I really hope the electric fence does its job.

[Morrigan]

Captured last night on my trail cam. This is the fence that separates my chicken yard (on the left) from nature. There are 4 strands of electric wire. The light you see in the background is a motion sensor light. That obviously didn't have much impact on the bobcat. The time/date stamp is wrong -- this was at 2:30 a.m. yesterday.

 

[townchicks]

Yikes! I hope so too. Double check for weeds or grass that could ground it out. Good luck!

 

[azygous]

Game cams are great devices! I don't have one, but I have a pretty good hunch that there are many wood-be predators deterred from snacking on my chickens by my hot wire system as I've actually watched (during the day) as bears come up to the hot wire around my coops and runs and sample the peanut butter bait on the wire. I never knew bears, as they sample the peanut butter, could execute perfect ballet pirouettes as they do a 180 and run off never to return.

Your system has a better chance of discouraging expert climbers such as bob cats if you also run a hot wire within a few inches of the top of your fence. Climbers often will smell or lick the top of the fence as they are scaling it.

I use short pieces of PVC pipe stuck onto the tops of my steel T-posts, holes drilled through the tops and wire threaded through them. PVC makes excellent and very cheap insulators.

 

[silkiemother]

you could use a device, which I cannot remember what it is called,but it makes it look like a large animal is watching and it has two red or green dots that blink to look like an actual animal

 

[llombardo]

Is the wire inside or outside the fenced area?

 

[llombardo]

Game cams are great devices! I don't have one, but I have a pretty good hunch that there are many wood-be predators deterred from snacking on my chickens by my hot wire system as I've actually watched (during the day) as bears come up to the hot wire around my coops and runs and sample the peanut butter bait on the wire. I never knew bears, as they sample the peanut butter, could execute perfect ballet pirouettes as they do a 180 and run off never to return.

Your system has a better chance of discouraging expert climbers such as bob cats if you also run a hot wire within a few inches of the top of your fence. Climbers often will smell or lick the top of the fence as they are scaling it.

I use short pieces of PVC pipe stuck onto the tops of my steel T-posts, holes drilled through the tops and wire threaded through them. PVC makes excellent and very cheap insulators.

My run is made of pvc which worked well for my electric fence.

 

[Morrigan]

Is the wire inside or outside the fenced area?

Outside.

 

[Morrigan]

Game cams are great devices! I don't have one, but I have a pretty good hunch that there are many wood-be predators deterred from snacking on my chickens by my hot wire system as I've actually watched (during the day) as bears come up to the hot wire around my coops and runs and sample the peanut butter bait on the wire. I never knew bears, as they sample the peanut butter, could execute perfect ballet pirouettes as they do a 180 and run off never to return.

Your system has a better chance of discouraging expert climbers such as bob cats if you also run a hot wire within a few inches of the top of your fence. Climbers often will smell or lick the top of the fence as they are scaling it.

I use short pieces of PVC pipe stuck onto the tops of my steel T-posts, holes drilled through the tops and wire threaded through them. PVC makes excellent and very cheap insulators.

I will think about that. I've had a worry that the cat might just leap up over the electric part. I am going to start putting some bait on the wire, so hopefully it might become fearful of the entire structure. We also have bears, foxes, coyotes, weasels in the immediate area.

 

[llombardo]

Outside.

So the wire is on the same side as the bobcat? It looks like the insulators are on the inside part--that is why I ask.

 

[Northern.Ontario]

When a predator approaches an unknown obstacle (fence), it will never just decide to "hey I'm going to leap over this because I can jump 6 feet in the air". It has no idea what's on the other side or what it's landing on. They take a cautionary/investigative approach. Walking along the fence and will eventually make contact with it at ground level; either brushing against it, touching it with its nose or paw/foot. This is where you want the high voltage wires; within 3 feet of ground level and starting an inch or 2 off the ground.