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

[fasttense]

1. I would say you have a skunk or raccoon stalking your chickens

Raccoon have been known to stick their hands through the wires and grab at chicken's heads. But a friend of mine swears a skunk was pulling off the heads of his chickens. Full grown hens are kind of big for rats and snakes and foxes would try to take the whole bird.

We have coons and skunks too but we keep our 2 large dogs penned fairly closely to the chickens. Most wildlife can't understand that the dogs are in a pen and stay away. Plus we have electric netting around the chicken field.