Raccoons Eating Chicken Feed

[Folly's place]

Fence chargers are specifically designed to give a good jolt safely! It's not like grabbing a 110v, or 220v, wire!
'Do it yourself' set-ups? Crazy!
Mary

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

When people on the site mention hot wire, I think fence charger. Are you really talking about 110v? That would be dangerous

When I mention "hot wire" I'm talking about a fence charger ..... just like everyone else who has mentioned "hot wire" on this thread.

 

[cmom]

I have electric wires around my coop with a quite powerful fence charger. It will hurt but that is the idea. I want anything that touched the hot wires to hurt. I know I have accidentally touched them before and it will hurt if you have a powerful enough fence charger. I also have my fence grounded so if anything tries to climb the fence and touches the hot wires they will know it. The wires here have been tested a few times and I guarantee they won't test them again. I have seen all kinds of different predator but they know the electric wires are there. Good luck...

 

[Al Gerhart]

Those coons will eat your chickens before long. Chicken wire won't stop them, they will rip right through it. Wild animals have their population kept in control by predators and the amount of feed available, you are not doing them any favors leaving feed out for them. They will have a territory too so once their young ones grow up they will have to leave and fight for their own territory.

As far as any treadle feeder helping, it won't. Treadle feeders work due to the weight difference between a rodent or wild bird and a chicken, a thirty pound coon isn't going to have a problem. The better treadle feeders add a spring loaded door and a narrow and distant treadle so that reach is used as well, but no good for a coon!

Get that feeder inside, the birds can eat just fine going inside the coop during the day and make sure you have hardware cloth or some good 2 x 4 welded wire backing up any chicken wire used in the coop.

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

When I mention "hot wire" I'm talking about a fence charger ..... just like everyone else who has mentioned "hot wire" on this thread.

When I mention "hot wire" I'm talking about a fence charger ..... just like everyone else who has mentioned "hot wire" on this thread.

Good to hear. The only reason I asked is, there was someone on a beekeeping forum who used house current on a fence, and another one who built his own homemade fence charger using a high voltage transformer from a microwave oven with no pulse, a death sentence in both cases for anything that touched the hot wire. I have Zareba and Parmak solar fencers. I have backed into fences while working on my hives before and got a shock on the butt. Worst ever was when I forgot to turn the Parmak off aroundnthe hives and accidently touched a hot wire while my other hand was resting on topof the t-post. Felt the full effect of a good charger, and only made that mistake once.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

Good to hear. The only reason I asked is, there was someone on a beekeeping forum who used house current on a fence, and another one who built his own homemade fence charger using a high voltage transformer from a microwave oven with no pulse, a death sentence in both cases for anything that touched the hot wire. I have Zareba and Parmak solar fencers. I have backed into fences while working on my hives before and got a shock on the butt. Worst ever was when I forgot to turn the Parmak off aroundnthe hives and accidently touched a hot wire while my other hand was resting on topof the t-post. Felt the full effect of a good charger, and only made that mistake once.

Since you seem to be a bee keeper, I have a question. Our pollinators seem to be disappearing. This year was the worst with no honey bees to speak of and the bumble bees that are usually around in large numbers were total gone. Not sure what is going on but this year has been a strange one. Question is .... I'm not really interested in harvesting honey, but I was wondering how hard it would be to maintain an active hive just for pollination purposes. There is probably a world of difference between Texas and Mass in the ways of keeping bees, but an idea of what would be involved would be helpful.

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

Since you seem to be a bee keeper, I have a question. Our pollinators seem to be disappearing. This year was the worst with no honey bees to speak of and the bumble bees that are usually around in large numbers were total gone. Not sure what is going on but this year has been a strange one. Question is .... I'm not really interested in harvesting honey, but I was wondering how hard it would be to maintain an active hive just for pollination purposes. There is probably a world of difference between Texas and Mass in the ways of keeping bees, but an idea of what would be involved would be helpful.

The initial cost would be several hundred dollars, less if you already have a fencer, but you are talking bees, boxes, frames and foundation, smoker, hive tool, veil or beesuit. Yes, there are big differences in the two areas. I would find some locals to hlp with specifics to your area, but generally speaking, if I were to keep a hive just for pollination, and not want to bother extracting honey, I would just keep it on the smaller side, maybe 2 deep boxes and 1 honey super. As the hive built up in strength, it would get crowded and would swarm, where they make preparations by building queen cells, and when those cells are capped over with wax, about half of the hive fills up on honey and leaves with the original queen to find a new home, while a new queen soon emerges in the original hive, mates, and carries on.
I'd also see if you have africanized genetics there and what regulations are in place. You would still have to do occasional inspections and mite control. Up here, we have to be sure the bees have enough honey stored to make it from some time in October through around April depending on weather.

