Sorry to hear about the recent losses. We lost one to a skunk around midnight last night. The ground is really soft from the damp weather, so the skunk dug a trench which started nearly a foot back from the smallest chicken pen so that he could be deep enough to clear the electric wire above ground and the 6" of buried wire. He'd killed one RIR hen and was dragging her back out through the tunnel he'd made. It was dark, and he was quick, so I wasn't able to keep him from getting away. I put the remaining RIRs in the barn (they slept in the rafters) and had to use a shovel to put all the dirt back. This guy was an engineer! I've never seen such a deep, purposeful tunnel made in such a short time.
DH said he'd look into getting some traps when he gets back from his current assignment in Florida. He's there for work, and a million teenagers and college kids are there for Spring Break, freezing their behinds off because it's 50 degrees on the beach. They won't leave Florida with a tan; instead, they'll have pneumonia and frost bite.
