GjBob
Hatching
- Oct 7, 2024
- 2
- 0
- 9
We have lots of racoons around. My coop keeps them out, so far. But they scare the girls which bothers me, and also causes a little more noise than we'd like at night sometimes. (I'm in the suburbs in a small tract house property, not really supposed to have chickens, so it's best if they do not get spooked at night) I have an idea, but not sure if there's a way to make it work. I'd love for anyone to give their advice on my crazy idea:
I was thinking maybe if I put down an electric net, on the dry ground temporarily, around the coop, then If I hear the racoons out there, i flip a switch and ZAP! they will not like that feeling, maybe learn not to come back. So this would be a temporary thing, I could turn it on and off, roll it up and put it in storage when not using it.
A few problems I can think of though, can you help me think through these, since I don't know much about electric fences or nets, I think these things below could be problems:
1. Electric fences work by the animal touching the fence, and the electricity going through them to the ground at their feet. It sure seems like an electric net on the ground would still provide a "zap" but maybe not? You think it would be important then to have the net up off the ground a little?
2. If the net/wires touch any wet dirt/lawn/ground, seems like this would not work, energy would just go into the ground, so not a big problem, I'd only do this racoon training during dry weather.
3. Racoons very likely too smart or persistent to be "trained" in this way, may be a total waist of my time, just to keep them from spooking the ladies
4. I don't know if electric fences or nets work instantly, or they kind of slowly charge up. If I go with this idea of having it "off" until I saw the racoons on the camera, or heard the hens squalking about being watched, this would only potentially work if it zaps as soon as I hit the switch. Do you know if electric fences come up to voltage right away?
5. I'm on a budget. Is there an inexpensive way to put something like this together?
Thank you for reading my silly idea.
I was thinking maybe if I put down an electric net, on the dry ground temporarily, around the coop, then If I hear the racoons out there, i flip a switch and ZAP! they will not like that feeling, maybe learn not to come back. So this would be a temporary thing, I could turn it on and off, roll it up and put it in storage when not using it.
A few problems I can think of though, can you help me think through these, since I don't know much about electric fences or nets, I think these things below could be problems:
1. Electric fences work by the animal touching the fence, and the electricity going through them to the ground at their feet. It sure seems like an electric net on the ground would still provide a "zap" but maybe not? You think it would be important then to have the net up off the ground a little?
2. If the net/wires touch any wet dirt/lawn/ground, seems like this would not work, energy would just go into the ground, so not a big problem, I'd only do this racoon training during dry weather.
3. Racoons very likely too smart or persistent to be "trained" in this way, may be a total waist of my time, just to keep them from spooking the ladies
4. I don't know if electric fences or nets work instantly, or they kind of slowly charge up. If I go with this idea of having it "off" until I saw the racoons on the camera, or heard the hens squalking about being watched, this would only potentially work if it zaps as soon as I hit the switch. Do you know if electric fences come up to voltage right away?
5. I'm on a budget. Is there an inexpensive way to put something like this together?
Thank you for reading my silly idea.
