How to keep Racoons out of the garden

[2468Gardeningisgr8]

Hello We have a 30 by 40 ft garden (approx.).This past summer we put up a cedar fence( 3ft high) and attached chicken wire to it .We had some problems with Raccoons eating all our corn and doing some other damage in the garden. My question is do you think we could put up an electric wire on the top of the fence.Would that hurt my chickens when I put them in there to till the garden...say if one jumped on the wire...maybe I could only turn it on at night?or does anyone have any other idea's?? Thanks
PS LOVE THIS SITE>>>GREAT IDEA!!!!
I meant a cedar pole fence with three rails

 

[patandchickens]

They say you can exclude the vast majority of raccoons with 2 electric wires, one at about 4-6" and one at about 12". You would have to make sure the lowest one wasn't shorted out by vegetation or sag, of course.

There are a couple things to know about electric fencing:

1) It only works when the animal contacts both the wire and the ground at the same time, in such a way that the electric charge from the wire gets conducted to the ground thru the animal's body. Putting a wire atop a wooden fence would be unlikely to zap an animal that was climbing the fence (as opposed to standing with hind feet on ground), because wood is a relatively poor conductor.

2) Your charger needs a good solid ground, such as a 6' length of galvanized pipe driven deeply into the soil. The ground rod can't be anywhere near underground metal waterlines, buried utility lines, or utility ground rods - otherwise, you can mess up radio or tv reception, and in some cases risk a dangerously high shock on the fence.

3) Although the charge needed to discourage animals isn't likely to hurt a healthy adult brushing against the fence with, say, their hand, electric fences HAVE caused deaths if they're constructed so that a person can fall on or against the fence or if a child contacts the fence headfirst. Consequently, very low wires such as are usually used to keep coons out of gardens DO fall into the "somewhat more dangerous" category. This isn't a problem if you are an agile adult with no kids around, but if you have any problem that might cause you to slip and fall against the fence, or if you have kids crawling around your yard, you might think twice.

The electric fence should not hurt your chickens as long as they cannot get stuck in it (getting one zap is ok, getting zapped repeatedly is no good for man nor beast).

Hope this helps,

Pat

 

[Chellie]

Pat, Thanks so much for all the good, detailed information about electric fencing.


Chellie

 

[2468Gardeningisgr8]

Whoa I am so glad I asked.......have kids....and their friends and nieces and nephews....I cannot take a chance at one of them getting zapped...

So the question is How am I going to stop those rascally racoons from dining on my corn and vegges next year???

..Pat do you have horses??? Have a question for you.....
We plan on having two horses in our back pasture someday.....when we get the pasture fenced .... we had planned on running electric wire along the inside of the fence......since the pasture runs along our backyard If I put a section that has no electrical charge so the kids can pet the horses through the fence....Do you think the horses would still think its electric and not try and escape OR does the wiring have a shut off and on switch? and Thanks so much for all your information.....

 

[patandchickens]

So the question is How am I going to stop those rascally racoons from dining on my corn and vegges next year???

Without electric fencing or a dog that lives outside at night, I doubt you can I have seen good results from planting the most coon-attractive crops (melons, corn, that sort of thing) in the center of the garden surrounded by crops that coons don't care so much about (tomatoes, etc). Motion-detector sprinklers *might* help. Some people swear that leaving a radio playing all night keeps them away -- others have not had good results. But personally, I live-trap and relocate (if we had a gun, I would probably trap and, uh, you know). It doesn't eliminate them but it keeps the number of raccoons to a manageable minimum here.

Pat do you have horses??? Have a question for you..... We plan on having two horses in our back pasture someday.....when we get the pasture fenced .... we had planned on running electric wire along the inside of the fence......since the pasture runs along our backyard If I put a section that has no electrical charge so the kids can pet the horses through the fence....Do you think the horses would still think its electric and not try and escape OR does the wiring have a shut off and on switch? and Thanks so much for all your information.....

What kind of fence do you have? If it won't keep horses safely contained without the electric, DON'T remove the electric from part of the fence; they'll soon go right thru it and get in trouble. Edited to add: Oh, you don't have horses yet... but, same deal. If your fence isn't sufficient without the electric, don't skip electrifying any of it. Consider building a section that really IS sufficient without electric, if you want over the fence nosepetting. Or a 4 (not 3)-board fence with just one electric wire, on the INSIDE, close to the board, right at the height of the horses' rumps.

It is really easy to wire in a shutoff switch so you can turn off a "nose-petting" section of fence when kids are there.

The smart way to do it is: cut the electric wire on both sides of the designated section of fence. Bury a double insulated cable (same as you would do for a gate opening) under the designated section, and wire it into the fence at each end. The nose-petting part of the fence is now "dead" when the rest of your fence is charged. At one end (doesn't matter which) of the designated nose-petting section, wire in a cutoff switch between the nose-petting section's electric wire and the main fence wire. You can get a cutoff switch at your farm supply store, or online, e.g. www.premier1supply.com . Now you can shut off the nose-petting section anytime you want. Just don't forget to turn it back on!


Pat

 

[2468Gardeningisgr8]

Thanks so much Pat...I guess we will have to trap ourselves a coon or three....my 13 yr old son will be thrilled !!!.I like the idea of making a stronger fence across the back(for nose petting) and have it electric the rest of the away around.
My daughter(9 yrs) and I (40issssh)have been taking lessons since Feb.......She loves it !!! and I have ridden before but have never learnt the proper way of riding.
Now I need the stool to get up and she can jump and swing to get on ...hahahahha !!!!
So the next step is she has to part board(continue lessons) a horse at the stable or work at our neighbours barn mucking stalls etc.and then we will get a horse for her and one for me and her Dad after she proves to us she is dedicated. and oh yes after we put up the fence...then I will be asking about horse compost..which I have in a pile in our garden rate now 3 years old or more......our neighbours have six horses and love to give away there horse compost they have two or three piles going....and there fence is the plastic strips with one electric what do you think of that?thanks again....

 

[patandchickens]

Thanks so much Pat...I guess we will have to trap ourselves a coon or three

Just as long as you're not in an area with lots of raccoon rabies.

I'll PM you about the horse fence stuff - you know where to look for your PM messages, right?


Pat

 

[sgtsheart]

Some excellent advice on electric fencing. The only ideas I can come up with hanging bags of human hair, from hairbrushes and/or haircuts. The bags can be made out old stockings. It may not deter all pesky critters, but a few. I also have a brainless border collie...old name: Jake, new name: BBC. Although he's not good for much, other than barking at the same cows he sees every day ALL day and night long, I do intend to relocate his housing and such close to my garden and chicken coop area (alternating between the two) to annoy the 'coons to death. Kinda like what he's trying to do to me I have asked my SO what his mama and grandma did to keep the coons out of their gardens here on the farm and he confirms that they always had at least one farm dog hanging around that keep the pests level down.

 

[897tgigvib]

A good chicken wire fence stops Raccoons.

 

[bobm]

Chicken wire is only good in keeping chickens in, but will NOT keep any self respecting predator out.