Predator chewed its way out of trap; going electric; how many joules needed?

[PJCluck]

I lost 17 chickens to what I think are raccoons. At least one raccoon(?) got in through an enlarged opening in my 2x4 welded wire, where one of the crap welds failed. I fixed that and inspected elsewhere. I set a hav-a-hart trap outside. About five nights later something got into the trap, ate the can of tuna, and chewed its way out of the trap! Really! I had no idea anything that would be small enough to get into the trap would be strong enough to chew the wire apart enough to escape. Can a raccoon do this? Maybe a fisher cat (I've already shot two FCs nearby)? Anyway, gonna go electric, I think. How many joules are needed to repel fishers and raccoons?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I have the electric poultry netting and from that perspective I think the most valuable advice I can give is for you to call premier 1 and tell them what kind of set up you have and ask them for their best advice. I wish I had done that because I ended up buying an entirely new energizer because I didn't know the difference between wide and low impedance. It makes a huge difference what kind of soil and grass, dry or moist, your fence is on. I started out with low impedance but with the drought this past summer we ended up having to water the ground around the entire fence everyday to keep it working. That made the grass grow which interfered with the fences performance and with low impedance you're going to have to work very hard to keep that fence working. With winter coming that's just not possible. Their site has comparison charts between the number of joules on green and brown grass. Some energizers, although having plenty of joules, do not function up to another models # of joules. They've tested lots of their models and have that info. I can say that anything lower than .5 joules on dry is pretty useless. Not enough to deter anything. The total # of output joules does not directly correlate to # of joules on dry ground. Hope that helps.

 

[sellison]

We have caught numerous racoons and skunks in our live trap and had no problems until we caught a badger. He tore the door off the cage and he must of worked at it for a while because he had blood all over the cage. Do you have holes dug up in your yard? If so, you might have a badger.

 

[Dee Dee 2]

I also can recommend Premier Fence Co. They are very helpful and know there business. ALL my fencing is from Premier, there chargers are the best, German made, have had two clicking away for 12 years with no problems. I have 5 strands of elec. rope around of my chick run and two strands more around the pen its self. Each carry 6000 V. I check it every night to make sure it is working. It takes a little while to learn to use electric twine or rope - what will short it out- keep the ground rod wet or damp- don't grab ahold of it when it is on - (you will only do this once) etc. I have a cut out switch for the twine around the actual coop since I let the girls out in the area between the coop and the pen till later in the a.m. It won"t kill a chic but it can shock the ----- out of them. Have been using electric rope for 12 years so if you have some questions I may be able to help. It is relative cheap,when you add up the cost of lost chickens, and it works !