A treatise on Electric Fencing

[Howard E]

If you look at the "bear fence" in the videos that use the electric tape, you may find those do not use substantial steel or wooden posts to hold them up. A lot of temporary and portable type fences simply use step in posts to hold the tape or wire up. TSC should have those and they cost about $3 each. In really rocky soils, you may not be able to "step" those in. So an alternative may be to use the same type of step in posts......the kind with a spike that is supposed to go in the ground, and set them into a quart sized metal can or even a large soup can or some such thing filled with quickcrete cement. Then just set those on the ground where you want them. They won't budge or fall over and will hold up the tape fence the same as any other step in post would. For these, it helps if the fence line is straight, so no sideways pull to top them over.

 

[aart]

Hello again,

I'm going to visit Tractor Supply this week and see what they have for solar powered electric fencing. I'm investigating now what to attach this electric fence to, as I live pretty much on a ledge outcropping in VT. I think I need to put up something "sturdy" enough so that a bear does not just rip it off and fling it over the hill. Not sure what to do. I'm hoping the people at the tractor supply know something about this. I thought I'd check in with you as well, as you def seem like an authority to me. In the video that we both saw, it appears like that persons elec fence is mounted on a serious wooden fence. Ideally a split rail would be nice but I do not think I have enough soil to get posts into the ground. I'm hoping there's a solution.

If you have any ideas please write me.

Best wishes,
Ursula

Getting a good ground way down in the earth might be problem too....unless I missed a solution you may already have for that aspect.

 

[Chaos18]

Can any of you recommend a good solar powered unit?

 

[Howard E]

I'd say anything you might get from Premier 1 or Kencove would be OK. Make sure the size you get matches up to your fence type.

The Premier Hot Shock and Itelli-shock have a pretty good reputation:

https://www.premier1supplies.com/c/fencing/energizers_-_solar

And those from Kencove:

http://www.kencove.com/fence/Electric+Fence+Chargers_products.php

Gallagher also has a pretty good reputation and is widely available locally at many farm supply stores.

https://am.gallagher.com/us-en/products/electric-fencing/power/fence-energizers/solar

Parmak makes a couple solar powered units:

http://www.parmakusa.com/subcategory_details.php?SId=2

The 12 volt model from Parmak is featured on the bear video. These are also what I use, except mine just run on 12 volt batteries and are not rigged to a solar panel. The 12 volt model from Parmak is also sold by Kencove.

My only suggestion is whatever it is you get, if in doubt, move up to the higher output. You want the lucky recipient to experience at least 7,000 volts of excitement. Mine run hotter than that.

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

The 12 volt model from Parmak is featured on the bear video. These are also what I use, except mine just run on 12 volt batteries and are not rigged to a solar panel. The 12 volt model from Parmak is also sold by Kencove.

So how do you charge your batteries? I've always kind of like a modular approach to things so that if something fails, that part can be changed out without having to replace an entire unit. I was wondering about the difference between having a solar charged fencer vs. having a solar panel connected to a battery that ran a power inverter that allowed you to plug in a regular 110V fence charger.... Not sure how strong an inverter I'd need and don't know if this would be more costly or easier to use. I know that everything but the solar panel would have to be housed out of the weather. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Howard E]

On the battery powered options, there would be two. A solar charged battery, or else a deep cycle lead acid battery that you would charge with a normal automotive battery charger. Mine at the lead acid type are holding a charge for about 3 months now, with it on most of the time. Unless you have a weed load on the fence, it does not such up much juice, even running 24/7.

If I went the solar route, I'd probably get a solar powered charger that is already rigged as such. It comes with a battery and solar panel rigged together at the factory. Putting together a solar panel and battery requires regulators and such to prevent over charging them. It would be really easy to screw that up.

I would not go to the trouble of trying to rig an inverter to run an AC unit on batteries.

 

[Usrudd]

Hi Howard,

Yesterday I went to tractor supply and they were super helpful. I learned a lot. And guess what, when I describe my situation, the person there said I should be FINE running a outdoor extension cord to the coop and making use of the Gallagher M 80 charger which a friend will give me. She told me it would be fine and so that what I plan to do. I have Some supplies from his previous elec fence for garden/ deer. If that fails, I will get the solar still we talked about. I'm so excited to save money! And re- use a perfectly solid system.

But Im a bit worried about the elec fence itself, though. I'd like to think its secure and not something that a bear will meet up with and fling over his head like a rag. You know what I mean? The split tail.fence looks solid but it's a non starter for me. When the excavator did some digging the other day to prep the ground and so we can start building on level soil, we discovered my septic pipes, just 18 -24 in below. No problem though developed though. We re going to place rigid insulation over them and then start with the pavers. I'm building the Wichita cabin style coop, which has the look I like. I was intrigued by your recent links though, about the open air coops, etc. wish I saw that before I made plans, but I believe the Wichita has lots of open air too.

It's fun to connect with all you great chicken minded people here. Thank you so much for your support and suggestions.

