Predator "proof" a chicken tractor.

[birds4kids]

Warning, I am long winded.
I live in a sort of rural area of north east Wisconsin, in 4 years I have seen, heard, of had pictures of fox, racoons, possum, skunk, owls, various hawks especially redtails and a cooper's hawk are around constantly. Neighbor had a roadkill deer in his woodline completely scavenged in under a week so I am pretty sure that there are coyotes which only makes sense with all the things we know are here. On rare occasions bear and wolf have been credibly spotted nearby.
I have just under an acre so the tractor will be near the house and in the open for the most part, no large wooded areas too close but lots of small patches and narrow woodlines.

I want to take a proactive approach to predator protection but want to let the girls scratch all over the yard in a tractor. I want open bottom for best access to the ground for them.

My plan is to just go ahead and put a DC fencer on the tractor from day one. Tractor will be on thick grass on heavy clay so I am hoping that affords some modest dig protection at least long enough for the perspective predator to touch the fence and get scared off.

Would like ideas for baiting the fence.
Being a tractor I was thinking of stringing the ground wire in parallel with the hot rather than or maybe in conjunction with a ground rod, concerned about the effectiveness of a ground rod if I am constantly moving it and it will be hard to repeatedly drive deep enough. Thoughts? Tips for how to run the wire, standoff distance? Distance between wires etc.

The chickens are pets as much as anything else so I am planning to pend some money to protect them. The fencer I am looking at is the Red Snap'r 44C. Run on car and marine deep cycle batteries I have a couple of so I can charge and swap. Hoping this is hot enough to do the job, I will buy the aluminum or copper wire, weeds shouldn't be an issue unless you tell me to mount the wire 3" from the ground.

Can I make the hardware cloth the ground? If the chickens touch that but have no access to the hot wire that would be fine right?

Just kind of throwing ideas out, please tell me where I am headed right and wrong. Other than hardware cloth everywhere but the floor what other measures should I take? The red blinking lights good?
I will probably do an automatic door eventually for an additional layer of security and weather protection come winter but not right away.

Last summer I took permanent measures against the 7racoons that decimated my sweet corn but would rather let the predators be. If I can scare them off but still let them be around for the kids to see I prefer that. Not that I can't take permanent measures I have hunted and fur trapped over the years. Just that these days I really enjoy being able to yell for the kids to come look out the window and for example see a fox sniffing around the garden or a redtail scratching at the downspout because it chased a chipmunk up, or some owls "wrestling"

in the treetops.

 

[sbhkma]

Here is my post on how I set my chicken tractor up. It works fine. Every spring I have a skunk come around sniffing at the fence to figure a way into my birds. Of course, as he sniffs, he gets zapped, sprays the yard (really didn't think that one through LOL ) and does't come back. I'm sure other critters come around to check too and find out the fence bites hard. I've seen videos posted by others and it seems to me the general SOP is for a predator to watch and then come sniff around for an entry point.

It's easy to pull up the ground rod, move the coop and hammer the rod back into the soil. In summer here in TX the ground gets like rock, so we water the area the rod will be going in first to loosen the soil and provide better conduit.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/928849/55-dead-chicks/10#post_14184913

 

[MysteriaSdrassa]

you could floor the coop area of the tractor with a a door to protect your girls at night,, of course you would have to construct it so it could be cleaned easily on occasion,,, this would allow your girls access to scratching ground in the run area but safety at night in the coop area,, i would also think this would pretty much eliminate the need for electrification especially if you are going to use hardware cloth,, even the toughest predators have a bit of trouble getting thru that and during the day would afford plenty of protection,, remember most chicken predators are snatch and grab operators,, they don't like spending much time having to work at getting to prey

 

[centrarchid]

I have same predators you have and can protect some flimsy chicken tractors from ground predators using electrified poultry netting. Chickens can avoid hawks probing perimeter of tractor during day but care must be taken to get birds to roost away from sides at night to handle owls.

 

[birds4kids]

A friend who has production birds, meat and eggs has told me about the risks of chicken wire and predators chewing off a leg and his transition to hardware cloth. I am using hardware cloth, ours are pets so less tolerance for the occasional loss.

The coop is going to be raised so yes a floor and so they have shelter/shade under it..

Between the chickens being pets for my 3 and 5yo girls and 3 of them being Cream Legbars, I have about $100 worth of chicks. I know a closed coop at night should stop all but a bear(not really a concern) but still am kind of planning for overkill as one intrusion would set us back 6 months probably more at this point since I am sure they have to be good and grown before winter.

If I do a fencer I would likely string it around the garden too so it would be dual purpose. Had I realized how cheap they are I would have done one last year when the racoons ate two varieties of sweet corn on us.

Predators are pretty thick here, I posted the stuff the kids have seen but in addition even just Thursday I found feathers by the garden and swingset, something got a robin.

I would just hate to have something get in and think it was because I "saved" $150 on putting in a fence. I can afford to spend that on pets/hobby we all have things we "waste" money on.

Is the netting hot and still relies on the ground for a ground or is it both wires more like a bug zapper?

 

[MysteriaSdrassa]

Nothing wrong with a little overkill

With the fencing I'm pretty sure you could go with the "bug zapper" approach but if you are doing your garden as well a ground rod would easier. Also it doesn't really have to be a full 4 foot rod to work,, 2 feet is plenty enough if you have to move it alot.

 

[centrarchid]

Both the ground + hotwire and bug zapper options can be used with electrified poultry netting. I use the former.