Bobcat Tried My Chicken Run

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

I found these post insulators for wire on amazon and they should work with the tight gap we have. I will use them to add 3 lines electrical wire around the cage. (4.5 ft., 3 in., 1.5 in. off the ground). I will also be adding a plastic cape to the tree to prevent it from getting zapped.
I'll try my best to keep electrical wire on even when I'm doing coop cleaning, etc. Hopefully this works at keeping it in the bushes instead of on the run.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I found these post insulators for wire on amazon and they should work with the tight gap we have. I will use them to add 3 lines electrical wire around the cage. (4.5 ft., 3 in., 1.5 in. off the ground). I will also be adding a plastic cape to the tree to prevent it from getting zapped.
I'll try my best to keep electrical wire on even when I'm doing coop cleaning, etc. Hopefully this works at keeping it in the bushes instead of on the run.

good luck darn it but join our state thread huh.

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

good luck darn it but join our state thread huh.

Oh good idea! Thank you

To keep our path between the two enclosures, we ended up putting wire through electrical pvc underground. Cleaned around branches around the wire and it works!

Bobcat said hi but didn't come close.

 

[McChooky]

It may always hunt your chickens but it'll come around less and less as time goes by.The electric fence should keep it away( they respect electric fences) Your biggest threats now will likely be raccoons and foxes.They are much harder to keep away

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

It may always hunt your chickens but it'll come around less and less as time goes by.The electric fence should keep it away( they respect electric fences) Your biggest threats now will likely be raccoons and foxes.They are much harder to keep away

I don't have either due to the bobcat. Aside from the bobcat, it's the occasional hawk but the chickens have overhead protection. We do have mice, rats, and moles though as carriers for mites and such.

 

[Folly's place]

It's the wild songbirds that bring poultry mites or lice!
Mary

 

[wild chick]

Sorry about the electrocuting in the mouth. I saw someone else mentioning they successfully did it and the bobcat never came back. One thing I haven't clarified, which is my fault, is that my coop and what I call the day run is separate. There is electrical wire around the coop, but not the day run. The bobcat was going after the day run. It will take some work, because it's a tight space, but I think I could get electrical wire around the day run, but I am not sure without it being a hazard. Additionally, the cat took the opportunity when I was cleaning around their coop, meaning I had the electrical wire off. Is there anything I can do in that situation without frying my behind?

I had a bobcat a few years ago, took about a chicken a month before I caught it on the critter cam and knew what I was dealing with. I have about a 200' x 200' pen of 5' chain link (old horse paddock) with a coop & run inside that. We strung 5 strands of electric fence offset on the outside, the lowest being about 5" from the ground and the highest one over the top of the fence. Any critter trying to climb over WILL put their foot on the top wire, to propel itself over. It stays on unless I'm physically there working on the fence or pulling weeds under it. It's been hit & torn down (something got caught in the top wire briefly) twice. Once I saw dig marks in the ground started, but it stopped where it reached the bottom wire. No predators in 3 years now, just one hawk, then I hung aluminum disks all over (looks like xmas year round here!) and no more hawks so far. Baiting the electric fence isn't needed, just leave it on. Sooner or later they will try it, get a lesson and not come back. Just leave it on all the time, because you'll always have newcomers attracted to the chickens.

 

[leflemin]

I’m not an expert on this, but I know the electric poultry netting I have keep the coyotes away. I think an electric shock will make it give up (very effective), though it will probably come and visit regularly, but as long as you have electric knitting up, it’s not going to keep trying to get in. It will just stop by to see if anything has changed. I have coyotes living about 2 acres away with the den, and they all know not to mess with my ducks. Once in a while, I’ll see one sitting outside the fence, looking at them, but they know they can’t even try. They’re just wishing. The ducks aren’t even scared of them, they just sit there and look out of curiosity. I’ve had my ducks for about three years now and haven’t lost anyone since I put up the Electric poultry netting 2 1/2 years ago (along with the hawk netting).
A bobcat is going to be an intelligent animal, capable of learning; getting shocked by these electric fences will deter even bears!

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

I’m not an expert on this, but I know the electric poultry netting I have keep the coyotes away. I think an electric shock will make it give up (very effective), though it will probably come and visit regularly, but as long as you have electric knitting up, it’s not going to keep trying to get in. It will just stop by to see if anything has changed. I have coyotes living about 2 acres away with the den, and they all know not to mess with my ducks. Once in a while, I’ll see one sitting outside the fence, looking at them, but they know they can’t even try. They’re just wishing. The ducks aren’t even scared of them, they just sit there and look out of curiosity. I’ve had my ducks for about three years now and haven’t lost anyone since I put up the Electric poultry netting 2 1/2 years ago (along with the hawk netting).
A bobcat is going to be an intelligent animal, capable of learning; getting shocked by these electric fences will deter even bears!

The goal was to deter occasional mountain lion and bears since we get at least one or the other in our yard each year! We have enough voltage for it. I know the coop cannot withstand a bear alone, we've seen one run straight through a neighbor's new cedar fence and cause a "bear hole"! I was so focused on bears that I ended up forgetting the reason that when we moved in we had raccoons but they soon went away was the bobcats. Definitely stops by, I'm fine with that, chickens scream, sure. I just don't want their behinds naked from a too close bobcat for their comfort that they shed in defense! I also don't want to have a heart attack from seeing the wild cat extremely close to me and not seeming scared of me. I know what a cat's jaw can do, and others in the area have been attacked by coyotes and bobcats. Can't confirm it isn't going to get close again, but it has stayed at least 10 ft away from me now with the electrical wire extended. I cannot believe it took so long to think of putting the wire under the required path in between until now! We even had all the materials for it Tree was hard to get around but posing no issues with the electrical wire on two inches from it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I am very happy you did get the wire.
Years ago, I used a poultice of ammonia and peanut butter to deter bears.
Make a ball of peanut butter wrap in cheese cloth soak in the ammonia. Make several hang where you want to deter them.