I love this thing! It is very well-designed and well-crafted, and best, it carries an IP44 rating under the international electrical standards commission (IETP) codes, so that means that the motor enclosure and the power switch are fully rated for use in wet areas and for outdoor use (since I use my Air Dancer outside, in my poultry pen, I plug the cord into a GFCI-protected outlet,just to have one more layer of protection against possible electric shock...). So, here's the story: I have a bunch of pet chickens, geese and ducks who live free range in an outdoor pen (yes, they have two shelters/houses inside the pen for sheltering at night, etc.). Since I live in a remote rural area on a forested mountainside, there are lots of predators around, and so I have a 5 ft. high welded wire fence with added electric fencing surrounding the poultry pen, along with a very powerful and very reliable electric fence charger, to keep all of the 4-footed predators, such as fox, bobcats, raccoons, opossums, and bears out of the pen. However, particularly in late winter and early spring, that is, until the weather warms up -- which not only puts foliage on the trees, which serves to deter the airborne predators from flying down into the pen, but which also results in an abundance of small wild animals that the airborne predators would far prefer to my birds -- I have had, for years now, a continual problem with occasional predation of my birds by airborne predators such as hawks, falcons, and eagles. Well, this current late-winter/early spring has been particularly bad, and I have already lost two hens and one duck to a very heavy and large hawk with a wingspan of well over 4.5 feet. This rate of loss is excessive, and so I realized, a few weeks ago, that I needed to do something about it. Therefore, I came here to Amazon and ordered four large scarecrow owls to replace the one very old and rapidly-aging large scarecrow owl that had been in the pen, and I placed each owl on a perch about 8 to 10 feet above ground, such as fencepost tops, and on poles. I also purchased, and installed a bunch of those shiny reflective aluminized disks designed to move and spin in the wind, hopefully causing sufficient flashing light to scare off airborne predators. Well, three days after I had installed all of these new defenses in the poultry pen, I looked out my kitchen window and realized that my giant majestic hawk was back, and that he was sitting atop a pole in the pen and staring at the dead body of one of my hens that he had killed a few minutes earlier. So, I went running outside to try to scare off the hawk, and he waited calmly for me on his perch in the pen. As I approached him, he complimented me on the four large scarecrow owls that I had purchased and installed, and told me that they were beautiful, and essentially works of art. He also complimented me on the numerous shiny flashing reflective metalized disks that I had hung around the pen, and told me that they too were beautiful works of art. He further told me that he loved to sit on his perch above my poultry pen and admire the four large plastic owls and the numerous shiny flashing disks hanging on trees around the pen, and told me that they were very soothing to look at. I eventually managed to scare him away, but my poor dear hen was dead; she had been lying dead on the ground for several hours. So I went back to the drawing board, and started to do some REALLY SERIOUS due diligence (research) on the whole matter of how to REALLY SERIOUSLY deter really brave and determined airborne predators such as hawks, eagles and falcons who had IQs higher than Einstein's and thus were not deterred by ordinary hawk/eagle deterrents such as large plastic owls and shiny reflective disks hanging from trees. Unfortunately, all of the articles I found on the web simply offered the same old rehashed ideas, such as using very realistic large plastic owls, and using shiny metalized reflective disks hanging from trees and fences, and, of course, none of those things had worked for me at all, at least not during the wave of very heavy predation that I have been experiencing here this year! That night, as I sat in meditation, my angels came to me and suddenly, in my mind's inner eye, I saw a vivid image of one of those air-blower-powered "stick men", sometimes called air tube puppets or air tube dancers, that are often used for promotional purposes. A few minutes later, sitting at my PC, I did some really deep research and discovered that the vast majority of farmers and ranchers who have tried to use these things in and around farm fields and livestock pens for deterring not only airborne predators, but also large predators such as bobcats, raccoons, opossums, mountain lions , bears, wild dogs, and even wild horses, have witnessed some very amazing successes! So, I did some research on Amazon, and then ordered this air dancer (I got the tube man in red color). Well, now that it has arrived and is in daily use (and will be until the foliage comes back on the trees, which will be in 2 to 3 weeks from now) -- it works great! I turn it on a bit before sunrise, and turn it off a bit before sunset, and it works totally and perfectly to deter all airborne predators. Hopefully, the crows who visit the poultry pen to borrow some food, and also the songbirds and mourning doves, will quickly become accustomed to the air dancer, and will not be scared away by it. BTW, if you can get crows to visit your poultry pen, you are lucky, because not only are they very happy birds, but they hate hawks, and will often chase hawks away. Personally, I really love the crows who visit my poultry pen, as do my birds. BTW, because I have some minor concerns about the noise level of this 10 foot tall model, with the 1/2 HP motor, I have also ordered the smaller 6 ft model, which has a 1/4 HP motor, and is therefore quieter, and I am going to start playing with using the 6 foot version to see if it alone offers sufficient protection!
