Electric fence for raccoons?

[WineChicks]

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?

 

[cw]

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,

 

[seanengler]

On my packaging it states 1 joule and rated at 25 miles. When I stated 6500 v that was as high as my tester goes. It is one of the fence testers you hook onto the fence and push the probe into the ground. It could be much higher but the tester tops out at 6500 v.

My ground is a copper 8 foot ground rod with aluminum wiring that is ran three times around the coup and pen. Its probably a total of 300 to 350 feet for the three runs.. its not a long run but i wanted it to have a punch if something touches it. So far so good but its still early to tell.. I will keep you posted if my game camera catches anything...

Oh awesome! yeah it's probably just your tester than, 1 Joule will definitely give some juice to whatever tries to mess with it, haha!

 

[kari_dawn]

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.

 

[bobbi-j]

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.

 

[RoosterRanch]

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.

 

[7L Farm]

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.

 

[harveyhorses]

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.

 

[TerryD]

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..

 

[bobbi-j]

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..

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.