The coyotes are here again...

[PirateGirl]

In some areas it is against the law to use an electric fence mostly because a short caused by high grass or weeds can result in a wildfire started by a spark jumping from a hot wire to ground. These laws are usually enacted in arid regions. I think that Colorado qualifies as an arid region. An electric fence without grass or weeds surrounding it is inherently safe or at least safer than an electric fence surrounding large areas of land. This is mostly because of the more or less constant human observation that goes with small runs of electric fence around chicken coops etc..

I never knew why the ordinance, but this makes total sense and describes the county I live in exactly. We are dry and much of the county is high plains/grassland and we generally have laws to prevent wildfires such as no smoking outdoors, no campfires, no burning slash, and even no shooting or charcoal grills at times. Fire danger is real in parts of the country and with dry vegetation and high winds I can understand an electric fence being an issue. I had thought it had been a safety thing with close neighbors and small children, but this makes more sense. Thank you for explaining that, I learned something new today!

 

[Radian]

Electric fencing works. Quick internet search shows town zoning restrictions but no fire zone restrictions. They are in wide use in the west for grazing animals. USDA Wildlife Division will also trap and kill problem predators for you. Depending where you are in relation to city etc. Good luck.

 

[PirateGirl]

Pretty sure my dog chased one off this morning... let her out about 5:00am, still dark, and almost immediately she is out by the chicken coop barking furiously, not normal for her unless there's really something there. She came back in the house, lights off, about 5 minutes later she's at the window barking furiously will all her fur up so I sent her out again. Whatever was there was bold enough to come back after the dog had chased it off once and disappeared into the house, so probably the coyotes again... she wouldn't have been barking if it was just one of the million rabbits that lives in the yard.

 

[llombardo]

Coyotes are not really known to work for food if they don't have to. If you got that many rabbits, I would think they would go for them instead of "working" to get in the coop.

 

[PirateGirl]

Coyotes are not really known to work for food if they don't have to. If you got that many rabbits, I would think they would go for them instead of "working" to get in the coop.

Yeah, I believe they generally get the rabbits and prairie dogs... but the weather is turning and those numbers are starting to dwindle. In the few years I've lived at this house I have not seen evidence of anything trying to dig into my coops other than rodents, however I have arrived home after dark to see that something had already tripped the motion lights. Fingers crossed things continue to go smoothly.

 

[cmom]

Yeah, I believe they generally get the rabbits and prairie dogs... but the weather is turning and those numbers are starting to dwindle. In the few years I've lived at this house I have not seen evidence of anything trying to dig into my coops other than rodents, however I have arrived home after dark to see that something had already tripped the motion lights. Fingers crossed things continue to go smoothly.

I have a motion light and it gets tripped pretty regularly. I have games cameras in different places and usually see most every night, a predator on one of the cameras. If they know they can't penetrate somewhere they don't try. One of the cameras point towards the coops and quite often I see coyotes fairly close but they have been bitten by the electric wire and know it's there. In the spring particularly when I have the windows open I have heard something come in contact with the wire, probably a youngster who now knows the electric wire is there. I have had a coyote jump a fence many years ago and kill some birds. I had owl kill some birds that were in a coop that is open on one side. I have since put heavy duty netting over all of my pens. I had a fox dig under a gate, there is an electric wire now across the bottom of the gates so if a predator touches it, it will get a shock. I also put concrete under all of the gates. I do not shut my pop doors in my coops. Predators are around everywhere. They may be different in different parts of the country, but we all have some kind.

 

[PirateGirl]

I have a motion light and it gets tripped pretty regularly. I have games cameras in different places and usually see most every night, a predator on one of the cameras. If they know they can't penetrate somewhere they don't try. One of the cameras point towards the coops and quite often I see coyotes fairly close but they have been bitten by the electric wire and know it's there. In the spring particularly when I have the windows open I have heard something come in contact with the wire, probably a youngster who now knows the electric wire is there. I have had a coyote jump a fence many years ago and kill some birds. I had owl kill some birds that were in a coop that is open on one side. I have since put heavy duty netting over all of my pens. I had a fox dig under a gate, there is an electric wire now across the bottom of the gates so if a predator touches it, it will get a shock. I also put concrete under all of the gates. I do not shut my pop doors in my coops. Predators are around everywhere. They may be different in different parts of the country, but we all have some kind.

Are you happy with your game cam? What kind do you have? We have been looking at game cams and home security cams both and trying to decide what best fits our needs and asking questions like do we need videos or are stills ok, do we want it hooked to the internet so we can monitor things remotely, do we want it running all the time or just recording or snapping a picture when motion is detected... So many things to decide.

 

[llombardo]

My friend gave me a first alert system. I think it has 6 cameras. I got to get it hooked up. One is definitely going on my peach tree, because once again someone stole every peach on my tree. They weren't happy with a dozen, they took all of them. I had plans for those peaches that are on personal property. They have done it before and I swear as stupid as it is I would press charges against them on principle alone.

Back to the subject here...

Here is a picture of my dogs all lined up. Of course the oldest, that is a female was the one up front. She is the ring leader and the boss. She is almist 14 now, so when she wants to stay in the yard for a while--I always put at least one GSD with her to watch over her. The coyotes were moving in--you could hear them coming closer. Shortly after this I got everyone in because it sounded like there was 6-8 coyotes. The dogs have been good deterrents for coyotes. They have stayed away from the actual yard.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

We have coyotes here too. We just recently had one dig under the wire we had around the coop and move several cinderblocks to get a chicken. So I countered by running and electric fence around the coop and run....

The best way of installing hardware cloth is to rototill right up to the coop or fence, scrape the dirt back away from the coop or run, then either J clip or hog ring a two or three foot hardware cloth apron onto the bottom of the coop or run wire. Next spread the dirt back against and over the hardware cloth apron. Finally tamp down the rototilled earth so that it is about an inch below ground level. If the dirt is dry then water well until grass returns. Electric fences are best used to keep furry vermine from getting to close to your chicken coops or pens. Once a predator gets too close then he is willing to spend more time and energy digging or trying to get that final few feet or inches closer to kill your birds. No coyote no problem.

Remember what Ilyich Lenin said about political dissidents, "No person, no problem!" If you ignore Lenin's advice the reverse applies. You ignore the coyotes then you'll have no chickens.

 

[cmom]

Are you happy with your game cam? What kind do you have? We have been looking at game cams and home security cams both and trying to decide what best fits our needs and asking questions like do we need videos or are stills ok, do we want it hooked to the internet so we can monitor things remotely, do we want it running all the time or just recording or snapping a picture when motion is detected... So many things to decide.

I have several game cameras and not all take the same quality pictures. I use rechargeable batteries in mine. I do use the video mode but have a converter on my computer so I can make pictures from the videos. I have both no-glow and low-glow cameras. My low-glow pictures seem to be brighter. These pictures are from two different cameras in the same spot.