Newbie predator questions

[LyndallA]

I have a small flock (4) for eggs in a converted truck ‘butt’ with shell coop that is very secure. But I only have non-electric fencing for their yard. I do have access to electric cattle fencing that I can use. I live in in a high predator area and a dog that will have to be trained away from chickens, but might provide some predator protection during the day (she’s an avid hunter of rodents ).

Predators include coyote, fox, hawk, bear, bobcat, cougar, weasels, ground squirrels(?).

Questions:
1) should I get an electric chicken fence (net instead of cattle line)?
2) should I forego the automatic door opener so that there’s human activity around when they’re out? My set up is near my house, but also next to a large pasture with dense forest not too far away (I.e. good habitat for all those predators).
Thank you oh wise ones! This is my first go at chickens!

 

[azygous]

I also live in a high predator area with all those hungry animals. A cattle hot wire will work if it's against a barrier. Baiting the hot wire is necessary to encourage predators to engage with the wire and receive a shock. Once the predator is shocked they will not return. Over time, the predators will avoid your premises, but it takes months and even years to reach that point.

Baiting the hot wire at intervals is the secret to success. I use peanut butter for bears, coyotes, and foxes. For wild cats, I use mackerel wrapped in wire mesh and attached to the hot wire which will conduct the electricity to the metal "burrito". The animal tastes the bait, gets a painful shock and runs away.

I leave the charger on 24/7 as I'm convinced animals can hear the pulse as the current travels the wire and they stay away. It's worth getting shocked every so often for the security of having continuous protection. Whenever I turned off the charger in the past to do work around the premises is when I would have a predator incident. It never failed.

 

[LyndallA]

I also live in a high predator area with all those hungry animals. A cattle hot wire will work if it's against a barrier. Baiting the hot wire is necessary to encourage predators to engage with the wire and receive a shock. Once the predator is shocked they will not return. Over time, the predators will avoid your premises, but it takes months and even years to reach that point.

Baiting the hot wire at intervals is the secret to success. I use peanut butter for bears, coyotes, and foxes. For wild cats, I use mackerel wrapped in wire mesh and attached to the hot wire which will conduct the electricity to the metal "burrito". The animal tastes the bait, gets a painful shock and runs away.

I leave the charger on 24/7 as I'm convinced animals can hear the pulse as the current travels the wire and they stay away. It's worth getting shocked every so often for the security of having continuous protection. Whenever I turned off the charger in the past to do work around the premises is when I would have a predator incident. It never failed.

Wow, thank you for that great insight and clear advice/instruction, I really appreciate it.

 

[LyndallA]

I also live in a high predator area with all those hungry animals. A cattle hot wire will work if it's against a barrier. Baiting the hot wire is necessary to encourage predators to engage with the wire and receive a shock. Once the predator is shocked they will not return. Over time, the predators will avoid your premises, but it takes months and even years to reach that point.

Baiting the hot wire at intervals is the secret to success. I use peanut butter for bears, coyotes, and foxes. For wild cats, I use mackerel wrapped in wire mesh and attached to the hot wire which will conduct the electricity to the metal "burrito". The animal tastes the bait, gets a painful shock and runs away.

I leave the charger on 24/7 as I'm convinced animals can hear the pulse as the current travels the wire and they stay away. It's worth getting shocked every so often for the security of having continuous protection. Whenever I turned off the charger in the past to do work around the premises is when I would have a predator incident. It never failed.

Oops. Realized I had a few questions:
1) the “barrier” you mention for the electric cattle line: I’m thinking the non-electric poultry fencing will work? (Or do you mean a more solid barrier?).

2) And how do you bait the cattle line with peanut butter- smear it? (That’ll work for my dog too )

 

[azygous]

Any sort of barrier that will force the predator to stop and notice the bait on the hot wire. This is opposite of a free floating wire strand in mid-air that the predator will likely just jump over or between the wires. I have all my hot wire running around the outside walls of my coops and on the wire enclosure surrounding my runs. I have no free-floating wire as you would see in a barb wire fence. The animal just jumps between the wires and never touches them.

I have no fence enclosing my chickens' free range areas. I depend on the hot wire around the coops to educate the predators to stay away.

I also have encouraged crows and ravens to nest in the immediate area, and they drive off any hawks that have had designs on my flock.

 

[azygous]

Here is a photo of one of my runs. You can see how I've mounted the hot wire on the outside against the sides of the run with the yellow insulators. I demonstrates what I'm talking about.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined!

1) should I get an electric chicken fence (net instead of cattle line)?

A single strand of hot wire like you often have for cattle or horses will not stop many predators. Even two or three single strands are not going to do you much good. Part of the reason is that they can avoid it. Another part is that thick fur acts as an insulator. Even if many of them brush against it they will not be affected. A hog, cow, or horse does not have thick fur like a fox, coyote, or bear. To zap many predators they need to touch it with a bare nose, mouth, tongue, or the soles of their feet. It is easy for them to bypass a few strands of wire. Strands of wire will not keep chickens in.

To zap an animal you need to complete the circuit. They need to touch a hot wire and a ground at the same time. If the hot wire touches the ground it shorts out and you have no protection. That's why you use insulators to attach hot wires in many set-ups. You drive a ground rod into the ground and connect the ground side to that. That way your soil is a "ground".

To protect my chickens I use electric netting. It is special made for chickens. The horizontal wires in the netting are hot wires. The soil is the ground.

Another way is to have some type of wire mesh to keep the chickens in (like Azygous has) and put horizontal hot wires on insulators so the critter touches them. You can attach your ground to the soil or the wire mesh, or both. A general recommendation is one horizontal hot wire down fairly low so a digging predator is likely to touch it when messing around down low. Then another horizontal hot wire higher up so it gets touched if it tries to climb.

If set up properly electricity can be extremely effective. It has stopped all four-legged ground predators for me. Snakes can still get through.

 

[texsuze]

My girls have free-range access during the day of about 3 acres of pasture, fenced with 5' no-climb horse fence (I used to have horses). I use plastic insulators (Tractor Supply) to run electric tape along the top of the pasture fencing, and along top and lower edge of my "barnyard" fencing. I also have a apron of field fence extending out from the bottom of the no-climb fencing for about a foot, all the way around. My girls go into a secured run/coop setup each night. Have not had a predator trespass into the pasture or barnyard during the daytime for several years. Requires diligent periodic checks for tunneling critters and intact electrical connections.