# Official Poll: How do you protect your livestock from predators?



## Support

Whether we like it or not, predators are always lurking around our beloved livestock and they are HERE TO STAY. So here's the million dollar question, how do you protect your livestock from predators?

Please take a minute to complete this poll and tell us how you protect your livestock from predators. After voting, you can reply to this thread and expand on your reason.

If your answer isn't listed, you can vote for "Others" and reply to this thread with your answers.


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## samssimonsays

We have our "LGD's" that are pretty much house pets as we got the dogs as family pets NOT working dogs but they are the proper breed for herding/LGD (Collie and Saint Pyrenees) and both have natural instincts and know what they should be doing. They are with them during the day and with us at night but their smell in and around the goat area/property has been enough of a deterrent. We have a sturdy pen they are in with a nice shelter and the goats would start bellering if anything were to go on which would sound the alarm for the dogs who would in turn wake us up and we would bring the guns to battle if need be. So far, we have not had any predator issues (KNOCK ON WOOD) but if we were to I would be purchasing an LGD to live full time with the goats. I would like to get a cat full time to live with the rabbits as they will tame down the mouse population and also protect against predators for them as well such as weasels. I should add that we have 2 goats in a small pen with a sturdy shelter that have free range while we are home. All rabbits are protected via a building but nothing is 100%.


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## mikiz

Not sure cats living with rabbits would be a great idea to be honest. No doubt they'd take more interest in your caged rabbits than in the elusive mice?


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## samssimonsays

mikiz said:


> Not sure cats living with rabbits would be a great idea to be honest. No doubt they'd take more interest in your caged rabbits than in the elusive mice?


LOL true. But the cat I had living out there originally did great. Paid no attention to the rabbits or babies when they would escape (I had one litter who was escape artists last year). Unless of course it was cold enough, then she'd want in the cage and I would leave one cage open to her favorite rabbit and they would snuggle for warmth. But She was a rescue and we gave her a temporary home because the local rescue refused to take her because she was a cat with frostbitten ears and would be hard to rehome... We found her a great home because she kept peeing in my hay bales... BIG no no. Even the dogs, Collie and Saint Pyrenees, can be trusted to be out in the yard with the rabbits while they are running and eating grass. They are never left unsupervised of course but They were their original livestock and have been raised around them.


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## Southern by choice

For us the LG Dogs was the only choice. They are easily moved, can go deep into the woods easily when we set our wire up for the goats to forage etc.

We also wanted our poultry completely protected. The hawks don't even come in.

Everything on our farm is covered by our LGD's. 

I also like wildlife and really prefer to keep that balance. The dogs keep things out and take care of what decides to come in... we need coons and possums to keep the field mice down, the fox to keep the rabbit population in check and so on... we just don't want them in our chicken houses or snatching them from our fields. 

The coyotes are just a pain no matter how you look at it... could do without them.


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## OneFineAcre

Number 1 fencing we have permanent woven wire
Number 2 LGD's live with our animals
Number 3  not squeamish about shooting a coyote
We have a pretty high concentration on a large track behind me but there is a horse farm in between and a lady who keeps a .243 on her tractor when she mows and she smokes them fairly regularly for me


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## Support

Great input guys!

Let's keep on sharing. We are learning a ton of things here.


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## samssimonsays

OneFineAcre said:


> Number 1 fencing we have permanent woven wire
> Number 2 LGD's live with our animals
> Number 3  not squeamish about shooting a coyote
> We have a pretty high concentration on a large track behind me but there is a horse farm in between and a lady who keeps a .243 on her tractor when she mows and she smokes them fairly regularly for me


 Sounds like me! This absolutely made my day reading this.


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## frustratedearthmother

I'm with ya'll...good fences, good dog(s), and a good gun, even though I can't imagine needing to use a gun since we've had Maddie!


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## butteryscotch

For me and my family, we used a Maremma dog to guard our 50 free ranging chickens (and sheep that we picked up along the way (funny story about that actually, but that's for another time)). Worked for about 6 years, until we were no longer in a practical position to keep the chickens around. 
I couldn't rate them more highly.


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## Support

It seems that using LGDs are the most preferred method by many.


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## Ridgetop

_*Properly trained LGDs are the best protection by far. *_ If you have small children and predators they will protect the family members too.  We got our first LGD about 30 years ago and have only been without one for several years when we didn't have any livestock.  We started with a Maremma Shar cross (all we could find back then and had him shipped in as a pup) then added a Pyr a couple years later to help out. Our dogs were all Pyrs for many years until the last one.  Because of roaming issues we had with all our Pyrs, we checked out other breeds and switched to an Anatolian.  Love, love, love her!  She does a great job.  Eventually when she is 6 or 7 we will get another younger one to help her.