I saw those step in posts and am happy to get them...but do u think they will be enough? How will I make a door?? Have u seen anything that can be a door? I do not want to get anything that will look ugly, if u know what I mean.

Look forward to your reply.

Ursula

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

If I went the solar route, I'd probably get a solar powered charger that is already rigged as such. It comes with a battery and solar panel rigged together at the factory. Putting together a solar panel and battery requires regulators and such to prevent over charging them. It would be really easy to screw that up.

I would not go to the trouble of trying to rig an inverter to run an AC unit on batteries.

I gotcha. Makes sense.

 

[trainman]

Well, there are a lot of replies and suggestions to the electric fence issue. Here's my experience for what it's worth.

I bought the longer (164') portable electric fence from Kencove. I had inquired about the fencing from Premier 1 earlier. They replied to my questions with links to their website. Duh! That's where I had come from and still had questions about the fence. The website said to ask questions and I did. Poor customer service to me. No help so I contacted Kencove and asked the same questions. They mostly answered and I was impressed with the customer service.

I bought the fence to keep my chickens and ducks as well as varmints out of our garden . It's a nice product and seems well made. I bought the charger that uses "D" cell batteries upon their recommendation. Solar was pretty expensive and running a cord all the way needed wasn't a very good option.

I set the fence up per instructions and found that it DID NEED ADDITIONAL SUPPORTS as the posts supplied allowed the fence to sag and touch the ground. I got some 1 1/2" PVC tubes and cut them to length and notched them for the fence and placed them mid way between the supplied posts. It cured the problem and works fine.

The charger works ok and supplies enough power I guess. After reading the instructions and setting everything up I found a small piece of paper in the box I had missed. That's when I sort of got mad about the whole thing. The website and all the other information in the packaging stated it was "poultry netting" and would keep out varmints and keep the chickens in. Great that's what I needed! However, that piece of paper said that it wasn't really very effective for chickens and other poultry unless they contacted the wires with their face, head, combs, etc. HUH? It said their feathers were an insulator and therefore it would have no effect. What a waste as far as I'm concerned.

One other issue I have is that you MUST keep the grass cut almost to the ground or it shorts the fence out making it just a physical barrier. Lot of money for that. I find that I have to weed eat an area about a foot wide where the fence is near the ground about every 4 days or it just touches and shorts out. That's a lot of maintenance when you consider there's another 20 acres and livestock to attend to.

Anyway, I personally don't recommend the portable electric fences for these reasons.

Just my 2¢

Trainman

 

[Howard E]

I think your observations based on experience are good ones. For poultry netting to be used as a permanent fence is likely going to require some modifications. The corners will need to be braced, gates considered and then there is the weed issue. If put up and left in place, the grass and weeds need to be killed. Weed eating isn't really an option. Two ways I know of to kill the grass are to use chemical sprays........like Roundup. I don't want anything I eat downstream of that eating that stuff, so I don't spray. A second option is to mulch it out. You can cut the grass down to almost bare dirt, then lay down a layer of newspapers or other impervious mulch, then a layer of mulch or similar over that to create a long term, weed free barrier. You sill have to mow up one side and down the other to keep weeds and grass away from it. I had crab grass heads reach as high as 2 or 3 feet this summer, before they would lay over onto my fence. So you have to keep a wide barrier in place. That also helps birds and predators realize the barrier boundary.

Used as temp fence, it works well. Get out a mower, grind the weeds and grass down to dirt and you will have a week or two of worry free use. Then either move it or move it to the side and repeat.

My experience is the poultry netting is as much a physical barrier to the birds as it is from the shock treatment. It they do get shocked, and likely they will at some point, then they will learn to respect it. Most likely the only way they are going to get out is if they fly over it. Younger birds can get through it, but adults probably won't. The good news is few ground based predators, including crazy dogs, are going to get past it. Some may jump over, but not many will try, as most likely their first encounter will be an unpleasant one.

I also have more experience with the light wire fences mentioned earlier. I have observed my birds can go through it or over it with ease. BUT, eventually, they either step on it or somehow manage to get themselves shocked, and once they do, they tend to avoid it. There is a learning curve for them, but once they get zapped, they tend to stay away from it. The bigger the area, the more effective a light wire fence can be. Same issue, however, with the weeds, although it is easier to run a weed eater under a wire fence than it is the netting. After the 3rd of 4th pass under such a fence with the weed eater, you pretty much kill the grass or weeds, leaving bare dirt beneath. That helps.

An interesting running battle has also developed with our small house dog and that two wire electric fence. He is a runner who likes to roam far and wide and he got zapped early on, but is hard headed enough he found a way to get past it. He simply jumped over it. So I've added more wires to increase the height and his latest trick is to take a chance and run through it at high speed. So I've added more wires and narrowed the gap to increase the odds of him getting zapped. Using him as my tester, if I can perfect this to the point of keeping him in, I imagine it will keep almost all predators out.