4th OF JULY SUPRISE! EVER HAVE A CHICKEN SHOCKED TO DEATH ?

[bwalden]

4th of July, one of my favorite holidays. I went to feed and water my flock yesterday morning. Been having 100+ degree days here in Arkansas. I have installed an electric fence around my 2 chicken runs because of previous neighbor dog problems. Well I found a hen lying directly under my "hot wire" which is outside the run. She is dead and not a single mark on her. All the rest of the chickens are fine. The only thing I can figure is some how she flew out out the pen and landed on the electric fence.

On a positive note. I got my first egg from these pullets the same morning. That is a suprise also considering they are 4 months old as of the 22nd of June.

 

[Lynndaybrown]

I don't know if they can be shocked to death or not but I'm really sorry for you loss.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

If she flew and landed on the wire with nothing touching the ground she cannot have been shocked to death. For the charge to unload there has to be a connection with the ground.

Mine have electronet around the area they roam in and have touched it on occasion. Not one of them ever had a problem with it. I would think your hen died of something else. Heat exhaustion? A scare?

 

[bwalden]

Yeah I have thought about the heat thing as well. If my electric fence is only about six inches off of my run fence could the hen have got caught between the run fencing and the electric fence wire and gotten shocked? My run fence is buried about 8 inches deep as well as all the post are buried about 2 feet deep. I'm just wondering because I'm thinking of how I could prevent this from happening again. I will most likely crop one of their wings on each chicken so they cannot fly out of their run also. Been planning to do that anyway.

 

[Den in Penn]

If it was the electric fence you may have a defective charger. The charger should blink long enough for the animal or person to get away, Or the voltage maybe wrong.

 

[bwalden]

I wondered about that also. So I read on the instructions of the electric charger. It says that it doesnt pulse like a lot of chargers do. It is a continuious current charger. So that being said could it be possible ??

 

[Den in Penn]

A continuous charge can cause damage. So yes if the voltage is wrong it could kill. Tasers pulse and still they can cause problems.

 

[azygous]

I say you have a real possibility your hen was electrocuted when she came into contact with the hot wire and the metal fence at the same time.

I have hot wires around my coop/run complex because of a huge array of predators. My rooster, and occasionally a hen, will wander around outside the pen when the hot wire is activated and they touch it with no obvious harm or even discomfort. However, I have forgotten it was activated on occasion and touched the hot wire while touching the metal fencing, and WHOA HOWDY! It felt like getting hit with a 2 x 4! My charger is pretty meek and a pulsating one at that.

So you have a dangerous situation going on, I believe. I'm so very sorry this had to happen. I know how it awful it feels to have a hen killed due to something I did out of ignorance.

 

[bwalden]

Well I have clipped one flight wing on all birds in my flock. Shouldnt have any more flying up and out and into my hot wire. I dont know what else to do about that. I have to leave it up because of the neighbor dogs running around. I've got some extra poultry netting I might put an extra few feet taller that way i'd never have to worry with it again.