Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

We are finding holes in the dirt along the side of the barn, and in the turkey yard which is also against the barn. There is no evidence of what animal it is, as we have not found any turds.
But it has certainly been a different day:
First, I had let the chickens out for a romp. Then, after lunch, we went back outside - me to get eggs, and DH to do whatever. We found most of the hens in their yard (very unusual since they were let out). And they did not look relaxed. All of a sudden, they all came running out.... with a cat behind them!!! That cat was fast! It ran past me, across the lawn, across the road, and to wherever. The question was, what was it doing in the back corner? Most likely eyeing my young 6 week olds through the divider fence. So for some reason, later, I looked in the back corner. Lo and behold, there was a hole in the dirt, going under the barn wall. Needless to say, all those holes are now filled with rocks. We'll see if anymore holes appear elsewhere.

Then, we spotted five of the red hens (they tend to be the adventurous sort) at the back of the property, on the other side of the electric fence, near the cows. They were pretty far from their own yard, hopefully catching a lot of bugs. When they ventured closer, more like by the burning pile, there they were, laying down in the shelter of the wood burning pile. I hope they don't get any injuries.
I hope that's it.

We borrowed a trail cam and have seen nothing so far. Having spoken to a few people around here, we have come to the conclusion that we may have rats. Nothing in the traps yet, so may have to take further measures.

Yup, the image was pretty dark, but we could see the back end and tail of a rat.

My brother had rats in his coop last winter. The coop was empty thanks to a fox just before snow fall but they needed rid of the rats and tried for a month to trap them. Couldn't catch one in a trap. The neighbor with a grain dryer directly behind the coop "took care of it". They are incredibly difficult to trap live or in a snap trap because they are very intelligent and suspicious.

Yup, had one few years back, had to take apart a barn wall, put poison in there and finally caught it in a trap, probably because it was pre-poisoned.
Way too smart for traps alone.

I agree - very intelligent and difficult to trap. We had them in the coop a few years back too. We caught a couple in traps the first few days, then nothing - they got smart. We had to resort to poison, and flooding the entries we found before blocking them off. It's best if you go at them with everything you've got, ASAP, because once they start having babies, you'll be in for a world of trouble. This is the time of year that critters are starting to look for places to call home for the winter.