Hi, this is my third time to TRY to start a little chicken farm in my backyard w/ ten chicks, and every time something gets in there and eats them. I made provisions after the first two attacks, and they dont seem to work. The door is wooden and the whatever it is keeps on tearing up the door into shreads. And it mad about a 2 to 3 inch hole in the door and could fit though that. I know its not the neighbor hood cats becuase they are always around my chickens and sometimes they sleep w/ them. And we dont have any dogs in the area and I dont think one could fit through the hole. My family has decided to get a live trap and catch it them kill whatever it is. Our proberty backs up to about an acre of trees and such, and we havnt seen anything in there exept a ground hog.
So should we go through w/ the life trap and kill the bugger or what. I need some peoples thoughts. Thanks in advance, and I will keep you guys posted on the outcome.

It's probably a weasel. They can fit through small spaces and LOVE chickens. Setting a trap is a good idea, but these buggers are hard to catch. I don't know any methods about catching them. Making your chicken coop "mink proof" is about as good as you will get. I don't think they can fit through chicken wire.

Here is an excerpt from an article on weasels I found at:
http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=02260000

The weasel, which preys on mice, rats, birds, and rabbits, is largely nocturnal. Extremely agile, it attacks animals larger than itself. Although sometimes a serious threat to poultry, it also feeds on rodents around farms.

Weasels are supposed to be able to go through chicken wire, so to be sure, use hardware cloth. Actually, weasels are not too hard to trap. They seem to follow a routine, so if you have a hole in the coop door, remove the chicks (or make an armored pen and use them for "bait") and set a trap with no bait just inside where he would step in when he comes through the hole. You could also set three or four next to the first one so that at least one step would nab him. They are supposed to like liver if you want to use bait, but I have never caught one in a baited trap. If you catch him, kill him, don't release him somewhere else. They are nasty little murderers.

Well, we think that it is a weasel because he finished of the rest of my chicks that I had, and my quail pen was is hard to get into(even for me) but he some how had a one quail and four chick dinner last night. The other night he left us a chicken w/ its head off, and we decided to wrap it up and us it for bait. We are goin to get the trap today and but the chicken in there as bait.( sounds kinda gross huh) He has cost me so far about 30 dollars in repairs and in my birds, so i know that i am goin to kill him. I will let you know if was a weasel or not if we catch it tonight. Thanks for all your help.