Deadly Possum Attack

Sadly I must report that we are down to nine chiclets, as three (including my favorite, the little yellow one) met their maker last night at the jaws of a possum.  It would have been more, too, if not for the brave intervention of Thomas.  Twas the wee small hours, or as Thomas thinks of it, "prime gaming time" and all but he were tucked up cozy, when he heard a terrible racket from the chicken enclosure.  The three big hens were safe in their coop, but we haven't been putting the little ones in there since we tried once and they got badly pecked by at least one adult.  (Talking of which, another chiclet was at this time quarantined in a separate hospital ward on the back porch because she got caught in some netting and badly pecked.  She is now a Bald Chick and we call her Sinead.)  So the chiclets (all but Sinead) were in their usual bedchamber of a large plastic tub covered with corrugated plastic with a weight on it.  This was not enough to deter the possum, apparently, and it was the attack of this rodent that Thomas overheard.  He went out with a flashlight and discovered it and chased it off.  (Then came in and woke us up to tell us about it.)  When I went to let them out in the morning, I discovered the sad costs in chicken life - one dead outside the box, two dead within.  So we have now instituted the policy of keeping their tub in the garage overnight, with the garage doors tight shut.  (The ducklings too, and Sinead, who is reunited with her sisters.)  We went out to put them to bed just now and found that they were scared of their tubs and had sought higher ground - in fact, higher than we knew they could reach!  Three on the ROOF of the big chickens' coop (which is about 7 feet off the ground) and two sitting on the top of the netting we'd JUST put there and were congratulating ourselves about successfully blocking their repeated escapes from their enclosure.  (And this is AFTER clipping their wings.)  Let us hope they forget they can do that overnight, otherwise we'll have to devise another way to keep them in (and this is at least the third as it is).