Killer Mink rampage .... they are BAD !

Hogwire is a terrific 1st barrier .... probably the very best fencing one can have ..... but the smaller vermin ... will run through it ... mink, least weasel; etc. The little wire fencing like hardware cloth can make a perfectly effective barrier when combined with 2X4's or 2X2's or with hogwire. Cost is usually the dilemma all of us face when deciding how effective to barricade out the intruders. Hogwire panels costs upward of $25 each .. 5 ft X 12 ft or 15 ft in length. My neighbor has a doz of those panels around his vegetable garden ... to keep out the rabbits ... of all things. I'm a bit envious to be honest. He spends his money the way he wants to ... and not necessarily the way I'd spend it. Kelly in Moxee

we get ours after they are junked, they are actually concrete wire reinforcements. lots of our wire comes second hand to us. mostly we have to buy the hardware cloth, then we get heavy guage quarter inch.

Thanks TF & Kelly for all your help!!! I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!

Ok, here's what I have. currently has 2" chicken wire all around. Have 19gauge 1/4 in hardware cloth and and 1" chicken wire. Have 'J' clamps; small & med hog rings available to put together. Not near enough hogwire to do anything with. Not an expense I can do right now.

Now for more questions:
Oldtimer said he is using 1" chicken wire criss-crossed (to make 1/2 holes) on bottom & floor. Not sure I have enough 1" to do both floor. Hardware cloth considerably cheaper. Effective??
What would you use for floor? Sides? since I have 2" already, would you cover completely with smaller wire?
'J' clamps strong enough? or better to use hog rings?

Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated. Want to start in morn. She is ready to lay again.
Can't wait til I can let them roost in the fir trees again. Feel safer with them way up there right now anyway!

Cheryl

there is too much give in a floor made of chicken wire. and suing twice the amount makes the hardware cloth more affordable. also consider future use of the pen. the smaller hardware cloth makes it feasible for keets and quail...

i am not techincal enough to help with clamps etc. but when adding something to your existing wire, consider a very large dog pushing against it, so is it STOUT enough? maybe reinfordce with 2xs closer together ...

Txs tf. Floor will be on ground, hard dirt under bedding. it will be there just to keep diggers out. also have cage wire, but the 1 x 1/2 is too expensive to use if just to keep out diggers. prefer to use it to support weight of birds in cages, above ground. Do you think the hardware cloth good enough? sure will mess with them being able to scratch & dig down to dust in dirt. may re-think & just go about 1-2 ft in from sides to discourage tunnels, and let birds still have dusting areas.....

I will tryout & test the different clamps I have, to see what it can withstand. may be able to coax my rottie to help me test it.

Yesterday I just read a blurb in the local paper about wildlife re-habbers.............one has re-habbed 75 RACCOONS.............Oh................my.............Gawd.......................if they had ANY idea of how destructive those suckers are, they'd have got the 22 and they would have been dispatched pronto. Some of these people just have no clue, they think there is no bad in any animal. Bet they'd have said that about Jeffrey Dahmer too..................

A great means of digger prevention and allowing your birds to have a natural dirt floor is having a sunken floor barrier under the dirt. The wire barrier keeps out the diggers but you put 5 inches of dirt over the top of it making sure there are no holes for the diggers to find to slip through. Kelly in Moxee

THANKS TONS!!!!! Working on it now - got too hot. Back to it in an hour or so. They like me messing around in there with them anyway. Might be a treat or two ya know! - lettuce, sunflower seeds, melons or dandelions. Just careful not to step where she may have laid eggs. Definitely don't want to find them that way.

DANG rodents!

Just going to put my two cents in here. We used orange snow fence or called construction fencing around our pens. For some reason it seems to keep raccoons out. Now to make a long story short, our next door neighbor (less than 500 ft away) has plain wire fencing around his house and garden to keep the critters and he trapped and killed 7 raccoons within the past year. We haven't seen ANY over here. We did have a young possum here that I killed this spring. No other critters seem to like our property.

We did have a bear resting in the woods just back of our place a few weeks ago. I guess it was waiting for the blackberries to start.

We no longer have a dog either so that is not the reason we have no critters. Besides when we did have Penny, she was confined to our immediate yard that is fenced with regular cyclone fencing. So, it might give you an idea to use orange fencing.

