Electric Wires

Has anyone ever used electric wire fencing to keep chickens, ducks, geese in? I'm talking about the electric fence you would use for cattle, sheep, etc. I was thinking about using this since we use it for our cattle and sheep. Instead of buying the electric netting itself. I was thinking maybe using at least 3 or 4 strands of wire close to the ground about 3 or 4 inches apart from each strand. Has anyone ever done something like this? Any info is great. Thanks yall.

NO! NO! NO! Don't use electric wire for your chickens! Chicken wire is the appropriate thing to use for chickens (it's in the name). If you use electric wire, it could stress your birds out when they get electrocuted and it could cause them to stop laying eggs. Depending on the voltage, the bird's small bodies may not be able to handle the electric shock.

What if you use like a low voltage charger? Where are some good places online to buy electric netting? None of our feed stores here have em. What sort of chargers would you need to use for the electric netting?

My ducks get shocked all the time, and don't seem to care. The feathers make them pretty good insulators, so they don't get much from it, unless they go face/beak to wire. My ducks are 4lb Indian runners, which are smaller than most people's chickens. The dogs get it way worse.

My fencing is polywire with a 10 Mile/10K volt charger.


Amperage kills, not voltage. Electric fence chargers put out almost no amperage (100 millivolts typically).


Really old fence chargers worked differently than modern ones, and were dangerous (lots of them were constant on, instead of pulse, were higher amperage, etc).

Are you using the wire for the free-ranging or the actual coop?

Which one? The electric wire? For the electric wire fence we use for our cattle and sheeps. My chickens, ducks, turkey, and geese all free range. I want to confine them in a way so they aren't all over the place.

Okay, if you just want to confine them, then there is absolutely no need for electric wire. Go to your local supply store and buy some chicken wire. If you don't know what it looks like, I'm sure you can ask someone there and they will assist you. Trust me, chicken wire works great and is the best option for your birds.

Well I mean i want to be able to move em around our pasture. I don't want to fully confine em in one spot. I want to move em behind our cattle to clean up to cow pies and such.

Okay, research chicken tractors. These are pens in which you can move around the yard to different areas to allow them to eat different things and have a more balanced diet. They work great for situations like yours.

Sorry I didn't tell you I have that. I have my two geese in there for now. I have my 12 chickens and turkey in the coop, and 13 ducks in the coop as well. I am wanting to separate the ducks since they are all different breeds and I want to breed em to have purebred ducks. I am looking for a way to temporarily keep my fowls in an area to forage and be safe from dogs, cats and other lurking predators. I am also looking to move them around our pastures because they are just everywhere and it takes me awhile to get them all back in at night. I may keep the chickens in the coop and let them free range however they'd like but the ducks and geese I would like to keep em confined so that they aren't all over the property but in an area where they can eat bugs and grass and such.We don't want to use chicken wire because it would have to be permanent. Which we don't want that because we let our cattle graze where we want to keep our ducks and geese. So I am looking for different ways to keep my birds in and keep em safe but also move em around the pastures.