Protecting your chickens from predators in your backyard! - Page 2

No, I have never used it. I was just quoting what Jennio11 said, to answer your question.

I wonder if this sort of thing would work with helping to keep animals out of trash cans?

 

 

its a $100 a piece i believe from their website.

Hawks have been my most damaging predator, but I have found a way to keep them at bay. I use lightweight aluminum fence wire. It is not hooked up to an electrical source, but I string it across my chickens run. I have 6 different runs that are various sizes. I string it horizontally, like a clothesline about every 4 feet on the big lot and about every 2 feet on the bantam lots. It is not visible enough to be tacky looking, but the hawks stay clear. I've been doing this for 2 years now without a hawk attack. They fly around the farm and look, but they continue on their merry way hunting for mice and other valuable prey. It really makes me happy for my chickens to be safe and for the hawks to be able to do their job as well. Works like a charm!

I would first off like to say thank you to everyone on this board and Jen for the invite to your community to showcase our product. I am very humble for this chance to discuss our product with the family of backyardchickens and I look forward to hearing and discussing any questions, comments or concerns about our product and how we can better protect the chickens, pets and gardens of this community. Thank you.

Joseph Masciovecchio
President
The Predator Preventer LLC.

I purchased a wireless collar for my livestock guardian dog.  I installed it with a 12 volt battery and solar panel(the kind you buy to just keep your battery up - 1.5w) on my chicken bus(movable coop)  to protect my chickens.   I am able to move my chickens around the farm with no other protection(no fence ect...) ; the coop is tight and the dog keeps the hawks and coyotes at bay.  The hard part is finding a dog that you can trust.  The system is working great.  I purchased the WiFi collar(200 feet radius). but I think a radio one would have been more reliable.  Less footage(100 feet radius) but with the Wifi I can't set it above 100 feet without a dropout anyway because metal and trees interfere with the signal and the dog can come on home.  Radio waves are much more reliable than WiFi, and more affordable.  Both systems will work on 12 volt or 120 volts.

 

These systems are all very attractive, but they don't work if you have farm cats. Our cats don't bother our chickens, but they do set off alarms.

I have possums, raccoons, foxes, hawks, coyotes, bobcats, owls and well lots of predators and I use those solar night lights and could hook up my electric fence if needed too. What I have the most problems with are ground squirrels they dig everywhere to eat chicken feed so I'm always trapping or putting poison bait out which I don't like doing but I hate feeding them my chicken feed.

My Coop is accessible only by jumping 4 feet to the roost then by going into the henhouse which looks like a set of cabinets.. The support poles for the coop are all covered in metal sheets so rats cant climb it.  My run is covered in netting and my run also has 6 foot tall slatted cedar fencing with hardware cloth reinforcement on the lower third of the fencing.  I have concrete lattice 'turfstone' on the ground and I have a CCTV system and lights that come on if there is any movement that sets off an alarm in my house.  My dogs can patrol around the run area :)  If there is something that gets in, I can be there in seconds!

I would be interested in a product like this.  We had already planned on motion sensor light on the coop, but the red eyes and high pitched alarm sounds interesting.  I wouldnt be willing to pay $100 though.  With an electrician for a husband, we can rig something similar up for way less than that, which I think I might do.  If it were a little cheaper, say $40 Id buy it instead of go to the trouble of rigging one up ourselves.

 

My only concern is my parrots - I imagine they wouldnt appreciate the ear peircing sound anymore than an owl or other predator, and they are often outdoors in an aviary through the summer months.  I might skip that step.

Hawks are my only problem, and the chickens (surprisingly to me at least) fight back!