I need to get you a picture of mine. My husband made it out of Panel fences(wooden) and I totally enclosed it in wire...
guess I'll walk out there and get you a picture idea....How about that???

Cats usually don't hurt chickens. I have large barn cats that love to go out amongst the chickens to hunt for mice and they've also gone to the neighbor's chickens to do likewise when they had chickens. It's almost a symbiotic relationship - cats and chickens have been together for a long long time. And chickens don't seem to be scared of cats, but they definitely terrify cats. Nothing so funny as a cat surrounded by curious hens. In this neighborhood there are lots of barn cats and lots of chickens.

My chickens are in a very very predator proof coop because we do have a lot of racoons. And coyotes. And foxes. I could easily believe a fox did the damage since I've seen them all over Denver at night. Or a small dog. Some dogs are great around chickens and some just love to kills chickens. My two dogs were wonderful around chickens but my SIL's neighbor's dog killed all of her chickens repeatedly.
But I'd bet it was a fox or raccoon. Both of those critters are very very good at figuring out how to get at what they want.

BTW, my chickens are in a bug ugly old shed but it is made predator proof by putting welded wire fencing on the floor (under an inch of dirt) and about a foot up the sides to prevent critters from digging under. And a lot of critters have tried digging under but they can't get past that fence. It's worked well since 1995.

I haven't seen foxes here in forever & ever & ever. And I doubt it was a dog.. I would have seen a hole big enough in the fence for them to get through I think. A fox? Possibly not. I have a 6' privacy fence and I think there's a small hole that a fox could fit through underneath one section of it. The day we started to move into the house back in '05 I was soooo excited because there was a bunny in the front yard.. yay! my first house & there's a bunny... I'm in Surburia Hell. LOL!! Anyways, that afternoon, I went to the garbage can along the side of the house to throw away some packing paper and there was the bunny. Rather, the bunny's body. Never found the head. Yuck. And I remember seeing on the news years ago about Aurora searching for a cat mutilator because of all the murdered cats.. nothing was eaten, just the body's destroyed. Finally caught video of a fox doing the damage. If I find out it's a fox, then I'm gonna have me some nice new fox-skin gloves or something.

I built all my chicken coops out of scrap lumber so the only investment was for hardware cloth or else 1/2" x 1" wire mesh which is what is required around here to keep out the critters who fancy chicken for dinner. Then it is necessary to be sure to close the chickens in at night. The MO of your killer still sounds more like raccoons than anything else. I agree that cats are not a threat. If you have mink or weasels there they could also be suspects.

I built my coop out of 2x4 lumber and sheathed it with OSB plywood. The roof is old tin from an old barn I took down.

The biggest expense by far was the OSB plywood that I put up for the walls.

It's an 8x8 coop and I would guess it cost me maybe $250 to build.

It's the red building on the left. Pardon the mess - we hadn't cleaned up yet when I took the photo and we hadn't finished painting it either.

I've got the materials. Just need the energy to do it (I've been dedicating all my energy to planting crap.. still have too much to plant!). And since I won't be doing any more chickens this year, I have all summer to build the coop.

Since my chickens are in front yard with dogs, I have used some of the chicken webbing for fences for Chihuahua to keep him in. But this gives you an idea of how DH made it....

Have you never had chickens taken by predators? My night time housing is rather maximum security as we have numerous hungry critters around - either solid wood or 1" or smaller wire mesh - otherwise the raccoons can reach in and consume the hens by the handful.

This is my first attempt at chickens. I had 2 last year, but kept them 100% in the house until I sold them. I had chickens for a little while when I was a child, but that was in the middle of a city, not out in the suburbs like where I live (borderline boonies).

There's always next year. And I will definitely have a coop built by then.

Good, I can't imagine being without chickens.

So sorry to hear about your chickens. I've had chickens all my life, and have lost many to preditors over the years. Some things I've noiced.
Coyotes will kill lots of chickens, but will eat them, or carry them off. They don't leave much behind.
Fox will usually kill what they want, and carry them off.
Dogs will kill and leave them lay, they are more into playing then eating, unless they are wild.
Raccoons will often kill a bunch, leave them lay and take one or two to eat, may eat the guts but leave the rest.
Skunks have never killed my chickens, had one try to hibernate in the next box once, Fun getting him out.
Weasels will suck out their blood and leave the rest, they come back and get them one at a time, and can get through a very small hole.
I wish that raccoon desease would come by me, I'm tired of having them rip open my horse feed bags and leave a big mess.

Tom - From what you've just stated, sounded more like raccoons. But I haven't seen raccoons in FOREVER. I think I'll get a Havahart trap & see what I can come up with as far as critter. I know that this morning at about 3am the dogs went crazy over something & ended up busting through one of my trellises trying to get to something. What? I don't know.

I found that I don't usually see the racoons. They come very late at night. But I sure saw their damage. I catch four or five just about every year in the Havahart.

Sorry about your chickens A friend of mine lost about 20 Racing pigeons to racoons
All they wanted was the food that was in their crop. They tore those poor birds apart. He got
the racoons. They came back for more

I love all animals but raccoons are one animal I won't tolerate around here. I pay my children to catch them in our havahart trap.

Sorry about your chickens Toni, they were really nice ones.

I have tried to catch them in the live traps, but they seem to get the bait out without going in them. I used marsh mellows, Was told to try a can of cat food that was cracked open, but not totally opened, and to wire it down. I haven't tried that yet. Raccoons are good to eat! They taste like pork (not chicken, lol) but all of the fat needs to be removed. I've never cooked it, but have eaten it a couple of times.

We found dog food works perfectly for catching raccoons. The dry kind.

I've had raccoon, didn't think it was that tasty (like you said, too fatty). Rather have chickens.. much more tastier. Possibly next Sunday (Memorial Day weekend) I'll be working on getting a coop built. I have all the materials, just need the OOMPH! to get started.