Rooster with no head... Name that predator

[Meyers And Sons Chicken F]

That's how a raccoon ate most of its kills at our property. An owl also could be possible. I've heard they eat the heads

The thing that killed my birds just tore the heads off, never even attempted to eat it, just left it laying.

 

[PatrickGale]

The other day I found my oldest and smallest rooster (OEGB) dead with his head missing. Let me explain what the area looks like. There is a very small barn. Around the barn are runs, open area, duck coops, etc. Around all of that, is an electric fence. The fence has 5 hot wires, the first one being about 4-5 inches off the ground. Back to the barn. There has been a hole dug into the ground since I moved my birds there. I thought is was from mice, so I set traps and got most of them. Well, I found my poor rooster headless and in the hole under the barn. Mind you, whatever got him had to go through the electric fence, since the electric fence goes all the way around the barn. I also noticed that the eggs I had laid out were neatly craked and eaten. So I set 4 live traps. Two are small, two are large. I put one lvie trap in the barn exactly where I found my rooster. I baited it with cat food juice and whole eggs. I set another one with the headless rooster's body as bait. The rest were baited with wet cat food. Well, yesterday I checked the traps and the one I set where I found the body had trapped something. Mind you, this trap is squirrel size because I thought there may be a mink. Well, it had the teeny tiniest baby possum in it. It was the size of a squirrel. I was so surprised to see such a small critter.
Now, what do y'all think? Is this the murderer of my rooster? Or was he just framed? Was his mission solely for the eggs? Could he have grabbed my rooster and torn his head off? My experience tells me probably not. But, there are some people out there that swear possums will kill just like raccoons. I think I caught the egg eater, but not the killer. I think the killer is a raccoon. What do you think?

Use a Dog Proof paw trap well anchored and baited with mini marshmallows and fresh fishy stinky cat food to catch your raccoon.

 

[Meyers And Sons Chicken F]

I think I found one of the culprits, I caught a possum in a save-a-heart trap, hopefully this will help in eliminating the egg eater