I have dogs, cats, little kids, lots of chickens, and me stumbling around in the dark. We all get zapped once in a while. Coyotes and foxes, plus other critters respect the fence.

What the bad guys really respect is being in a situation where they try to scale or dig through / under something and keep getting zapped. They get frustrated and leave.

Best place for me to protect penned chickens is to place their pen right next to the electric fence. The predators have trouble focusing on getting a chicken out when there is risk of brushing up against the hotwire.
 
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Don't usually see that many coyote together, I think they are plotting on how to get past it, would definitely recommend gun and dispatch em pronto
Coyotes pack hunting is pretty common in New England- they’ve replaced wolves as the alpha predator. We once had a coyote wander into the driveway, acting like he wanted to play with one of my dogs. My dog didn’t notice that 2 more coyotes were in the woods. He was trying to lure my dog into the woods. Fortunately my older dog can’t along and the coyotes ran off. But I was amazed by how clever the coyotes were.
 
Coyotes pack hunting is pretty common in New England- they’ve replaced wolves as the alpha predator. We once had a coyote wander into the driveway, acting like he wanted to play with one of my dogs. My dog didn’t notice that 2 more coyotes were in the woods. He was trying to lure my dog into the woods. Fortunately my older dog can’t along and the coyotes ran off. But I was amazed by how clever the coyotes were.

I saw a video of this same behavior in southern CA. Her dog had an excellent recall. It was amazing.
 
Here they coyotes usually run either alone or maybe a couple together but seldom in pack. I have seen 3 or more at a time a few times but mostly singles. I have tons of pictures of them.
 
Wow amazing video with the coyotes! I'm in suburbia and have lost chickens to coyotes but usually see one or two at a time. I would love to run a wire across the top of my 6' privacy fence but it's not allowed. I've read that coyotes can scale a fence up to 14' tall! We redid the chicken run this summer, added wire mesh (1/2" openings) on all sides and top and bottom of the run to keep out mice, rats and coyotes. Now we have raccoons trying to get to them. The other night raccoons dug a big hole under one corner of the chicken run, but they couldn't get through the wire flooring. I also can't let my birds free range unless I'm out there with them (we also have hawks and the coyote attacks were in the mid-day). If you ever get a chance to see the documentary The Biggest Little Farm, you'll get an idea of how persistent and destructive coyotes are and how the farm owners solved their problem. It's a great movie.
 
@cmom , that looks like a family group, and they would love to get in and can't. Wonderful! We have them here, and not the larger hybrids that are living in packs, as some out east and in eastern Canada. Those critters are more dangerous.
I do think that electric fencing, and especially electrified poultry netting, needs to be on all the time. People and critters will get careless if it's not hot 24/7!
Mary
 
So sorry you lost some of your babies!! We have a 8 foot wood fence that goes all the way around our backyard so no coyote problems. We have aerial predator problems but me and my husband were both Marines and I have no problem shooting one if it’s attacking my animals. We have lost three chickens to the Hawks. I know how upsetting it can be! When my husband built our chicken coop he dug 10 inches into the ground with the wire and posts so if anything tried to dig it wouldn’t be able to get in the coop. Hope you can find something that helps!
 

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