In the light of day I went out to repair the rips in the hardware cloth in the chicken runs so no more skunks could slips through. I took scraps of half inch hardware cloth and wired it to the damaged quarter inch hardware cloth.

I found that with two layers of hardware cloth, making a spiral of aluminum wire made it easier to lace the wire through the cloth, since I didn’t have anyone on the other side to feed the wire back to me.

After threading the spring through the layers several times, I would tighten the loops and twist in the ends. Using this method and using smaller wire “ties”, I reinforced the rips, and secured the solid mesh over the weakened areas.

I also put a layer of 2×4 no climb welded wire on the outside as protection from weed whackers. As a precaution, I have been making sure the coop is secure at night, rather than relying on run security. I do have an automatic chicken door, but I check each night that it is working, and verify it opened in the morning.

I think it was Jade that was taken down by the skunk, but it could have been Schmoo. I won’t be able to tell for sure until next molting season, since Jade has (had?) a very distinct feather loss pattern.