Can an electric fence keep them away?

[cmom]

Luckily I don't have a bear problem but do see a lot of predators on the game cameras, coyotes, fox, bobcat, coons, possums, sometimes cats and dogs. I had an owl many years ago before I put the netting over the pens and got it on video, kill and eating on a bird.

 

[williamsingr12]

Yes those are all great alternatives and also cost a lot more then a large can filled with water and a trap ! You will never thin the heard of coons out enough by only trapping around your coups , impossible ! but you will get rid of the ones that are being destructive and the others will learn to stay away when their buddies dont come home! Ive shot 2 coons 2 yrs ago trying to get into my pen at 3am and the others scattered and havent been back! I see plenty around still but they leave my coup alone. Lesson learned or not ? Cost me a couple 9mm shells was all, until the next one makes the same fatal mistake. And yes I would rather be drowned to death, its painless entirely over being shot and mangled by a bad shooter bleeding out or having a dog chew off my hind quarters as Im trying to flee. But beware of coons and dogs because a large coon can and will kill your dogs ! That vet bills gonna be huge if it even survives a coon attack !

 

[cmom]

I love my electric fence. I haven't had a predator problem since I put it up around 10 years ago. When they touch the wire and get a good zap they don't come back to test it again. I still see plenty of predators on my game cameras including coons but my pens are 200 feet by 60 feet and covered with heavy duty netting and concrete under the gates.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/can-an-electric-fence-keep-them-away.1253478/#post-20121211

 

[centrarchid]

Raccoons like just about everything else need several types of resources reasonably close to each other. Currently they are looking for a den site, like because other resources are close and they cannot find a better site. You can limit those other resources although that is seldom practical if you are a single small land owner. My preferred approach is the hotwire like others use although it can be more targeted to protect only certain locations rather than an entire yard. A picture of area to be protected is needed to provide sound advice, especially if you are not familiar with how hotwire setups work. Thinning the herd approach advocated by some will require repeated efforts over time.

It is not clear from information provided if you are also trying to protect poultry or some other resource as well.


Another approach that can raise hackles on some is to provide a couple den sites the raccoons kind find and use.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Uh, sorry, but I don't think I would like to be drowned in a cage, would you?... When I looked into it one report suggested that "training" the local population to stay away from your birds (electric fence, dogs) is better than killing because you create a vacuum if you kill resident predators and others will move into the territory and you will lose birds again until you kill the newcomers and so on....

I don't know about being drowned in a Have-a-Heart trap but we're keeping chickens here not giving coons advanced degrees in chicken slaughter. Yes, new coons will eventually replace the coons that you remove. That is why coons are a renewable resource and predator management and control is environmentally friendly. Perhaps a better question is not "I don't think I would like to be drowned in a cage, would you? but "If I were a chicken I don't believe that I would like to be pulled up against the wire on my coop late at night and be literally eaten alive.

 

[BennieAnTheJets]

I don't know about being drowned in a Have-a-Heart trap but we're keeping chickens here not giving coons advanced degrees in chicken slaughter. Yes, new coons will eventually replace the coons that you remove. That is why coons are a renewable resource and predator management and control is environmentally friendly. Perhaps a better question is not "I don't think I would like to be drowned in a cage, would you? but "If I were a chicken I don't believe that I would like to be pulled up against the wire on my coop late at night and be literally eaten alive.

Like Dori says in Finding Dori: "There is always another way."

About the "pulled up against the wire and eaten alive" bit, you can easily prevent that by using hardwire cloth that racoon paws can't reach through and a solid surface, like the corrugated metal I used, on the lower part of your run. See photo.

I guess I have a real soft spot for elephants - don't ask me why, I don't know - but I caught myself realizing that it is sort of insane of me to expect African farmers to leave room for the native species, like the elephants, and for me to not even have the ingenuity / motivation / initiative / requirement for myself to leave our American native species some room to live, even as I encroach on their habitat.

I don't want my birds killed, but that does not mean I have to kill racoons. There are other options that work in most cases.

Agree with centrarchid that a picture of the particular property or area to be protected may help to see what ideas may work in your case to live and let live and protect your birds.

If I were eating racoons, I would agree that I need to kill them, but if I just want to keep them away from my birds, I don't see why I need to kill them and I would prefer not to. The words 'Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.' are often on my mind and I would rather be sparked and walk away or warned off by a dog I can see and avoid than to be trapped and drowned or shot because I walked into a wrong situation just trying to get some food for myself.

The dogs, by the way, have not killed any racoons. They keep them away by their presence, scent marking, barking and chasing them off when they get too close to the outside of the fence. So far so good.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I do wonder what your Great Pyrenees would do to the person of a raccoon once he gets is mouth around it. I don't think that it would be something that most people (even those who own a Great Pyrenees's) would allow their little boy or girl to take to the 2nd grade show and tell. I can personally guarantee you that you'll hear the coons bones breaking from 30 feet away.

There was an old time (born in 1880) elephant hunter by the name of Walter Dalrymple Maitland (Karamojo ) Bell who wrote a serialized account for a British magazine about among other things the relationship between Africans or African farmers and the local Jumbos. His magazine articles have been republished in book form under the name The Wondering of an Elephant Hunter. Reading this book may help you better understand the relationship between African farmers and elephants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._M._Bell