"Pest repellers" Can chickens "hear" them?

[ChickDancer]

I'm devastated today. Predators have been worse than normal this year. I'm thinking the bad winter may have killed off a few of their favorite "dishes" leaving them to raid my flock.

The full story of what happened today is HERE. But let's get down to business.

I've read and seen several things recently about electronic "pest repellers" designed to ward of raccoons, squirrels, skunks, etc. Has anyone used one of these? Do your chickens hear it as much as the "pest" animals do? Does it drive them crazy, or do they just ignore it? They have lights too, probably good for things like Raccoons, who prefer to scavenge in the dark. I know that part wouldn't hurt my chickens. I'm just curious about the sound.

And does it work? I'm seriously thinking about a claw trap after this too. I'd have to be careful with it, as we have three cats here, but I could keep them inside for a bit until I catch something. I really, REALLY want that d*mn fox dead!

But if the electronic pest repellers work - and doesn't drive the chickens crazy - then I may get those too. There's one I'm looking at that is solar powered, and pretty inexpensive, that I could get to keep near each breed's pen.

So for those of you who have used them, please let me know if the chickens seem to be affected by it, and if it seems to work.

 

[justleslie]

I just started using them yesterday. I can hear them. They are solar powered and emit a beep every few minutes. The chickens and ducks seem fine with them, but I don't know if it has really run off any critters either.

 

[gander007]

Traps are a tricky subject as you might want to check your state laws and if you live in a state that allows trapping you are lucky but the trap will catch any animal that steps in it and if you forget to disarm them every morning one of your animals could get hurt but I have used jaw trap to great success and even lowered the local cat population several years ago but the cage trap and yes it is harder to catch with a cage or box trap but it can be accomplished with practice just keep re-baiting the trap and my best bait was a young rooster who had his own separate cage to the rear of the trap and what a noisy roo he was when the predators came by and he just would not shut up and just bounce around in his protective cage till he was let go but soon he would not let me catch him and even resorted to roosting on top of the sheds ...


Good luck with ending you problems .....

 

[ChickDancer]

Traps are a tricky subject as you might want to check your state laws and if you live in a state that allows trapping you are lucky but the trap will catch any animal that steps in it and if you forget to disarm them every morning one of your animals could get hurt but I have used jaw trap to great success and even lowered the local cat population several years ago but the cage trap and yes it is harder to catch with a cage or box trap but it can be accomplished with practice just keep re-baiting the trap and my best bait was a young rooster who had his own separate cage to the rear of the trap and what a noisy roo he was when the predators came by and he just would not shut up and just bounce around in his protective cage till he was let go but soon he would not let me catch him and even resorted to roosting on top of the sheds ...


Good luck with ending you problems .....

I've already got two live traps. One is kinda small and catches the occasional young raccoon, some possums, and cats. The other one is big enough for a coyote and catches LOTS of raccoons, occasionally a cat, and once caught a skunk. When it catches something, I have to borrow my brother's pick-up to relocate it or take it to animal control, or to someone that will put it down for me (I can't keep guns on the property due to a mentally retarded 18-year-old nephew). No foxes yet, but maybe one day.

I am thinking about getting one of the claw traps to put in the fox's line of travel onto my property, to catch him more effectively. I do have cats that run loose on the property, but that's it. And thanks to the live cage traps, I've managed to teach them not to eat from anything BUT their own food bowl (and yes, it has worked even without the cage traps).

But my thought was, if I can get one of those pest repellers and keep the foxes, raccoons, and possums away from the chicken pens themselves, I can move all of the traps further away and the wildlife would probably be much more likely to try those, instead of the chicken pens. So basically I want to scare them away from the pens, and TOWARDS the traps.

 

[gander007]

I really understand about the special needs people in the house as I have one in mine and yes they really need to be protected from themselves so yes a safe living environment should always be provided to them .....



Here is one of the better things I have tried and it is the security light it wont work on all pest and predators but it sure makes a big difference ....