180? "Fence" Keeps Raccoons Out

180? "Fence" Keeps Raccoons Out FENCING Fence Systems 30-1-21 Keeping raccoons out of sweet corn is like keeping ticks off a dog if you live in the woods. It can't be done unless you keep them inside all the time. That's why Dan Taylor built a chicken wire hoop house for his corn patch. "About the time the corn would get ripe, the raccoons would get it," says Taylor. "With this hoop house, we didn't lose a single ear." Taylor used circular frames from two trampolines to build what he calls a 180 degree fence. He took them apart to create four 7- to 8-ft. tall, half circle hoops. Then he mounted them in place and covered them with chicken wire. Before setting the hoops in place, Taylor laid cement blocks on the lower side of the gently sloping garden bed. The blocks served to level the bed. He then set the frames in place and tied metal pipes and PVC pipes from his scrap pile perpendicular to the frames at about the 2-ft. and 6-ft. heights. These cross members help to hold the frames upright, give the structure rigidity and provide support for the chicken wire covering. "The chicken wire was the biggest expense," says Taylor. "I just used long nails to pin the lengths of chicken wire together and tied it to the hoops and pipes." He drove metal posts into the ground every ten feet or so to secure the bottom of the house on the lower side. On the upper side, the hoops and the wire were secured to a dog pen that runs alongside. "I had some old 4 by 4's and used them to frame up doorways on the ends of the structure, then built gates to fit," says Taylor. "I even put a clasp on the gates so I can lock the raccoons out." After harvest, the hoop house serves double duty as a chicken run. Taylor moves a portable chicken coop up to one doorway and lets the chickens in. "They scratch and eat insects and seeds and fertilize the garden," says Taylor. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dan Taylor, 19123 W 59 St., Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66218 (ph 913 441-1384).

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