We put up some hardware cloth around some holes in the chicken house after the first incident, but there are still a lot of small gaps.

So - any guess as to what animal I'm dealing with? My guess is a mink or opportunistic rat.