Hi Michael,
Having the "right" llama or donkey can be very helpful. Unfortunately
getting the "right" animal is not automatic. We have had three llamas. The
mature female wanted to kill the baby lambs. The mature male just adored
the baby lambs but ignored them when they reached weaning age.
Recover your immense costs? Probably never.
Isn't it a labor of love?
Especially for us, with the cost of hay. We hope that some day we break even.
But our son says it keeps us young, so there are health benefits.
That being said, we have free ranging chickens, guineas, and also raise dairy
We have two guardian dogs, who bark at predators randomly throughout
every night. So far, so good; We have not lost any stock. We also have
lots of fences with electric strand toppers.
But the costs involved in all of these protective measures begs the
question: How are we ever going to recov
We only have seven acres and we have three guardian dogs. One for ewes, one
for rams, and a third for a breeding group or sheep isolated for whatever
reason. We are the only farm in our neighborhood who has not lost livestock
to predators (we have cougar, coyote, bobcat, and eagles), and all our
Our fence is 48" Bekaert high tensile field fence, with a row of barbed wire
3-4" above that.
On the same posts (on perimeter fencing) we run a hot wire 7" from the ground,
powered by a high quality fence energizer. We have bungy gates at each gate.
In the last 3-4 years, we've only lost two l
I put a 4" pvc pipe on the top of the fence. Makes it nearly impossible to
scale as they have no traction to grab the top of the fence. I can further
elaborate if anyone is interested.
Jann
Sent from my iPhone
> On May 4, 2014, at 9:50 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
>
> I finally saw it as some l
I finally saw it as some list-members described: a full grown coyote run up to
my 4.5 foot tall fence and just scale it. It was last night after a previous
night coyote attack that killed my two beloved miniature Pygmy goats and harmed
my toe other pygmys. The sheep were unscathed. I know lesson