I've heard there is a curse that goes "May you live in interesting times."  Well, it's been an interesting month here at the farm.  We finally got the rodent/brooder problem solved (knock on wood). But it came at a high cost.  By the time the situation was fixed we had lost over 150 chicks, spent over $300 in materials and spent countless hours on troubleshooting and repairs.  The Saturday before our July farmer's market saw both Jody and I working until 2:00 a.m. and one night the following week I was working until 2:00 and Jody finished at 4:00 a.m.  As I said though, I thinks it's finally resolved, we've gone a nearly a week without any predator losses.  We discovered toward the end of the saga that it wasn't rats as we had suspected, but mink.  Jody and Tyler saw one streaking for its hole when they went out to do chores one morning this past week.  Yet another predator to add to our list!  It makes sense though; we did a little research and learned that minks' feeding habits are consistent with the manner of death we were seeing.  So, for now, the chicks are safe.