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

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

Click to expand...

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

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.

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.

Click to expand...

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.

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.

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.