The joy of living on a homestead comes with a cost. Those who homestead in a rural area can’t always rely on the police, so you should prepare for threats, like wild animals.
Adopting different means of protection is essential to protect your property. You’ll need to guard not only yourself but your property from people who have bad intentions.
There is also some risk of animal attacks on your livestock, such as coyotes. This is why you should implement a few security measures to ensure the property is safe year-round.
Some people think they need to go to the extreme and prepare as if SHTF is going to occur. However, implementing just a few security measures can do much more than you may think.
If you fully understand that you’ll have the time to care for a dog, or two, or three, large dogs will always be the best form of protection when you’re away from the homestead.
How to Secure Your Homestead Property?
1: Fencing
Building a fence around the property should be the first thing to consider. A fence around the perimeter of your property can prevent thieves from entering the area.
A fence signifies that the property is private, which is helpful considering not having one can be a blatant invitation for a thief.
Moreover, it will protect you and your livestock from wild animals entering the property. There is a wide variety of fence options, from simple wooden fences to electric fences.
Just make sure to keep checking your fence for a few days to see if it’s maintaining its structure well.
If you want even more protection, a chain-link fence with a strand of electrical fencing at the top and the bottom of the fence can be a good choice.
It will be a little pricier, but well worth it. Plus, solar panels should be able to power it all.
2: Lighting
Lighting is another essential feature that can be used for the safety and security of your homestead. Having a good amount of security lights at night helps promote safety.
It signalizes that the house is not empty and discourages people and animals from entering. Keep the lights on at all places like the barn, home, or walkway if you have one.
Don’t forget about motion sensors, which can be helpful to expose criminals before they get within 100 feet of your property.
You can hang them in hidden places that intruders would never suspect. It’s also helpful to light up dark spots, such as behind barns, near road entrances, and on the sides of the home.
Often, thieves prefer to sneak into a very dark area. If you light the area up, you eliminate most chances of the criminal walking around undetected.
3: Animals
To protect yourself, the best security measure by far is animals. From dogs and chickens to llamas, they all play a different role in the safety of your property.
First, they will help to alert you if someone or something invades your perimeters. Plus, large dogs like the caucasian shepherd can take down predators as large as brown bears or wolves.
If you encounter trespassers, they can protect you from a potential attack or stop them from further entering the property.
Guard dogs are a priceless security measure. Some breeds of dogs can be used for home protection as well as for hunting.
Chickens and llamas will let you know if someone enters the premises by making a loud noise.
4: Security Alarm
Animals are a good alarm against intruders, but installing a proper alarm system for your homestead is still recommended.
If you have multiple entry points, it might not be possible to have suitable security measures at them all.
Furthermore, you can keep your emergency contacts like 911 or neighbors on the auto dial-in wireless security alarms.
Just don’t wait until night to activate the alarm itself, as this predictable behavior can give an advantage to robbers.
5: Build an Underground Bunker
Building an underground bunker provides excellent safety measures in case of any life-threatening situation. Despite this, it necessitates tons of planning, preparation, and cost.
Unless you hire a professional for this work, this task will require much effort and time from you and fellow survivalists.
You can make a bunker in your basement and fortify the walls with bricks. In addition, you can link your security cameras and alarms to monitor the screen in that bunker.
This way, you can monitor all the corners and enter points of your house while staying in a safe place.
6: Set Up Security Cameras
Security cameras are an efficient measure that will keep the invaders away from your property. While choosing a homestead property to target, burglars look for security cameras in place.
For this reason, security cameras come as a threat and deterrent to not only criminals but anyone who enters or leaves your house.
The survey shows that the presence of security cameras is a major deterrent for home invasions.
When shopping for cameras, we recommend any that have night vision and rotation capability in them. If rotation capability isn’t built-in, an intruder can easily avoid getting caught on camera.
7: Install Bulletproof Windows
Last but not least, the final essential security measure you should implement for your homestead is bulletproof windows.
They not only protect against bullets but also from rocks or other heavy objects. You can buy bulletproof glass windows and install them yourself if you’re construction-savvy.
If not, then just find a company in your area to install it for you instead.
Another method is to fortify your windows with impact-resistant window film if this option is too pricey for comfort. This will hold the glass together if one attempts to break-in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cost for security setup
For example, installing bulletproof windows might lighten your pocket, but there are always cheaper alternatives. Instead of bulletproof windows, go for impact-resistant window film.
But keep in mind that to have a safe homestead, you will need to buy cameras, alarm sets, and animals. And this all comes with a cost. The additional cost is the installation cost.
Should I post warning signs?
Ensure those signs are large and quite visible for a distance so that anyone uninvited will know they’re unwelcome.
Since you have plenty of warnings in place, that gives you the right to take defensive measures.
Which breeds of dogs are best for protection?
For example, the strong Bullmastiff is known for its strength, courage, and extreme family loyalty.
In addition, a Doberman Pinscher is known as the fifth most intelligent dog breed to have as a guard dog and highly recommended.
Verdict
Security measures are essential to have a secure and safe homesteading experience.
Failure to have reasonable security measures in that place can end up in massive loss of livestock, property and even endanger your life.
If you plan to homestead, proper security measures should be taken beforehand.
First, have a secure boundary fence and then install security cameras and alarms to keep criminals away. A safe place or bunker is also essential in worst-case scenarios.
You may want to consider setting non-harmful boobie traps, such as a string connected to a trip alarm that would push out a siren or other loud noise if tripped.
This kind of trap could be placed near valuable items, near entrances, or by animal pens. Lastly, guns are also a great option.
