Investigating the crime

So as soon as I got home last night I went out in the backyard with Sadie to look at the aftermath of yesterdays coyote attack on our chickens.  Seeing the large collection of feathers near the rear of the coop made me sick to my stomach.  The trail of feathers lead towards the east side of our property where the coyote evidently jumped the fence.

I went outside the fence line with Sadie hoping to find more evidence of what direction he/she went.  I saw a few feathers  on the path I just had mowed leading towards the back of the property but that trail died out after maybe 25 yards. I was hoping if the coyote den was nearby Sadie and I would be able to hear/see something.  A few times I heard sounds that in my mind almost sounded like Cocoa although I knew that was just wishful thinking.

After striking out on foot I took my search to the air, bringing out my DJI Phantom.  I did big circles in the area around the back of our property, once again hoping to scare the coyotes out of their hiding place if it was nearby.  I carefully reviewed the 9 minute video looking for anything significant but once again saw nothing.

Last night we put the chickens back into their run earlier than normal as we read that if a coyote does hunt during daylight it is typically going to be closer to dawn or dusk.  We also plan to not let them out as early in the morning to again avoid additional opportunity for the coyote.

I spent some considerable time educating myself regarding electric fence options.  There are a lot of options and it seems most systems are designed to electrify fence lines MUCH longer than what we have.  There are also different fence energizer options.  Along with varying power (shock) levels, you can power them via AC power, a 12 volt battery, or even stand alone solar.

My initial assumption was the best place to put a hot wire would be across the top of the fence posts.  However in a situation where the animal is jumping a fence, if it hits the hot wire while not grounded it has no effect whatsoever.  I read about another configuration that may be more useful where you mount the hot wire about a foot off the ground on the outside of the fence.  The wire goes on insulators that hold the wire a few inches away from the fence.

Typically a predator like a wolf or coyote will pace back and forth by a fence line looking for it’s weakest point.  With this configuration the animal would get zapped before it even thinks about jumping which in many cases is enough to make it steer clear.  So I think for maximum protection a hot wire down low and across the top of the fence line would be best.

This morning I also made another addition to our non-lethal arsenal, buying a high powered, battery powered Airsoft gun.  It is a high end gun with semi and full automatic modes.  In full auto mode it can unload bb’s at a rate of nearly 10 per second traveling at 400-500 FPS.  It should be a very effective way to turn around any potential chicken predators if they show their face when either of us are around. Hopefully our efforts will be successful.  If we would lose more hens they might just have to be locked up for their own safety.

Cindy and I got to watch this week’s Game of Thrones last night.  Wow that was an INCREDIBLE episode featuring the death of a character that I was as happy to see bite the dust as when Geoffrey did.  It is just an epic show.  This weeks episode was as good as a full feature film.