Felt good about my coop until I put up a camera at the bird feeders

[nwfltide]

We live in the Florida panhandle, and we have our share of critters. Lots of bears. We used to have bird feeders in the yard until I put a camera next to them to see what was eating from them at day (and at night). We knew about the bears sometimes taking a snack, but it was eye opening to see the variety of predators we live next to! The bears with the tags in their ears have been relocated from somewhere else due to them causing problems. Needless to say, the bird feeders are gone! Sorry I can only put up a link

http://www.magisto.com/embed/YEVHNkgTS20yVA1gCzE?l=vem&o=w&c=b

 

[beginnergirl]

Oh dear... good call. I was wondering about putting up a camera myself. But we don't have bears nearby. Hope your coop is reinforced to keep bears out.

 

[nwfltide]

I did the best I could, 1/2 inch hardware cloth, 2x4s, dug a foot below and buried more hardware cloth... Luckily they are more interested in getting into the garbage cans than the coop right now. Of course that could change, but not sure what else we can do. Hope we just stay lucky

 

[123RedBeard]

If/when bear meets "Mr Electric Fence" they will go back to your garbage cans ...

 

[nwfltide]

If/when bear meets "Mr Electric Fence" they will go back to your garbage cans ...

That is what we are planning to do if we have issues. I was thinking of a solar powered small system that runs around the perimeter. What is interesting is that the bears don't mess with our trash that much. Now our neighbor down the street gets ransacked every week.We eat a ton of vegetables, give the extras to the chickens. Don't really eat fast food. Our neighbor is a great guy, just never cooks at home. We find fast food wrappers all over the place once the bears come through. They even walk right past our blueberry bushes, which are loaded. I guess the bears are mostly concerned with caloric value.