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Most of us like to eat chicken, but even if you don’t this may come as no surprise: everything else out there does. So, if you’re like me and like to keep a small flock of free-range chickens around just for fresh eggs (and the occasional fresh, chemical-free fryer) I have no doubt that keeping them off the drive-thru dinner menu for every fox, dog, hawk, mink and ferret that you run into can be an exercise in futility. And if you live out in the country like me it can be darn near impossible. Don't belive me? Just ask my chickens:-).
Several flocks later I have learned that the only way to keep the daytime cruisers from grabbing a quick feathery snack is to keep them in an enclosed fenced in area, preferably underneath a large shade tree (so the hawks don’t swoop down and grab one). This way every morning I can let them out of the coop and let them poke around a few hundred square feet of grass without worrying about the four-footed variety of hunters. But I’m not here to tell you how to protect your flock against those daytime Jonny-come-lately’s; That’s easy…no ‘ible’ needed there. Nope, I’m here to help you against those really sneaky creatures…the ones that keep you up at night. Hopefully this ass-kicking ‘ible’ from Kentucky Bum will give you some piece of mind by showing you how to cut down the number of night-time snack raids to your coop and give you a few more peaceful night’s sleep.
I engineered this solution from a fact that I read somewhere that most of the really nasty things that sneak around at night are freaked out by blinking LEDs (I had a problem with ferrets and minks [the nastiest of the nasties]). It said the lights appear to them as other predator’s eyes. (Authors note: I have found that they don’t work so well against raccoons, but most coops aren’t that unprotected.) With further research I went on to find a company that makes a solar-charged blinking red LED light and that you are suppose to surround your coop with as many of them as you need, but at $25 a pop I don’t think so. Besides, what good are they if you can’t use them inside the coop to keep things out? Here’s how I made a good work-around solution.
Tools you will need:
-Multi-meter that can read DC volts and show polarity
-Wire snips and strippers
-[Maybe] a soldering gun & solder.
Parts you need:
-Blinky LED lights (I have red ones, but if other colors work let me know)
-AC-DC transformer/charger
-10’to 30’ of light weight, low-voltage 2-strand shielded wire
-A handful of small wire nuts (the kind you get with any ‘wire-it-up-yourself’ light fixture).
-A handful of thumbtacks
(Another Authors note: Read Step 1 and then Step 2 before you do anything; you probably already have some of these parts laying around, and since they tend to be voltage specific it may behoove you to buy those parts that operate at the same [or nearly the same] voltage of the parts you may already have.)
Several flocks later I have learned that the only way to keep the daytime cruisers from grabbing a quick feathery snack is to keep them in an enclosed fenced in area, preferably underneath a large shade tree (so the hawks don’t swoop down and grab one). This way every morning I can let them out of the coop and let them poke around a few hundred square feet of grass without worrying about the four-footed variety of hunters. But I’m not here to tell you how to protect your flock against those daytime Jonny-come-lately’s; That’s easy…no ‘ible’ needed there. Nope, I’m here to help you against those really sneaky creatures…the ones that keep you up at night. Hopefully this ass-kicking ‘ible’ from Kentucky Bum will give you some piece of mind by showing you how to cut down the number of night-time snack raids to your coop and give you a few more peaceful night’s sleep.
I engineered this solution from a fact that I read somewhere that most of the really nasty things that sneak around at night are freaked out by blinking LEDs (I had a problem with ferrets and minks [the nastiest of the nasties]). It said the lights appear to them as other predator’s eyes. (Authors note: I have found that they don’t work so well against raccoons, but most coops aren’t that unprotected.) With further research I went on to find a company that makes a solar-charged blinking red LED light and that you are suppose to surround your coop with as many of them as you need, but at $25 a pop I don’t think so. Besides, what good are they if you can’t use them inside the coop to keep things out? Here’s how I made a good work-around solution.
Tools you will need:
-Multi-meter that can read DC volts and show polarity
-Wire snips and strippers
-[Maybe] a soldering gun & solder.
