The predators are lining up

[IamRainey]

Sounds like you're going to have a serious challenge on your hands! ...especially with those strong bear!

Have you considered a layer of heavy gauge hardware cloth for the smaller predators with a second layer of hog wire for the big, clumsy ones? And I bet you've already considered anchoring your uprights in deep concrete footings.

Sounds to me like that could get expensive but it should also hold up 24/7 and not risk being short circuited and needing repair/replacement periodically. Or maybe chain link would be as cheap or cheaper. I dunno but, as a brainstorm, I wonder if it would provide more consistent security for your flock and peace of mind for you.

When I had to deal with bear I didn't have chickens to worry about. ...only unsecured trash cans. But I could always tell when the perpetrator had been a bear rather than raccoons because the raccoons would deftly work off as many latches and bungie cords as I applied while the bear simply picked up the heavy cans, hurled them 12' or 15' and then enjoyed what was strewn everywhere. I didn't have moose to deal with. Not many moose in suburban BC.

::sigh:: I miss living in the woods but NOT doing constant battle with the wildlife.

 

[cmom]

We just recently had an owl get 5 of our chickens in one night then it got 6 qual just busted through the wire and this cage had a top on it and I don't want to kill an

Are you sure it was an owl? It is illegal to kill birds of prey. You have to fortify against the owls. If you have a game camera I would put it up to be sure unless you actually saw the owl do the deed. Many years ago I had an owl kill some of my birds. I put up a couple of cameras and caught it in the act.

 

[Trish1974]

Moose, bobcats and bears OH MY! I thought my predator load was bad! I second the motion for a true electric fence and not "electrified poultry netting." Good luck to you!

 

[cmom]

The predators here are aware of the electric wire. A coyote. I see them most nights. They know the birds are there, but once they have been zapped they don't try again.

 

[CJLR]

Are you sure it was an owl? It is illegal to kill birds of prey. You have to fortify against the owls. If you have a game camera I would put it up to be sure unless you actually saw the owl do the deed. Many years ago I had an owl kill some of my birds. I put up a couple of cameras and caught it in the act.

we know it was a owl because we found owl feathers and tracks we also put a live trap out thinking that it was a raccoon and we could release it but nothing went in our friend has a game camera so we willl definitely try

 

[cmom]

This was before I put the netting up covering all of the pens.

The other night.

 

[Willowspirit]

Something just occurred to me about moose. With horses it’s best to use tape to make sure they can see it. Maybe this is true for moose as well.

 

[NHMountainMan]

The moose may be a problem but not as much as the bobcat. I had a bobcat several years ago get into a pen and kill 14 birds. I put leg traps around the area it penetrated. It didn't come back the next night but did the following night and I caught it. Since I have beefed up my security. I had motion lights but the motion lights will only tell you something is there. The predators will get used to them. Now I have electric around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates due to a fox that dug under a gate and killed several birds and heavy duty netting covering all of the pens because of an owl getting in and killing some birds. There are some places where I have dug a trench down a foot around the bottom of the fencing and put wire. I used hog rings to attach it to the bottom of the fence. I haven't had a loss in a long time. Good luck and have fun...

thanks for the great advice. I'm feeling pretty good about the construction of the coop and run. 1/2' hardware cloth everywhere and a buried 3' skirt of hardware cloth too. The electric netting surrounds our bee yard and the chicken coop. We weren't really thinking about bobcats, as we haven't seen one for a while before this guy showed up. Our bigger concern had been fishers. They'll chew through wood to get to their kill. We tie bacon to the netting so the bears touch with their nose or tongue and learn to avoid the area. It's just the moose - they've walked through hard core electric fencing to get at our gardens. They don't see well, and they are fearless. My dogs will chase off everything - but the moose don't care at all. So I'll need to walk the fence every morning to look for damage.

 

[NHMountainMan]

Something just occurred to me about moose. With horses it’s best to use tape to make sure they can see it. Maybe this is true for moose as well.

I'm going to have to look into that - great thought- -thanks

 

[NHMountainMan]

I agree, I use the poly rope wire. It runs around 9000 volts. There can be some weeds touching the wire but I use roundup to keep the weeds off especially this time of year.

Thanks - I'll look into rope and tape. I can't use roundup as we keep bees , harvest honey and roundup isn't great for bees.