Anyone with "Night Guard" experience?

[gallusdomesticus]

I read the ad for 'Night Guard' lights in Back Yard Poultry magazine and decided to give them a try. I have a large wooded lot next to my fenced chicken yard and am worried about racoons or possums getting into the hen house. The lights are simple solar charged red flashing LED that is supposed to frighten predators by tricking them into thinking they're being watched at night. I've only been using them for a few days and was thinking of getting some more but at $30 a pop, they're rather expensive. I was wondering if any one else has experience with the product and would like to hear your opinion if they work.

 

[panner123]

SAVE YOUR MONEY. Red Christmas lights will do the same thing. Some say that work, I have tried them with NO success. Others that I know say the same thing.

 

[MandyH]

We tried the red lights, the radio in the coop and motion lights and NONE of them worked.

 

[Cetawin]

those small xmas lights do the same thing...a radio helps as well, especially if you put it on a talk radio show or a station with tons of commercials.

My coop is like fort knox too but I have not lost any birds to predators...

 

[TipsyDog]

I'm a little obsessive (my DH says) and I have a baby monitor in my coop. I turn it on every night at bedtime pretty loud. The girls are silent all night and never wake me up. I think if anything tries to get in I'd hear it. I can clearly hear every cricket or other movement around.

They wake me up every morning and I go out and let them out into the yard. Then I go back to bed. Being a Chicken Mama is alot of work

I wouldn't think those lights would work at all. Beasts get used to the same thing after awhile.

 

[karen71]

You know what I don't understand - I saw an ad for the "Night Guard" and it listed hawks - but hawks don't hunt at night only day

unless I read the ad wrong - I wish it would work for hawks cause that's my biggest predator issue .

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Me, too. I have heard pretty negative reviews on the Night Guard system, so I wouldn't bother. Some say plastic owls work, but only if you move them around your yard on a fairly regular basis. Fishing line strung over the top of your run at intervals of every 4-6 feet seems to be a big deterrent. CDs/DVDs hung around also seems to be somewhat effective. The only REAL solution is to completely cover the top of your run with netting, however.

I have a family of hawks living less than .2 mile from my house. They have been living in the same tree for the 5 years I have been living here. Beautiful, big red-tailed hawks. Funny enough, they have never done more than glance at my birds. The little, tiny Cooper's hawks are my bane. They go barreling through the forest like a kamikaze on a mission, and have been the ones that attack my birds. They never have actually killed any birds, but they inflict a phenomenal amount of damage.

Good luck.