Rural Gardening: Rooster and 4 hens taken...what was it?, 1 by mcamden

mcamden wrote:
Yesterday...in the middle of the day, I had 5 chickens taken. I know it was during the day since we found some feathers from one of them in an open field with our horses near our house. It is a mowed down field with no cover, and no tall grass etc for a predator to hide in. Our rooster was so good! He would have those hens in the coop within seconds of an airplane coming over! But now he, as well as four of our larger hens are all gone. We have 6 hens left, and 3 of them are pretty tore up. They are missing entire areas of feathers only on their backs, and will not get up to roost. Does anyone know what would have done this? We have only lost one hen before this, and that was to a stray dog over a year ago. There were no tracks, and here are the options and explanations:

1. Fox...but we only have one, and he is smaller then our rooster was and I have seen him near the hens with no interest in taking one (let alone 5)
2. Turkey Vultures...since they are in groups, but they only eat carrion, and they are always here, but have never taken a chicken
3. Hawk...we have one, but I watch him catching mice nearly every morning, and including yesterday morning he had a mouse, and got a small rabbit today
4. Coyote...we have lots, but never seen them out during the day, the horses chase them off if they come in the pasture, and the rooster would have seen them well in advance
5. Wild Dogs...but again...horses attack them. They do run during the day occassionally, but the rooster would have seen them, and more of the hens would have made it back to the coop I think
6. Eagles...they are migrating now, and I have seen parents teaching the young to hunt. They like chickens, and that would explain the back injuries...but we havent seen they around here in a long time

HELP! Does anyone else have any ideas? We have set live traps, but I know that is useless since this was during the day. We found no tracks...but the ground is pretty solid, so even if it were a dog etc I probably wouldnt find tracks. We already killed our badger two years ago that killed our entire first flock. If I at least knew what I was looking for, it would help. I am just affraid of loosing the rest of my chickens, and Bob the duck. Plus we have a new baby chick that just hatched out of the blue.

Melissa