Electric Fencing + Child Safety

[AnnPann]

I'm blown away by how many use electric fencing. I have lots of predators around our rural property - the worst offenders are coyotes and foxes. Not many raccoons as we don't have any trees in the area. We lost a chick to a fox a couple weeks ago. We also have a lot of hawks at various times of the year. I have heard of bobcat sightings here and there, but I have not seen one in the 2 years I've lived here.

I respect everyone has a different way of handling predators, but trapping/relocating or eliminating the predators is not something I'm willing to do.

My hens are not happy about not being able to free range right now, so I'm working on plans for a larger, protected run. We are training our dog to alert us and chase off predators, but she's not outside all the time.

So my current plan for their new run is:

• 6' fence using chicken wire or HWC (to keep chickens in).
• with HWC skirt (to keep out diggers)
• topped with an electric barrier (to keep foxes and coyotes from jumping over)
• netting of some sort (for hawks)

It's a large area (25'x50') so I'd prefer to do chicken wire or something cheaper than HWC. I will have a 9x20 run that is fully secured (with HWC) all around that will connect via a gate to this space.

Has anyone done something similar that either worked well (or failed)?

For those of you who use electric fence who also have kids. I have a 2 elementary aged kids who help with caring for the flock and frequently visit them during the day (without supervision). My solution needs to be kid-friendly - I don't want to just hope they remember to not shock themselves.

 

[sdm111]

Teach your kids to not touch and if they do they'll only so it once and I bet they learn. Additionally the predator needs to touch the wire and ground itself to shock. It won't shock if they are in mid air jumping.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First let's talk safety. The electric current is not steady, it pulses about 50 times a minute. If it were a steady current that would be dangerous. You would not be able to turn loose once you touched it. But since it pulses you can turn loose. Actually your instinct is to turn loose. If you are not expecting it you will turn loose. It's called a shock for a reason.

No matter how much you tell your kids not to touch it, they will. Kids are kids. Even adults can get careless a time or two. But after one or two shocks they are going to be a lot less careless around it. Yours are elementary aged, they might dare each other to touch it. If I don't feel like walking to get a tester I've touched my electric netting to make sure it is working right, though usually I go get a tester. It's not pleasant.

The way it works you have to touch a hot wire and a ground at the same time to complete the circuit. With my electric netting every horizontal wire except the bottom one is hot. The soil is the ground. A predator's fur will insulate it but the bare sole of its paws, nose, and tongue are not insulated. If it has one paw on the ground and touches a hot wire with an exposed part they jump back and run away, probably never to return and test that fence again. It is so satisfying to hear a dog yelp and see it running away, not harmed at all, whether a stray or a neighbor's dog.

What you are describing is not electric netting, it's an electric fence. Many farmers or ranchers use an electrified barbed wire fence or cable fence to keep cattle or horses in. To keep predators out usually requires a metal mesh fence, you can see coyotes inside an electrified barbed wire fence all the time. In your type of electric fence you typically wire it up so the metal mesh fence and maybe the soil are your ground. You install horizontal hot wires using insulators to keep the hot wires insulated from the mesh fence. You don't use one horizontal hot wire at the top. You want them to get shocked before they get up there so you use a few. I don't use electric fencing myself so I'm not going into the specifics, but if you visit Premiere1's website or call and chat with them you can get some expert knowledge on how many and where to put them. Installed correctly electric fencing is extremely effective.

Now back to the safety aspect. With my electric netting I've found three snapping turtles caught at the base of the netting. Every time it pulses they jerk. They are so slow moving they can't jump back. I turned the power off and eventually two of them walked away. The third one died. I've found a couple of frogs dead in that netting. Once a 5 foot long rat snake was dead in the netting. It obviously jerked forward instead of back. There is no insulation on any of those bodies. Once I found a possum tangled up in that netting. It was tangled and could not get out. It was immobilized by the pulsing current, sort of paralyzed, but not dead. I made sure it was dead before I turned that current off.
I've seen a chicken pecking at grass or something in my electric netting and hit a hot wire with its comb, wattles, or bare beak. It jumps back and up maybe 3 feet, squawks, and goes back to foraging, but not in that netting. Chickens can learn that too. Song birds can perch on a hot wire. As long as they aren't touching the soil, they are not shocked.

I'm not going to tell you there is absolutely no danger. But I will mention it is used across the country by people with kids. I do think if a kid were injured or killed by it you would hear about it on the news. As long as they are installed correctly I consider them extremely safe.

 

[nuthatched]

Very many good points and information, it boils down to, tell them not to touch, they'll likely test that theory once and aren't dumb enough to try again. It won't hurt them permanently.

 

[sdm111]

I've been using electric fencing a long time it works. Whatever is on the other side isn't worth the jolt they get. I've been hit a few times last one about 3 weeks ago thinking I could do something between 2 lines and my elbow hit a wire. I went ahead and unplugged it

 

[AnnPann]

First let's talk safety. The electric current is not steady, it pulses about 50 times a minute. If it were a steady current that would be dangerous. You would not be able to turn loose once you touched it. But since it pulses you can turn loose. Actually your instinct is to turn loose. If you are not expecting it you will turn loose. It's called a shock for a reason.