Parts you need:
-Blinky LED lights (I have red ones, but if other colors work let me know)
-AC-DC transformer/charger
-10’to 30’ of light weight, low-voltage 2-strand shielded wire
-A handful of small wire nuts (the kind you get with any ‘wire-it-up-yourself’ light fixture).
-A handful of thumbtacks
(Another Authors note: Read Step 1 and then Step 2 before you do anything; you probably already have some of these parts laying around, and since they tend to be voltage specific it may behoove you to buy those parts that operate at the same [or nearly the same] voltage of the parts you may already have.)
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Signing UpStep 1Buy some LEDs!
The first step is to buy some blinking LEDs; grab about 3 or 4. Most of the circuit boards that run LEDs can run on any voltage from 6 to 15 volts DC (battery power) but try to find some that run on 9 volt batteries because it’s easier to get access to the wires that the battery plugs into [unless you have a soldering gun or don’t mind replacing batteries every other week]. A while back I got on eBay and found somebody selling a bunch of surplus 9-volt circuit boards with blinking LEDs; 25 boards for $8 + SH&H (Sweet!).
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The kind of pet that requires welding gloves to pick up. So tough I've seen him sleeping outside in snow.
He always has cuts and welts from fighting with the other local tom cats, we just patch him up if he allows you to (and that's only if he gets a real beating).
It would take a brave person to try and put him in a cat box to take him to the vet, It would be an even braver person who would let him out of a cat box.
He is just pure solid muscle claws and teeth.
And to top it all off he is called Buffy, yes we though he was a girl, Oh how wrong that turned out to be.
I lost the eye to a local jet black tom, a bout a week later he returned the damage and now they are both one eyed freaks strutting their stuff on equal terms.
I asked at the vets, if it was worth trying to ring him in, they said that the shock would probably do him more damage and if he seemed happy just let him mend himself.
He is an absolute joy to watch if you happen to catch him swaggering of around his territory, that is as long as he don't know you are watching him. If he don't know he is being watch he is king of all he surveys. When I see him strutting around I always think of Tommy the Cat by Primus
In my own scrap pile there are some LEDs with integrated flashing circuits. They all are red. In USA we buy them at Radio Shack stores as single components. I've connected one blinky with one standard LED in series and had them both blink. (Sorry I don't have a schematic on hand or I'd share it.)
Have fun and enjoy those chickens!
A predators and some vermin species eyes DO glow red and cattle and sheep will glow green if you shine a lamp at them in the dark, I know this from experiments with lamping rabbits
I very much doubt that any amount of LEDs will keep your chickens safe from hungry predators. We have had foxes attack a goose right in our yard only a few feet from the house.
If you have a problem with mink and ferrets you should get a slate or cage trap and keep it set beside your run at all times. we use a slate trap and regularly catch rats and have on occasion caught the large black rats that will kill young birds. The slate traps are good as they don't kill the animal so you can release any harmless critters that wander in to them.
If anyone is interested in building a slate trap i can take a series of pics of the one my Dad made.
Like I wrote, I have no idea why red blinky LEDs scare them, but [like I also wrote] there a few companies that make a business of selling them as anti-predator defense. Like I also wrote, my problem with minks and ferrets seems to have abated (for now). I put them up about 4 years back and haven't been raided since so it seems to me that they are working as advertised. That's not to say they just haven't moved on, or that I may have to eat my words come mid-winter (when I have the most problems) but for now they are the only thing that seems to have worked.
I too have had foxes show up in broad daylight and snatch chickens just off my front porch (that's why I built a run for them and don't let them wander around out of a fenced-in area).
I would interested in seeing the pictures of a slate trap. I have not had much success with live traps other than the occasional racoon so a trap that can catch a mink, ferret and/or rat is of interest to me. You can send them to me at mike.brace@emerson.com.
I will take as series of pics to do a Ible on how to build one.