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

The initial cost would be several hundred dollars, less if you already have a fencer, but you are talking bees, boxes, frames and foundation, smoker, hive tool, veil or beesuit. Yes, there are big differences in the two areas. I would find some locals to hlp with specifics to your area, but generally speaking, if I were to keep a hive just for pollination, and not want to bother extracting honey, I would just keep it on the smaller side, maybe 2 deep boxes and 1 honey super. As the hive built up in strength, it would get crowded and would swarm, where they make preparations by building queen cells, and when those cells are capped over with wax, about half of the hive fills up on honey and leaves with the original queen to find a new home, while a new queen soon emerges in the original hive, mates, and carries on.
I'd also see if you have africanized genetics there and what regulations are in place. You would still have to do occasional inspections and mite control. Up here, we have to be sure the bees have enough honey stored to make it from some time in October through around April depending on weather.

Forgot to mention check out Mann Lake, Dadant, and Betterbee to get a sense of equipment. They have lots of helpful information and are alwzys happy to answer questions

 

[McChooky]

Help! Raccoons are eating our chicken feed every night. We first started noticing a disturbance around the coop a couple weeks ago, put out a trap, and have been catching 2-3 raccoons a week. I stopped putting food scraps in the chicken run to avoid attracting predators, but that didn’t seem to help. We finally put a camera out, and sure enough, every night a raccoon or two comes up to snack on the chicken food. We use this feeder:
https://rentacoop.com/collections/all/products/25lbs-mounted-metallic-feeder
They don’t lift up the lid to get to the food (we have it strapped down), but are able to get to the food from the bottom.

We use Purina Organic Layer Pellets. I’ve read other posts on here that say raccoons aren’t interested in chicken feed since it is mostly grains, but they sure seem to enjoy it here! Our coop itself is very secure, so thankfully they haven’t gotten to our chickens yet.

Anyone have any suggestions for a feeder we could use that is more “raccoon proof”? Completely enclosing the chicken run is not practical for us, as it’s a large area. We do have a fence around it, but the raccoons obviously climb right over it. I also realize that we could bring the food in and out of the garage every morning/night, but this is a little bit of a pain for us.

Thank you in advance!

Electric fencing! @Howard E , @cmom , and Premier1supplies.com all have good advice, and Premier has excellent products too.
Our feed is only in our secure coop/ run, never out where other critters can reach it. One day those raccoons will show up when your coop is open, and you will loose your flock too.
And a smaller really safe run will also be good; that's what we've done; a coop and small run, roofed and secure, so that when our birds can't be out, they still have plenty of space.
Mary

Coons have proven to be smart enough to bypass electric fences by climbing on trees.I hope you don't have a lot of trees in the area ...

 

[3 quails an 2 humans]

Help! Raccoons are eating our chicken feed every night. We first started noticing a disturbance around the coop a couple weeks ago, put out a trap, and have been catching 2-3 raccoons a week. I stopped putting food scraps in the chicken run to avoid attracting predators, but that didn’t seem to help. We finally put a camera out, and sure enough, every night a raccoon or two comes up to snack on the chicken food. We use this feeder:
https://rentacoop.com/collections/all/products/25lbs-mounted-metallic-feeder
They don’t lift up the lid to get to the food (we have it strapped down), but are able to get to the food from the bottom.

We use Purina Organic Layer Pellets. I’ve read other posts on here that say raccoons aren’t interested in chicken feed since it is mostly grains, but they sure seem to enjoy it here! Our coop itself is very secure, so thankfully they haven’t gotten to our chickens yet.

Anyone have any suggestions for a feeder we could use that is more “raccoon proof”? Completely enclosing the chicken run is not practical for us, as it’s a large area. We do have a fence around it, but the raccoons obviously climb right over it. I also realize that we could bring the food in and out of the garage every morning/night, but this is a little bit of a pain for us.

Thank you in advance!

I have the same problem but with quail they come once in a while and start eating we have a camera in the pen this was after they ate my quail