GG

I have quite a bit of some kind of black 1/2" vinyl or plastic netting (much like the orange- but the material is thinner). I was going to use it to keep the babes from hopping out through the 2" chicken wire. I can not break it with my hands. MIL was using as trellis for huge vines along wood post fence. Held them up quite well.

You think that will work too? maybe i will test with rottie. I got some treats she will die for & coax her to put all her weight on. I have 2 carports. May try both ways. This wiring is very time consuming & horrible to do in heat. Sure wish it were spring again! Oh well, back to it once the sun goes over the hill.

I will take any and all ideas. Two cents worth, can be life saver for another!!!

I don't know if the black will work or not. We have been using the orange to keep the deer from eating my white mulberry that they almost ate down to the ground. We also are using it around a garden that is aways from the house that they would get into if it was just plain netting. I tend to think it is the color that keeps them away.

GG

Thanks GG,

How is your Mink problem going Kelly? Hope you have been able to fend off the family.

I have another question. If a Mink, would I always smell it? If weasel or other rodent, would there be any smell at all? I know the peahen would kill a rat, vole or shrew.

Something is lurking in the snowberries. Not certain what it is - could even be a bird or two - but usually i can see them. They are quite a distance from the pen, however, sure it will find soon if it wants food....... I've got my shovels at the ready by the pen, just in case.

Found her eggs. Has two right now, so know no pest in at least 5 days, as she looks ready to lay again. HOPE, HOPE HOPE. Gonna get started again 1st thing in the am & have 2 very able 17yr old (men) to help tomorrow. So we should be able to make a lot of progress by noon, before it gets too hot,

Cheryl

Cheryl,

The mink population is still here unaffected except for the two that I clubbed. I saw one a couple days ago running from my garden where it had been hiding under my SalviaXSylvestris. I built the secure boxes to get the hens with babies into at night ... seems like that is adequate. However, I have half a dz the the heavy buckets and conibear traps; adequate to get rid of most of the skunks, cats and mink within 2 miles ... if I have the stomach for it. You might want to consider an offense (trapping the vermin) rather than a defense.

Plastic barrier wrap is NOT gonna have any effect against any of the several variety of weasels in your area (skunk, mink, raccoon). They'll chew through it like it was paper. Like GG said ... its meant for deer and the deer are not going to bother your poultry ... LOL.

Kelly in Moxee

Kelly, the ORANGE plastic snow fencing seems to have had an effect on the various critters besides deer. As I stated in the earlier post, my neighbor who doesn't have chickens and lives within 500 feet of us has been inundated with them whereas we have not. So, I will still say that it works for critters besides deer.

We live across the road from a large swamp which houses bear, coyote, skunk, badger, mink, weasel, raccoon, bobcat, possibly cougar and other predators. They have been killed all around here so I am not talking foolishly. So, now I will ask you a question...have you ever tried it?

GG

GG,

I can see the orange snow fencing keeping out coyotes and fox too ... but any product that can be easily chewed or gnawed through has a limited life and effectiveness against weasels or raccoons. Almost nothing will keep out a bear if it really wants in. The manufacturer isn't going to tell anyone the snow fencing is varmint proof ... they get sued into oblivion .... and then you wouldn't be able to buy your colorful snow fencing. Color doesn't have any effect on the nocturnal hunting habits of predators like raccoons or weasel or skunks. Most of those animals are color blind anyway. Kelly in Moxee

As for keeping night-time predators out, explain to me how since we have lived here for nine years, trapped about 6-7 raccoons a year for the first four, put the fencing up five years ago and haven't had any raccoons since it went up. In fact since we eat raccoon, we have our live trap set next door to trap those who go there instead of coming here.

As far as weasels go, as I stated, we have our share of them all around here, but haven't had a problem with them SINCE THE FENCE WENT UP!!!

And, as I asked, HAVE YOU TRIED IT????

GG

What does raccoon taste like?

Rabbit:0)

Chicken????? :>)

Raccoon. Like any other wild game, it can be gamy, but by par-boiling it with herbs and spices, it has a mild flavor not unlike wild hare, not rabbit.

GG

Cheryl,

I just caught up with this thread and wanted to give you my '2 cents' lol!

Is the peafowl cage in its permanent location? If so, why not dig a 4" wide trench around the exterior perimeter right along side your fencing and pour cement. that would stop the diggers.... maybe 12 inches deep? you could even put your chicken wire/hardware cloth into the cement. then you wouldnt need to fully cover the bottom of the pen area, and they could still scratch.

