Electric fence for raccoons?

WineChicks

In the Brooder
9 Years
Dec 29, 2010
40
0
32
We lost a pullet to a raccoon last weekend & then last night our one remaining hen started screaming. I believe the coon came back but couldn't get into the coop (I left it open last time ). Any way, I'm thinking about an electric fence. Has anyone had success keeping raccoons away once they've found the hens? Any recommendations?
 
I've heard lots of people recommend electric fencing...I would additionally do some major checking for any weaknesses in the structure though...can you afford to run electricity for the fence all the time? And if it ever was to go down for some reason, your coop/run would need to be able to stand alone against the assault.
 
electric fence for coons, here is a trick, get a trail cam. alum. foil, and peanut butter. make a spoon out of the foil and hang one end on the fence (make sure its not touching the ground or too high so the coon cant get it) spread peanut butter on the foil, set up trail camera to watch the action, (preferable video)(please post)plug in fence, this will also keep deer out of the garden,
 
I don't use it around my chicken coop, but it does wonders for keeping them out of the sweet corn. Before we started fencing it in, the buggers would get in there the night before we would pick it, and destroy most of it. (I have no idea how they always know when it's ready...) After we started fencing, they were not a problem. It also kept the deer out.
 
I use a 10 mile fencer on my coup run. I have a single strand about 7 ft above the ground just below the top of the 1/2" hardware cloth walls. The Fence is buried in the ground and also connected to the ground rod so it acts as the ground for the hot wire. A hot wire alone will not work if the predator is not grounded when he touches it. Ever see a bird on a high voltage wire? If you touch a screwdriver across the fence and wire, it throws a beautiful blue spark and cracks like a rifle. Never had anything climb it, or at least it never made it in if it tried.
 
I use hot wire on one of my coops it was the first coop I built so far its worked. Every since then I build all my coops with half inch hardware cloth & an apron around the whole structure. Best to build it right the first time. Hot wire can ground out or you could have a power outage who knows. Another problem with hot wire is forgetting to plug it in. You'll sleep better if you build it right the first time. I now have a total of 5 coops & still worry about the birds with the hot wire around their coop.
 
I have it around my run and around my garden in the summer. Once you get the charger and fence it does not cost that much a month, we can't see a difference on our bill anyway. I think as long as you have a strand low middle and high you should be O.K. but like the 7L Farm said make sure your run and coop are secure enough without it.
 
Hi all,,,, new to the group...happy to be here. There is lots of knowledge.,
I have been having a problem with some predator trying to get to my Guinea fowl.. After reading through the threads and loosing sleep at night, I put up lights to see if I could spot a varmint. Nothing but lost sleep. So now i put up an electric fence just outside the hen house and pen. I put tall stakes into the ground and ran several different strings of wire about 4 to 5 inches apart for about a foot high.. I put it about 10 inches out from the pen. Its hooked to a fence pulses that puts out over 6500 volts per my tester and 1 joule of power. My reason for sitting it out 10 inches if the varmint tried to jump over its tail would land on the wire. It could not get to the bottom to dig without turning somewhat and again zappo. I am thinking its a coon. I lost one the other night.. I think it flew from fright and broke its neck inside the pen. Has others have success with doing a multiple high string to keep varmints out?? BTW my fence shocker is rated at 25 miles so it packs a punch.
I also put out a game camera today to see if the predator comes back to get a snapshot of it. Whatever it was it scared the birds so bad they would not got back into the pen at night for 2 days.. Again being out i lost another..
 
Hi all,,,, new to the group...happy to be here. There is lots of knowledge.,
I have been having a problem with some predator trying to get to my Guinea fowl.. After reading through the threads and loosing sleep at night, I put up lights to see if I could spot a varmint. Nothing but lost sleep. So now i put up an electric fence just outside the hen house and pen. I put tall stakes into the ground and ran several different strings of wire about 4 to 5 inches apart for about a foot high.. I put it about 10 inches out from the pen. Its hooked to a fence pulses that puts out over 6500 volts per my tester and 1 joule of power. My reason for sitting it out 10 inches if the varmint tried to jump over its tail would land on the wire. It could not get to the bottom to dig without turning somewhat and again zappo. I am thinking its a coon. I lost one the other night.. I think it flew from fright and broke its neck inside the pen. Has others have success with doing a multiple high string to keep varmints out?? BTW my fence shocker is rated at 25 miles so it packs a punch.
I also put out a game camera today to see if the predator comes back to get a snapshot of it. Whatever it was it scared the birds so bad they would not got back into the pen at night for 2 days.. Again being out i lost another..
welcome-byc.gif


Electric fence is a good start, but it sounds like you need to work on further coop/run security. If you can post pictures of your setup, we can help you find weak spots and make suggestions as to how to strengthen them.
 
Hi all,,,, new to the group...happy to be here. There is lots of knowledge.,
I have been having a problem with some predator trying to get to my Guinea fowl.. After reading through the threads and loosing sleep at night, I put up lights to see if I could spot a varmint. Nothing but lost sleep. So now i put up an electric fence just outside the hen house and pen. I put tall stakes into the ground and ran several different strings of wire about 4 to 5 inches apart for about a foot high.. I put it about 10 inches out from the pen. Its hooked to a fence pulses that puts out over 6500 volts per my tester and 1 joule of power. My reason for sitting it out 10 inches if the varmint tried to jump over its tail would land on the wire. It could not get to the bottom to dig without turning somewhat and again zappo. I am thinking its a coon. I lost one the other night.. I think it flew from fright and broke its neck inside the pen. Has others have success with doing a multiple high string to keep varmints out?? BTW my fence shocker is rated at 25 miles so it packs a punch.
I also put out a game camera today to see if the predator comes back to get a snapshot of it. Whatever it was it scared the birds so bad they would not got back into the pen at night for 2 days.. Again being out i lost another..

Am I understanding you right that you are running multiple stands of hot wires? How much hot wire do you have? 6500 is enough to pack a punch but sounds low for 1 Joule. Is there chance it's .1 Joule? How is the grounding? I run a .17 Joule solar energizer and .15 Joule energizer and when I'm grounded properly I get 8000-9500 volts. I can't remember the mileage it's rated for. I run electric netting 48 inches high around my egg mobile and my broiler pen. I also run a hot wire around my broiler pen JUST incase something makes it through the netting and attempts to go under the broiler pen. Anyway, check your grounding and see if you can boost your voltage a little bit, every bit helps. My hounds have gotten zapped at 8500 volts and they won't go within 15 feet of the fence now and that's only when I'm inside of it working on things.

I can't speak highly enough of electric netting, I have never lost a bird inside the netting, but have lost them outside of the netting. So that just tells me the fencing is doing it's job keeping predators out. Keeping chickens in however is another story haha. I have clipped all their flight wings since.

Anyway, good luck! I'll check back for updates.
 

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