No matter how much you tell your kids not to touch it, they will. Kids are kids. Even adults can get careless a time or two. But after one or two shocks they are going to be a lot less careless around it. Yours are elementary aged, they might dare each other to touch it. If I don't feel like walking to get a tester I've touched my electric netting to make sure it is working right, though usually I go get a tester. It's not pleasant.

The way it works you have to touch a hot wire and a ground at the same time to complete the circuit. With my electric netting every horizontal wire except the bottom one is hot. The soil is the ground. A predator's fur will insulate it but the bare sole of its paws, nose, and tongue are not insulated. If it has one paw on the ground and touches a hot wire with an exposed part they jump back and run away, probably never to return and test that fence again. It is so satisfying to hear a dog yelp and see it running away, not harmed at all, whether a stray or a neighbor's dog.

What you are describing is not electric netting, it's an electric fence. Many farmers or ranchers use an electrified barbed wire fence or cable fence to keep cattle or horses in. To keep predators out usually requires a metal mesh fence, you can see coyotes inside an electrified barbed wire fence all the time. In your type of electric fence you typically wire it up so the metal mesh fence and maybe the soil are your ground. You install horizontal hot wires using insulators to keep the hot wires insulated from the mesh fence. You don't use one horizontal hot wire at the top. You want them to get shocked before they get up there so you use a few. I don't use electric fencing myself so I'm not going into the specifics, but if you visit Premiere1's website or call and chat with them you can get some expert knowledge on how many and where to put them. Installed correctly electric fencing is extremely effective.

Now back to the safety aspect. With my electric netting I've found three snapping turtles caught at the base of the netting. Every time it pulses they jerk. They are so slow moving they can't jump back. I turned the power off and eventually two of them walked away. The third one died. I've found a couple of frogs dead in that netting. Once a 5 foot long rat snake was dead in the netting. It obviously jerked forward instead of back. There is no insulation on any of those bodies. Once I found a possum tangled up in that netting. It was tangled and could not get out. It was immobilized by the pulsing current, sort of paralyzed, but not dead. I made sure it was dead before I turned that current off.
I've seen a chicken pecking at grass or something in my electric netting and hit a hot wire with its comb, wattles, or bare beak. It jumps back and up maybe 3 feet, squawks, and goes back to foraging, but not in that netting. Chickens can learn that too. Song birds can perch on a hot wire. As long as they aren't touching the soil, they are not shocked.

I'm not going to tell you there is absolutely no danger. But I will mention it is used across the country by people with kids. I do think if a kid were injured or killed by it you would hear about it on the news. As long as they are installed correctly I consider them extremely safe.

Thank so much for all the info! My kids are very responsible and if I tell them not to touch it, they won't do it on purpose. I have a motion detector sprinkler, and we all get hit with it about every other day because we forget it's on and walk by it. Hopefully we'd all be more aware of an electric fence. Consequences being more unpleasant than a spray of water! Thanks again!!

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm not going to tell you there is absolutely no danger. But I will mention it is used across the country by people with kids. I do think if a kid were injured or killed by it you would hear about it on the news. As long as they are installed correctly I consider them extremely safe.

I agree 100% with what you said.

I will say, however, that I have heard of electric fence, and electric netting in particular, presenting a danger to crawling infants and toddlers who contact the wires with their heads.

I would hope that any of us here are not DUMB ENOUGH to allow a crawling infant or toddler near an electric fence -- if only because of the threat of the child getting tangled and strangled even with the fence off -- but I thought I should mention that specific, unusual risk.

My own kids were preschool and elementary age when they first encountered an electric fence and found out why they should have listened and not tested it. My grandchildren, preschool and elementary age, have not tested my netting yet but I expect that one day one of them will be stubborn enough to do it -- but only once.

 

[calboy147]

I'm blown away by how many use electric fencing. I have lots of predators around our rural property - the worst offenders are coyotes and foxes. Not many raccoons as we don't have any trees in the area. We lost a chick to a fox a couple weeks ago. We also have a lot of hawks at various times of the year. I have heard of bobcat sightings here and there, but I have not seen one in the 2 years I've lived here.

I respect everyone has a different way of handling predators, but trapping/relocating or eliminating the predators is not something I'm willing to do.

My hens are not happy about not being able to free range right now, so I'm working on plans for a larger, protected run. We are training our dog to alert us and chase off predators, but she's not outside all the time.

So my current plan for their new run is:

• 6' fence using chicken wire or HWC (to keep chickens in).
• with HWC skirt (to keep out diggers)
• topped with an electric barrier (to keep foxes and coyotes from jumping over)
• netting of some sort (for hawks)

It's a large area (25'x50') so I'd prefer to do chicken wire or something cheaper than HWC. I will have a 9x20 run that is fully secured (with HWC) all around that will connect via a gate to this space.

Has anyone done something similar that either worked well (or failed)?

For those of you who use electric fence who also have kids. I have a 2 elementary aged kids who help with caring for the flock and frequently visit them during the day (without supervision). My solution needs to be kid-friendly - I don't want to just hope they remember to not shock themselves.

I was maybe 5 when i first tested my grandpa's electric cattle fence. And have accidentally yested several others while nite hunting. All of my kids and many of my grand kids have tested the electric fencing at various times. Other than a little "stank face" usually because everyone who has been there done that couldn't stop laughing, noone has ever been hurt.
My German shepard once got zapped so she grabbed it and tore down about 500 feet. So