We bring the sheep in at night to a 3 1/2 sided pole barn but before we had guardian dogs, the rabits and goats were attacked in the barn even though we have yard lights that burn all night, and the barn is only 30 feet from the house.  (We have large house dogs too.)  After getting our LGDs we had one more attack on the rabbits about 15 years later, when a pack of 6 or 8 huge husky type dogs killed our 13 year old LGD and drove off the 1 year old LGD (she was the runt of the litter and only weighed about 70 lbs full grown).  The pack was resting in our field in the morning and we used our guns then.  The city finally had to get involved in getting rid of this pack - they were owned by a neighborhood woman who was breeding huskies with Pyrs to make giant dogs!  They were mean and only left our property when we started shooting them.  Even though we live in town we were told by animal control to take our guns with us when we went to the barn (30' from the house!) because this pack had killed a herd of 6 goats, a flock of 12 sheep, an entire aviary of chickens, pheasants, etc., lots of local dogs, and all the farm animals at a school for disabled children!  They also killed a miniature horse and her foal.

Poison is illegal here, and we don't like poison even for rats because our local raptors eat them and get poisoned.  We lost an aussie x queensland pup when our neighbor started poisoning rats.  We use barn cats for rats.  Our animal shelter has a feral cat program where they will bring out feral cats that have been fixed, and give you a cage, litter box, food, etc. for 3 weeks while the cats get used to the barn.  Then you release them and they live out their lives as wild creatures and control the rats in the barn.  We just got 3 since we are finding lots of drowned rats in our livestock water barrels. 

Fences are useless against coyotes since they can jump a 6' fence from a standstill.  Since we are on a steep hillside, holes under our fences are a naturally occurring event.  We attach short lengths of 6' chain link fencing to the bottoms of our perimeter fences to keep our dogs in and predators out. We let the chain link trail several feet onto the ground inside the fence.  Weeds and brush eventually grow though it, anchoring it to the ground as good as a concrete foundation!  We have used hot wires, but you have to check them physically frequently and our steep hillside fences are almost impossible to get to on a weekly basis.  if the wire grounds out, you have to do an inch by inch check. 

A well trained LGD that does the job and is a loving family member too is indispensable.  I think they are the number 1 animal on the farm.  Our daughter was telling her mother-in-law the other day that every animal on our place has a job.  Cats catch mice, sheep do fire clearance and put meat in our freezer, rabbits feed us, and the dogs protect the livestock and us, and we feed them all.  We have a great symbiotic relationship with all our animals!  Oh yes, and their poop fertilizes our vegies!  LOL


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## Alta Loma Ladies

I HATE yotes, a pack of 5 can cost a lot of $$ quick.  We have some big ones down here--minus 1.


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## Ridgetop

An ounce or 2 of lead is definitely permanent - for coyotes and marauding strays.  No repeat offenders!  Shoot, shovel, and shut up as they say.  (except on this site among friends LOL!)


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## animalmom

Ridgetop said:


> An ounce or 2 of lead is definitely permanent - for coyotes and marauding strays.  No repeat offenders!  Shoot, shovel, and shut up as they say.  (except on this site among friends LOL!)



Amen to that!


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## Poka_Doodle

My protection doesn't always work so well as she is also a pet dog and getting older


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## GLENMAR

We have dusk to dawn lights on the outside of the barns to light up the barnyard at night. 3 LGD take care of the goats and warn predators to stay away from the barnyard. I also keep a radio playing 24/7 in the barn. I enjoy music while doing chores, and I think it helps keep wild things away at night.


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## Poka_Doodle

Poka_Doodle said:


> My protection doesn't always work so well as she is also a pet dog and getting older


I also use my brothers spotting the coyote and there protection. We saw 1 about 1/2 hour after I made that post


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## Alta Loma Ladies

GLENMAR said:


> We have dusk to dawn lights on the outside of the barns to light up the barnyard at night. 3 LGD take care of the goats and warn predators to stay away from the barnyard. I also keep a radio playing 24/7 in the barn. I enjoy music while doing chores, and I think it helps keep wild things away at night.


I do the same thing, had a tv out there for a while, until a bird flew into it.  rg's


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## Ridgetop

We have bright yard lights too, but our LGD is the reason I sleep sound at night.


