Chicken protection
Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 8:19 pm
Troy, I used some of the solar powered led christmas lights around my chicken pen to keep out the wild critters. It seems to be working so far (about 1.5 years).
Red christmas lights seem to work all night long when set to "flash"
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solar-200-LED-F ... 1c403ffd49
Rope lights - they also seem to last all night long on flash -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-LED-Solar-F ... 3a9cffdde4
Spot lights - these only last about 4 or 5 hours. What I did was to open two of them, cut one lead going to the leds from the solar panels. Then ran a long lead out which I connected to a 12 volt timer. The timer runs on a 12 volt battery that is charged by a 5 watt solar panel. The lights are connected, one to the normally open and the other to the normally closed connections. Then the timer is set to cycle at random times during the night, switching one light off and the other on. I set the random cycles so each light was on for half the time and that made them last all night. With the lights in different areas the wildlife thinks there is someone switching the lights and they run off! (or that's my guess)!
Spot lights - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Outdoor-Solar-P ... 3aa8ba8dc1
Hopefully someone else can come up with some things that may help you also. Plus, this may not work for wild domesticated animals, that is dogs and cats that someone has "dumped" in the area.
Red christmas lights seem to work all night long when set to "flash"
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solar-200-LED-F ... 1c403ffd49
Rope lights - they also seem to last all night long on flash -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-LED-Solar-F ... 3a9cffdde4
Spot lights - these only last about 4 or 5 hours. What I did was to open two of them, cut one lead going to the leds from the solar panels. Then ran a long lead out which I connected to a 12 volt timer. The timer runs on a 12 volt battery that is charged by a 5 watt solar panel. The lights are connected, one to the normally open and the other to the normally closed connections. Then the timer is set to cycle at random times during the night, switching one light off and the other on. I set the random cycles so each light was on for half the time and that made them last all night. With the lights in different areas the wildlife thinks there is someone switching the lights and they run off! (or that's my guess)!
Spot lights - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Outdoor-Solar-P ... 3aa8ba8dc1
Hopefully someone else can come up with some things that may help you also. Plus, this may not work for wild domesticated animals, that is dogs and cats that someone has "dumped" in the area.