I admit I am not familiar with the animals you are trying to fend off. not sure what they are capable of... or how far they will tunnel under before they give up....

also, what about chain link enclosure with hardware cloth over that?

AnjL (sis)

GG,

The probability is that your traps are catching the animals that otherwise would be penetrating the orange snow fencing. Like I wrote ... the manufacturers know the limitations of their products. If that orange plastic were able to withstand chewing, time and the elements ... they'd advertise it as capable of keeping out weasels and other such animals.

Kelly in Moxee

Granny, you know the ablsoute BEST way to keep predators away is to not have places fo rthem to hide, not leave things out for them to eat, and have healthy stock... so there are lots of reasons why that has worked fo ryou. my neighbors get their guineas and chickens taken all the time by hawks and owls, and i never have... here is a picture of their birds...they stay cooped up in this small area o fdirt all the time. nothing has grown there for 20+ years. picture of health to a predator, or picture of easy kill?

While we usually don't take the time to "scrub" a thread (we usually just delete them because it takes a lot less time), I've done so in this case because there's quite a bit of helpful/useful information contained here.

So, if you find that any of your own post(s) were edited or deleted, please review our Acceptable Use Policy: http://davesgarden.com/aboutus/tos/ specifically paragraph 7:

TF, not having places for predators to hide...that is a laugh around here. You have to remember that we live in the middle of a state forest and across the road from a major swamp, so there are absolutely plenty of places for them to hide. Not leaving food for them to eat, don't do that, except for the bird feeders and deer feeder (for the bear), and yes, I do have healthy critters.

GG

Photographer, I am not going to bother with your short-sighted allusion. If you had read what I posted, you would have noticed that I said "we haven't had any problems with predators since we put the fence up". It has nothing to do with the trapping as the traps are not on our property!

Battle of the blogs ; ) (ok, I'll stop).

no blogging here! ^_^

OK, back to my peafowl cage repair. I have one corner I know the rascal got in through. It was a weak corner anyway & now it is totally messed up. I will be re-doing that area.

Budget is an issue for me right now. Thought: What if I use the 1/4" 19gauge hardware cloth on the bottom, then plastic 'wire' type netting above that? The critters would have to climb at least 2ft or 4ft up, then try to gnaw through the plastic, then get through the 2" chicken wire.

Any thoughts?

Back to working on that corner. Too hot to work much during the day -- after work too, so will be slow going.

Thanks!
Cheryl

Cheryl, it's possible for them to get through it, but they would have to work to do so. (anything is possible).

Keep working on that corner and you will eventually get it done.

GG

Cheryl, I may have leftover chain link.... :o) wanna come drive down and get some?! lol! you can pick up more mulch at the same time :o) lol!

are you using just what you have laying around or are you purchasing materials?

Thanks Granny, Thinking it might work. May get to that point & change my mind (again!) ^_^

Anjl, Yes, I am using what I have laying around -- quite a bit of stuff here for recycle & left over new. On the trip back to Calif, forget it! Had just about enough of this heat, certainly don't want to subject myself to more! LOL

Thanks, I will keep trudging along. Didn't want to do much tonight, as they are mating again. Want those babies. they are safe for now. Nothing (not even my wire cutters) can get through the temp fix, but looks horrible & won't last long.

what do you mean? Its nice and COOL here! I brought the 'good' weather back with me! nayner nayner!

did you find out WHAT is getting in?

No real clue yet.......more than likely, the Least Weasel. Too hot. This is why I left CA

PeaFowlAnjL,

You remind me of a Red Hot Chili Peppers hit song .... now what was the title?

Kelly in Moxee

Dani California?

Hi Kelly,

would that be the 'no clue' or the 'too hot'. truthfully, don't remember the song title, but hoping it is the 'too hot' (although no clue fits me well) LOL Sure it will come to me in the middle of the night sometime.....^_^

Cheryl

who are the red hot chili peppers?

Cheryl...did you get your question answered?

oneanjl, Joke ... right? #1 rock group @ Grammys last couple years. I was looking for title hit and album title from a 1999 release but I digress. People in the NW have a sorta natural distaste for the in - migration. Kelly

well, that explains it! I dont watch TV...and I'm a 'country' fan ;o) lol!

oneanjl,

I am more of a cw fan myself than the rock scene. My kids introduce me to the new rock groups. I either listen and appreciate of am driven out of the house. Kelly