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## cjc

We struggle with coyotes. When we have lambs we lock them in their shelter at night which is very sturdy and near impossible for them to get into. The pigs really stand their own haha but we use cattle gates as fencing around their pen and we find the coyotes cannot jump over the fencing because of the rounded edges. We do have a donkey which we have seen to be a great protection animal but ours is way too friendly and thinks anything that looks like a dog is a friend. We have just added a Giant Rat Terrier aka Decker Hunting Terrier. He is 35lbs and we haven't seen anything we didn't want on the property since we got him. He is always on the prowl! Our chickens are in a secure coop at night and we haven't had any issues with them...our biggest day predator for the chickens are owls, hawks and eagles.

There was a cougar last month that was spotted a few doors down from us that took out a yearling cow one night and a goat and a llama the next!


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## TIPPY THE HIPPY

We have trail cameras mounted to get photos of trespassers and or predators. That way, when we shoot a dog for damages, we can prove it was that dog who did said damage.


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## Bonnie Jo

I put up predator lights at all of the gates and vulnerable places around the pasture.  It's a red blinking light that is supposed to keep coyotes etc. away because they are afraid of humans.  So far no predators.  Don't know if it's the light or the dogs or the well built fence, but I figured you can't be too careful.


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## Bonnie Jo

Oh, and we have a good gun as well.


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## bonbean01

Coyotes are crazy here this summer....a large tract of woods were cleared for soy bean fields and deer and coyotes moved forward...as in our back property.  Have a field fence ....only 4 feet tall I think...and three strands of hotwire on the outside of that....and our LGD is only 1 year old but barks like a grown dog....and all sheep are in paddock and off pasture for the night....flood lights...not sure what else to do...so far we have not had a loss, but losing much sleep over it.  Thinking I should look into those red blinking lights also?


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## Bonnie Jo

bonbean01 said:


> Coyotes are crazy here this summer....a large tract of woods were cleared for soy bean fields and deer and coyotes moved forward...as in our back property.  Have a field fence ....only 4 feet tall I think...and three strands of hotwire on the outside of that....and our LGD is only 1 year old but barks like a grown dog....and all sheep are in paddock and off pasture for the night....flood lights...not sure what else to do...so far we have not had a loss, but losing much sleep over it.  Thinking I should look into those red blinking lights also?



You can look them up on amazon.  There are mixed reviews, but I read about them on a guinea fowl sight.  Guinea fowl are notoriously stupid and are often taken by predators.  This woman who had the predator lights said she hadn't lost any birds\livestock yet.  She thought it was due to the lights so I bought some and gave it a whirl.


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## greybeard

Primarily, a Weatherby .270 with a Nikon Monarch 3-9X40 scope.
Backups...
SKS 7.62x39
12 ga Mossburg pump 
20 ga Mossberg pump for the wife if I'm not home.
Ruger superblackhawk in .44 mag


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## Kelly Wolf

We have a John Donkey (gelded donkey) and a Great Pyranees. While they are both family pets, they have their jobs to do and spend 100% of their days and nights with the critters (sheep, cow(s) and chickens)

Both the donkey (Tucker) and the Pyranees (Haley) are wonderful at their respective jobs ... I have seen them hold off a small rout of coyotes long enough for me to get the shotgun and make the varmits reluctant to return.    They earn their keep daily and I wouldn't trade either of them for anything.


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## Lilythefarmer

Normaly I put fence around my garden but I have a snake that slips through but for my rabbits I am planning of buliding a shed for them, and I got inspired for getting a chicken so I might have rabbits  and chickens


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## Beekissed

Primarily, the dogs...they are always on guard.   That takes care of wild preds.  The crows help keep the hawks at bay, as does developing a flock that is wary and has good survival instincts out on range and having plenty of duck and cover. 

Then there are the homestead firearms for backup.  Usually those are used on stray dogs, as that is the one thing my dog is much too friendly towards.  We've not lost any to strays yet due to vigilance on this matter.  

We are surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland and have the usual suspects all around us but have lost not one to any four legged predators and only a few to hawks~my fault for hatching chicks in the fall, right before a hawk migration~in the last 10+ years of free ranging.


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## KellyK

We have security cameras with night vision. Also the dogs are out on the wireless collars day and night. When not running around the pens they are in the pen with the goats. And my sons love to pee in random places around the property.


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## OneFineAcre

This rabbit sure learned not to mess with the goats.  Mikey don't play no bunny games


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## Moody

Lol, darn rabbits pestering those goats!

My does have a 3 sided barn with a dirt floor. Something could dig under it, I suppose but that thing would have to go over our 4 ft fence or under it on one side with open field next to it that I haven't yet put Hotwire on the inside of, yet. I want hot wire on the top, too. I have one wacky chicken living up there with my milking does. Spotted it last night roosting on top of my Nubian. That chicken didn't do well with the rest of the flock, but staying inside with us longer than he already did was not an option. The only chick I managed to hatch and survive out of 20. My pet chicken. 



