electric netting

[grullablue]

It has been YEARS since I've been here! Glad to be back! We are moving to a new farm, and I would like to set up semi-permanent electric netting for my girls. Is there a brand anyone who uses this prefers? I would like to make it as large as I can. They'll be locked up at night, out during the day. This is my first time moving with chickens! I'm excited for them, the coop is amazing!!

TIA!
Angie

 

[DobieLover]

It has been YEARS since I've been here! Glad to be back! We are moving to a new farm, and I would like to set up semi-permanent electric netting for my girls. Is there a brand anyone who uses this prefers? I would like to make it as large as I can. They'll be locked up at night, out during the day. This is my first time moving with chickens! I'm excited for them, the coop is amazing!!

TIA!
Angie

I use Kencove. I got the 42" high fence and bought enough extra posts so I could double the number included with the net. I strung three 168' nets together and power them with a 10,000 volt/1.2 joule output charger. I keep large dogs, fox, coyote, a mama black bear, fisher cats, etc out of the pen. My birds also have a large coop and fully secure run that they are in until I release them in the morning.

 

[Northern Flights]

Just the info I was looking for, and many thanks to the OP for asking.

 

[cmom]

I don't have electric netting but do have electric wire around my pens and coops. Once the predators get zapped by it they don't make another attempt. I have netting covering my pens and concrete under my gates.
https://www.premier1supplies.com/c/fencing/

 

[cmom]

I do use a 1 joule fence charger. The charger I believe should be at least 1 joule for more zap. I had a smaller one, it was more like getting stung but the one I have now will actually make my heart skip a beat. I have accidentally touched it when I have worked around the coops and forgotten to turn it off. If a predator does touch it I want it to know it. I have had coyotes and fox and a bobcat attempt to dig under a fence but didn't succeed. They aborted their attempts.

 

[Howard E]

I also have two versions of the Kencove netting, but don't use them. I actually prefer to use electric fence wire instead.

The hot wires on netting are the horizontal bands, and those can be duplicated with with the wires......you start at ground level and add as many as you think are needed to achieve exclusion. A wire fence costs a fraction of what netting does, so enables you to enclose a much larger area for the same cost. It is also more flexible as to where you put your corners and is easier to maintain.

Netting is as much a physical fence as it is an electric fence, and thus some animals will consider it as such and try to jump or fly over it. Electric fences are psychological barriers that animals won't cross out of fear of another painful jolt of juice. So the goal with an E fence made of wire, etc, is to simply get them to touch it. With wires, they will try to crawl under or through and get themselves zapped in the process. As other's have suggested, if the fence is cranked up to 7,000 volts plus.......it will light em up and they will not want to suffer a repeat of that. Fence charger should be 1 joule minimum.......which may be rated for 25 to 30 miles of fence, even if you only do a few hundred feet of it.

Materials needed for wire fences are steel T posts for corners, with donut insulators for the wire to run through. Step in plastic posts designed for E fences....on fairly level ground, space them 20 to 25 feet apart......, and my preference for materials for a permanent fence is 17 gauge aluminum fence wire. Softer and more flexible to work with than 14 gauge steel......more visible. You will need at least one ratchet type tensioner (strainer) for each strand level to keep your fence tight.

To keep fence clear and free of weeds, I now use Roundup (generic) to maintain a width of 1 foot on either side of the fence (2 feet total width of clear ground). Bottom strand is only 4 or 5 inches off the deck, so with such close tolerance, you can't allow weeds to flourish......or they will short out your fence and kill it. Bare dirt also gives the animal a good contact to ground and gives them a better shock.

So a tight coop that nothing, absolutely nothing can get into at night, and an e-fence on guard 24-7........365 days a year........and you will diminish the threat from most ground based predators to a very low level. I'm well into my third year and haven't lost a bird to a predator yet, and strategy above is the secret to my success. Actually, not a secret at all. I tell anybody and everybody I meet that is how I do it. Some follow suit and have similar success. A lot of others don't........and well......a lot of others don't.

 

[Folly's place]

Premier1supplies.com has good products and advice, and people to discuss options on the phone too. Howard E (above) and cmom have experience with electric wire fencing, excellent.
We have electric livestock fencing, electric rope or tape from Premier, and a very hot charger. I've found that it works very well too. The electrified rope or tape are easier to see, an asset for all of us, at least on the top strand!
Ours runs at about 9v, and it hurts to touch it, a good thing!
Plug the charger into a surge protector too!
Mary

 

[cmom]

I have had my electric wire up for around 10 years. I did have to replace a fence charger a few years ago but the wire still works great. I do use the poly rope wire and it works great for me. I don't worry about how tight the wire is because if the predators touch it they won't touch it again. I have three wires but you can have as many or few as you want. These are older pictures and another coop has been added since but I still have the 3 wires. I do spray roundup under my wire too except in the winter months of course when the grass and weeds don't grow and touch the wire.

Across the back of these coops I have a single wire in case a predator wants to attempt to dig. Once I had a fox dig under a gate to a pen so I put concrete under the gates but I also have wire across the bottom of the gates. I have solid wire under the gates but a live wire going across the bottom. Most predators inspect first with their noses.