Advice please on Electric Fence!

[chrissieg]

Yet another visit by the fox today has left me with one chicken un , luckily I called her 'The Lone Ranger' and she is happy in her own company!

I have decided now to get an electric fence and my neighbours have said they will help me put it up (if I give them a barbeque)

!

I understand I can get a kit which looks simple enough to put up, but what I really want to know is how the ground needs to be prepared in readiness, it's just messy with nettles and grass - I want to make best use of my volunteer workforce whilst I have it. The fence will need to go 3 sides of a square - the 4th side being stone sheds where the chickens overnight.

Will I also need an internal fence to keep the chickens away from the wire?

This may seem a lot of work for one chicken,

but I've got 7 chicks 5 weeks coming on, and some more in the incubator, and I'll be

if I lose those as well!!!!

I have been playing the role of tragic chicken owner for too long

 

[Arklady]

I really wish I had that website for the lady that had electric fence pens, in her yard. She had show quality Buff Orpingtons. It was awesome, I wrote her once and asked her if it was a problem with them touching it and she said they never got near it because she thinks they can hear the electicity going through the wire. She also said she never lost a bird. I don't know as far as it stopping a fox dunno but I know sheep and goats won't touch it either. I wish I could remember her site.

Good Luck

Arklady

 

[panner123]

Just search electric fence click on how to install. If it is only fox, coon & the like you want to keep out, the kit comes with a good wire, but if it is bear, you will need to use barb wire. You don't need a second fence as the current goes though the small wire outside the chicken wire, held in place with an insulator. You must keep the ground damp under the hot wire or you lose voltage. It is all explained in the direction that come with the kit. When you buy the kit be sure to buy a voltage tester also. You place it on one of the wires and stick the lead into the ground, this shows you how mant volts is going though the wire. Because I am trying to keep bear outI use one that should be use over 50 miles. Yet I only have about 5 miles of wire out. Each time a bear or any animal touches the wire, they get the full force.

 

[chrissieg]

If it is only fox, coon & the like you want to keep out, the kit comes with a good wire, but if it is bear, you will need to use barb wire.

I had to have a giggle about this! If I asked for a fence to keep bears out over here they'd take me away! Only foxes over here mate!!

Thanks for the good advice though - I'm going ahead!​

 

[panner123]

See I told you, you didn't need an electric fence. Save your funds, add some chicken wire to the bottom of your fence. Bring it out in an L shape facing outwards and the fox can't dig his way in.

 

[chickbea]

My chickens' run is classic chicken wire, then I have two strands of electric tape running around the outside of that. The chickens can't come into contact with the electricity. It has been great for warding off undesirable critters of all kinds, although wayward dogs are the most likely victims.

 

[missrubysmom]

I keep my chickens and turkeys in electronet fencing from Premier. You can put it up or move it in about 20 mins. all by yourself. It puts out a helluva jolt, but the birds don't seem to feel it. Feather insulation, I guess. The turkeys stick their heads right through it to get to my grain bucket--no harm to them, but if I touch their naked little heads when they do it, I get shocked. No sense, no pain. It does a great job against the predators, though. No losses in two years, and we have lots of coyotes ("Coy-dogs" in this neck of the woods).