My buck pen is maybe 30'x 30' and has goat fencing on 3 sides, field fencing on the last side, it also has a strand of electric wire on the inside about 5 " up, the out side about 4" up and the top, inside about even with the fence. I have to keep coyotes out, but also goats off the fence so it isn't falling down prematurely. 

I have 2 outdoor dogs (they killed my Nigerian wether) so I have to mainly protect the herd from them BUT they keep most other troublemaking varmints away. 

I also have 2 mini donkeys pastured on the one side of the pen so they keep things scared away, too. 

I would love an lgd but have had issues with the 2 dogs I have so can't bring in a working dog until they leave us naturally (husband is attached to these 2).


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## schmije

We have a guard llama to protect our goats, alpacas, chickens, and a non-guard llama.  She's always on the lookout for predators, and everybody runs to hide when she alerts, even when she sometimes alerts over unimportant things like a cat or a deer.


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## secuono

We have LGDs, good solid fencing, hot wire, traps and guns when necessary. And then me flailing around while chasing off a young black bear last month.  
I prefer they avoid coming here than having to trap or kill any.


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## Jagsun

Support said:


> Whether we like it or not, predators are always lurking around our beloved livestock and they are HERE TO STAY. So here's the million dollar question, how do you protect your livestock from predators?
> 
> Please take a minute to complete this poll and tell us how you protect your livestock from predators. After voting, you can reply to this thread and expand on your reason.
> 
> If your answer isn't listed, you can vote for "Others" and reply to this thread with your answers.


We successfully use donkeys to keep dingoes away from our stock.


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## Kallymaiden

My primary is a strong pen and house that can be closed down tight if needed.  We have two dogs who are alert and motion-detector flood light on the barn near the goat house.


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## Bayle

Kelly Wolf said:


> We have a John Donkey (gelded donkey) and a Great Pyranees. While they are both family pets, they have their jobs to do and spend 100% of their days and nights with the critters (sheep, cow(s) and chickens)
> 
> Both the donkey (Tucker) and the Pyranees (Haley) are wonderful at their respective jobs ... I have seen them hold off a small rout of coyotes long enough for me to get the shotgun and make the varmits reluctant to return.    They earn their keep daily and I wouldn't trade either of them for anything.





Just curious, do the donkey and Pyranees live in the same enclosure together? I've wondered if a donkey could learn to live with a dog, and not attack it.


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## Queen Mum

A couple weeks ago, there was a femaie coyote in the field next to my goats trying to get into the feed barn where the dogfood was kept.  She was clearly trying to feed her pups by stealing dog food which she had been doing for several nights in a row till we closed the steel door at night. She didn't try to get at the goats because of the electric fence and she left the cows alone because the dogs would have made short work of her as would have the cows, since she was alone. But the donkeys cornered her and were kicking the daylights out of the poor thing.  Yay for donkeys.


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## HomesteaderWife

I voted "Other", as we trap predators here. Even though we just have chickens, ducks, and rabbits right now in one area...we still maintain trapping as a way to control/keep numbers down on the predator population. A part of this is shooting them, so we do use our .22 as a means of protection too.


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## srfotog

The best guards of all: four German Shepherds. No deer, no raccoons, no coyotes, no mountain lions. Nothing comes onto my farm including the two-legged kind that I don't invite. Shepherds are so smart they remember anyone who is my friend.


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## craigery

I actually have 8' fencing around one pasture area, since I discovered that coyotes can easily jump six foot high fences (there are Youtube videos which show coyotes easily going over 6' fences).  I used two 4' high "no climb" fencing nailed to 10 foot long 4x4 posts.  I also put some 1' x 1' concrete squares ($1 each from Lowes or Home Depot) around sandy areas that dogs might dig in.  I didn't have the time to dig down 2' and put in wire mesh to prevent that.  So far, so good, although before I had the fence I did lose two sheep.


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## Southern by choice

craigery said:


> I actually have 8' fencing around one pasture area, since I discovered that coyotes can easily jump six foot high fences (there are Youtube videos which show coyotes easily going over 6' fences).  I used two 4' high "no climb" fencing nailed to 10 foot long 4x4 posts.  I also put some 1' x 1' concrete squares ($1 each from Lowes or Home Depot) around sandy areas that dogs might dig in.  I didn't have the time to dig down 2' and put in wire mesh to prevent that.  So far, so good, although before I had the fence I did lose two sheep.



Welcome to BYH! 

After reading that I thought no way...  I will take my LGD's


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## Scooby308

Coyotes and gray foxes can climb as well. Cut the over hanging limbs.


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