On discouraging skunks:
 
If you put your hives up on a couple of cinder blocks, you wil find 1) your
hive are at a much more convenient height for working, and 2) skunks won't
stretch to get up to the hive entrances.  The skunks will go work over the
Japanese beetle grub population instead.
 
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD