Predator prevention

Predator prevention is an important part of keeping livestock, here are a few tips and suggestions on how to keep a few different kinds of livestock safe.

Goats and sheep

In the United States mountain lions, bears, wolves, bobcats, coyotes, and sometimes foxes will all try to get unprotected goats and sheep.

Electric fencing is the most fail proof way to fence and protect goats and sheep, a 4 foot 3–5-thousand-volt fence will keep out all the mentioned predators, as long as there are no overhanging trees that one of the cats could climb up and over.

Livestock guard animals are also an option and are a good idea in areas where you can't or prefer not to use electric fences.

Livestock guard dogs are the most popular choice. There are some disadvantages, they are expensive to feed and require firm training. Also, a dog guards the livestock during the night by barking which may a problem if your neighbors are close.

Dakota, our German Shepherd meeting a Nigerian kid.

The advantages of a guard dog are, it will bond very strongly to the livestock and can be trusted to stay with and guard them all the time.

Donkeys can also be used as guardian animals, its best to get a female or a fixed male.

Donkeys guard by braying loudly to try to scare the predator away if that doesn't work the donkey will chase after the predator and rear up and come down on them with its front hooves (Our mini donkey proved he knew how to do that on one of our Kunes, Sprinkles, and our Border Collie. He will also try to sit on any new animals that he thinks are a threat.)

To protect our goats, we use a mini donkey and Premier1 electric goat netting. We also use the poultry netting and it works great too.

Alpacas and Lamas can also be used, but with uncertain results, I have heard they can be aggressive to goats.

Ducks and Chickens

Almost everyone who raises some type of bird will at some point have to deal with a predator attack. The easiest way to keep birds safe is to close them up securely at night. Preferably before dusk until after dawn, since most predators hunt during the late and early hours.

To keep bird predators (Foxes, weasels, bobcats, rats and stray dogs) out make sure any holes are no bigger than 1/4in and all windows are screened with hardware cloth. Weasels and snakes can get through chicken wire.

Electric fencing around the coop will keep even the most determined predators out.

If hawks are a problem you will need to either cover the run with wire or netting or put up a deterrent of some sort, birds of prey can only pick up small or young birds, so keep all chicks and ducklings out of sight until they are too big for a hawk to pick up.

Pigs

Almost nothing eats a pig the only things that might are grizzly bears, mountain lions and stray dogs. Dogs are the most problematic, since they kill for fun. Electric fencing should keep them all out, if stray dogs are a problem in your area make sure you use at least 4 foot high, 3–4-thousand-volt fencing.

Cows

I don't think anything other than a pack of grey wolves would eat a full-grown cow. Calves can be put in electric or barbed wire fencing.

Rabbits

A popular way to house rabbits is in a hutch, a hutched rabbit is pretty safe as long as the wire is small enough to keep snakes out.

We prefer to let our rabbits out in a pasture in the day and close them up in a hutch at night, we used 4-foot field fencing with chicken wire bent in half along the bottom to keep the rabbits from digging under, and to keep predators out.

Hawks are the biggest problem with free range rabbits, so it's important to either give the rabbits things to hide under, or you can also put netting over the enclosure to keep the hawks away. We give our rabbits a low table,2 planters on legs (we also use these for growing fresh greens) and they have a few trees in their pen too.

Foxes may sometimes be a problem for rabbits, you can put a strand of electric fencing around the outside of the fence to keep the foxes away (I would not recommend electric fencing that the rabbits can touch since rabbits are prone to heart attacks, and if the rabbit touched the electric fence and got a heart attack that would defeat the whole purpose of the fence)