Coyotes and Fencing opinions

[Xfaxman]

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I can get 30 foot lengths of drill pipe for under a buck a foot. That's cheaper then T posts. I'm thinking pipe will also be stronger.

But it won't last long if it had salt water run through it.

Good info: How to Buy Pipe - A Guide to Pipe Buying - GoBob Pipe and Steel

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you, that's a very interesting article. I'm going to have to rethink using that bargain pipe I've been looking at on Craigslist for a buck a foot.

 

[Xfaxman]

Unfortunately I have first hand experience with pipe fence posts rusting through from the inside. It happened several years after the fence was installed.

Don't have pictures, but it was worse than the picture above from GoBob Pipe.

The repair does show in this V518 picture from 2009, before it got painted.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Then the wild hogs will hit it and tear it apart. My guess is that they hit it, and then run straight through it. I have a box full of spare parts because they get broken so often.

While a hot wire around the perimeter of the 8 foot fence would be different, it would still have it's list of issues. It will probably keep coyotes away most of the time, but I do not believe it will work consistently. And there lies the problem. It has to keep them out all of the time.

I agree with you on these points also. Since you have the trencher, I again agree that burying a fence is a reasonable option (and it will work for a few years at least) to laying mesh flat on the ground. You need not back fill with "nice" soil either. You could put some stuff in there that would deter animals from continuing to try - like broken glass. It is on the boundary line so is never going to be cultivated up to the surface.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

1. If you are going to bury fence material there is only one, just one I would recommend. That's 9 gauge GAW (galvanized after weaving) chainlink. The best place to find what you need is scrap yards and what you want is six feet material. you can cut it down to three feet height with bolt cutters and bury a foot with your trencher. I would place my posts in the trench line for the fence itself.

2. Any non-galvanized pipe is going to rust no matter what. You can go out and about and see all kinds of drill stem post wire fencing and after five plus years you will see a very interesting phenomenon. What you will see is the rust migrating from the post and eating the wire. The post can be painted but if you nick the paint installing the wire you will have rust and it will eat the wire.

3. About forty years ago I was called out to solve a problem with a dog getting out of a pen. The pen was a thirty by thirty pen with six foot chainlink topped with three strands of smooth instead of barb wire.

I installed a hot wire. I sat in my truck afterwards and the client turned the Australian Shepard cross loose and it hit the fence, ignored the hot wire, and was free.

I tried the wire, got bit. I soaked the ground and fence with water and we did it again with the same results. I pulled the hot wire and admitted defeat.

A week later I came back. I had 45 degree braces made with chainlink tension bars. I attached these two the fence posts on the inside. I then stretched stucco (heavy chicken wire) wire on the new frames. We turned the dog loose. It hit the fence about six or eight times and fell back every time. My logic was the dog doesn't have fingers so it can't go up and out and make the transition to over. I was right.

It was a pretty moment for me personally. Some years later I saw an article in world fence news showing a similar designed method to contain foxes at a reserve.

4. Hot wires work, one top out far enough so that they have to contact it while climbing the fence. The other is at the bottom. The issue with hot wires is they are a constant maintenance issue, daily during the spring summer months.

I used to install hot wires for containing dogs and never charge for the charger because I would leave one for two weeks and the dog was trained, end of story. Goats and cows on the other hand will test hot wires constantly and if down will walk right through.

5. Dogs only jump short fences. They climb anything over five feet, especially coyotes.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I freakin' hate spell check.

 

[OldMcDonald]

I freakin' hate spell check.

Turn it off.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you. I'm still going back and forth on the trench idea. I like it because I can put my fence right on my property line, which is the edge of a gas pipeline that is always mowed. It's 50 feet wide and there will never be a tree any closer to my fence on the neighbors side then that 50 feet.

I think that both methods should work find for keeping coyotes out. Laying it flat and tying it to the bottom of the fence like in the picture when I started this thread, or digging the trench and burying the fence two feet down.

What's bothering me the most right now is how much more will it cost in money for longer posts that will have to be set in the ground starting at the bottom of the trench. How much strength is lost doing it this way?

Am I overthinking this and should I just go with the most common method of laying the wire flat on the ground, and not digging trench that will require longer posts? The negative to this is the loss of 3 feet of land. It's still mine, but there might be some advantage to owning both sides of the fence. I never have to ask permission to go on the other side of the fence, and I can spray round up 3 feet out without touching my neighbors land.

Fortunately, I still have plenty of time to think on all this because the rains have made it impossible to clear the fence line.

 

[CurlyDave]

I would give up the 3 feet and go with the tried and true method.

But, I would test it first by making a small enclosure with something very attractive to coyotes inside and see it it works before I did the whole property. Think about something cheap and not very exotic. Two young tethered goats comes to mind for a test.