Chattanooga, TN (surrounding areas) CHICKEN LOVERS

[amenfarm]

http://www.jva-fence.com.au/shop/product_info.php/products_id/43 , http://www.cyclopsfence.com/fence_load_detector.htm, http://portraitswithhorses.com/blog/?p=2245 These are the type of devices we are thinking about for our fencing. I hope this helps--the last one i thought i saw at TSC.

 

[Goose and Fig]

My "duke's dog proof coon trap" finally arrived. I have heard great things about them. We can't do electric fence because of the geese, so I am going to give the traps a try.
Those traditional hav-a-heart traps did not work at all. They'd trip them and drag them off into the woods and roll all the treats out.

 

[Jim H]

Here it is Stacy. Coop is 4 x 8 and the total run length is 12 foot. Hardware cloth on top, bottom and all sides. Prob throw a cheap blue tarp over it for a while, till I can find some used tin. Still undecided as to what to use on the floor. I think I would like sand but it probably not to cheap to have it delivered. Figured it up and I need a bout 2 tons.

 

[StacyTN]

Here it is Stacy. Coop is 4 x 8 and the total run length is 12 foot. Hardware cloth on top, bottom and all sides. Prob throw a cheap blue tarp over it for a while, till I can find some used tin. Still undecided as to what to use on the floor. I think I would like sand but it probably not to cheap to have it delivered. Figured it up and I need a bout 2 tons.

Very nice - great job, I love it.

If you ever find any cheap tin, alum. or that hard plastic stuff used on greenhouses etc. holler. I too want to take the tarps down someday.
Will they be able to free-range some?

 

[StacyTN]

My "duke's dog proof coon trap" finally arrived. I have heard great things about them. We can't do electric fence because of the geese, so I am going to give the traps a try.
Those traditional hav-a-heart traps did not work at all. They'd trip them and drag them off into the woods and roll all the treats out.

Very cool. Yep, I can't use electric fence etc. because way too much over growth/woods along the backside of the coop pens. I so, agree about the other traps, although we did catch one coon. We have baited twice since and one time it was rainy so we opened the plastic wrap around the honey bun and all be **** if the honey bun was gone & wrapper still sitting in some place and no release of the trap.

We've added even more hardwire & chicken wire (double layered now) and also started digging drenches along the edges and pouring concrete. We've added more latches on the doors going into the pens. Doing what we can. We are also letting our dogs once again have access into the area where the pen/coops are, it sectioned off from our regular backyard with a chain link fence (used to be our garden area, 1/4 acre or so). So, at least, we hope that if they here any commotion up on the hill they may go investigate and scare something off.

Good news, one of my two remaining show bantam cochin hens layed an egg today. Guess it took a couple of weeks to de-stress.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I had a coon come up and grab a hen right out of the garden in front of me- before it was even 4pm yesterday! I was able to pick up a branch somewhere on my way into the woods after it, and whacked the little bugger til he let the hen go. I called the wildlife resources dept and they advised me to shoot it. Yeah right- if it was that easy I wouldn't have this problem!

So I set the trap last night, but it POURED for hours. Deafening rain. Maybe tonight we'll get one.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Here it is Stacy. Coop is 4 x 8 and the total run length is 12 foot. Hardware cloth on top, bottom and all sides. Prob throw a cheap blue tarp over it for a while, till I can find some used tin. Still undecided as to what to use on the floor. I think I would like sand but it probably not to cheap to have it delivered. Figured it up and I need a bout 2 tons.

Nice! Do you have a quarry by you? Here we can go to the Bledsoe quarry or Sequatchie concrete and they will fill your bed for super cheap. A load of gravel is like $10.

 

[wflynt01]

We have never had problems with coons thank goodness. But we have had our share of possum trouble in the past. Last summer we caught 23. We used canned catfood and sardines. But a coon is a very clever animal unlike a possum.
I have always heard it was easier to catch a coon with a leg hold trap. I guess thats what it would be called. They stick their paw thru it and grab the bait you have set out and they won't turn loose of the bait so they are caught.
Hope we never have to deal with them. Good luck to all of you all that are. I hope you catch those little boogers.

 

[Goose and Fig]

That is what I got- dog proof traps. We used marshmallows so we don't accidentally catch the cats.

http://www.amazon.com/Duke-Dog-Proo...71582980&sr=8-1&keywords=dukes+dog+proof+trap

I used a dog tie-out steak to secure it to the ground. Kind of odd that it didn't come with any directions.

 

[wflynt01]

Catching your cats would not be good. Never thought about marshmellows. Strange it didn't come with instructions.
I don't think it could pull a dog stake out of the ground though. You could have probably chained it around a tree trunk as well. Let us know how it works.