Alternatives to Bullets

[Catnip5]

The drier and more sandy your soil is, the longer the grounding rod must be.  Six feet is the median length.  In dry sandy soil you may need to double the 6 foot length.  In a permanently damp area you may get away with a shorter grounding rod.  If you employ a lighting arrester you will need a separate grounding rod for each arrester.  Do remember that an electric fence shorting out represents an imminent fire hazard 38 times each minute.

Sorry, this is all new to me. 1. What is a lighting arrester? Also, please explain how the fence becomes "an imminent fire hazard 38 times a minute" - my actual house will be only feet away as will a boathouse. Thanks!

 

[Catnip5]

...

 There is no choice in killing a creature that belongs in the place it lives.  
Well said alibabba, I agree completely. I made the buffet available - fox is only doing what comes naturally for his/ her own survival. Relocation would be equally cruel, though that was my first choice. Thanks to loads of great feedback and information I'm going the electric fence route...fox hopefully will learn to stay away, remain in his territory unharmed, chickens can semi free-range and I can have some peace of mind knowing I've made them safe. Co-existence

 

[Catnip5]

Catnip I am so happy you did not kill the fox! I could never do it myself, all nature is too important to me. In my opinion, some people are too quick to resort to lethal control when really we are the ones invading these wild animal's homes and than killing them. We brought the chickens, so we sort of caused the problem. Anyway, thanks so much for taking a better, safer approach to keeping predators off your flocks. I think it is very nice that you take the extra expenses just to save a wild animal.

Thank you Leaf

. I'm a believer in peaceful co-existence. I created the food source so it's my responsibility to protect it.

 

[123RedBeard]

No fire danger! Well ... Anything flammable could burn, but not likely that the charger caused it!

The charger should have a circuit breaker in it, and it is plugged into a wall outlet which also has a circuit breaker in your house. These chargers are designed (UL tested and approved) to put out a millisecond voltage, then stop for a second or two ... This "pulse" allows a living being to pull away from the strong voltage, and not die!

A lighting arrester is basically a metal rod that sticks up into the air, that attracts/guides the lighting to the ground, and not you fence, which would direct/channel the electricity to your charger, and overload it, and damage it. If you have trees around I would not worry about it, now if your fence was in a middle of a field, on top of a mountain ... Different story! Lightning will find the easiest, most direct path to the ground, utility pole, or even a human, but it is not likely to bother with a 4' fence if other things are in the area that are high that it can use. Worse comes to worse, and it does hit your fence, your charger is ruined, and you go but another one! Many TV's have been fried due to the old antenna on the roof, wells also sometimes get hit ...

 

[Catnip5]

No fire danger! Well ... Anything flammable could burn, but not likely that the charger caused it!

The charger should have a circuit breaker in it, and it is plugged into a wall outlet which also has a circuit breaker in your house. These chargers are designed (UL tested and approved) to put out a millisecond voltage, then stop for a second or two ... This "pulse" allows a living being to pull away from the strong voltage, and not die!

A lighting arrester is basically a metal rod that sticks up into the air, that attracts/guides the lighting to the ground, and not you fence, which would direct/channel the electricity to your charger, and overload it, and damage it. If you have trees around I would not worry about it, now if your fence was in a middle of a field, on top of a mountain ... Different story! Lightning will find the easiest, most direct path to the ground, utility pole, or even a human, but it is not likely to bother with a 4' fence if other things are in the area that are high that it can use. Worse comes to worse, and it does hit your fence, your charger is ruined, and you go but another one! Many TV's have been fried due to the old antenna on the roof, wells also sometimes get hit ...

Awesome, thanks 123RedBeard! Loads of tall trees around in every direction so not much of a lightening worry with the fence at all. I appreciate the clarification! Should be ready to order everything today from Premier.

 

[123RedBeard]

Being new to electric fences ... You may just call them, and tell them what you want, but ask them for advice, and make sure you have everything you need ... They are the professionals, and sell this stuff everyday!

 

[123RedBeard]

Oops! I gave you the discription of "lighting RODS" ... Sorry, haven't had my coffee yet!

A lighting arrester is a electronic gadget that hooks to your charger, that would divert the lighting, just before it gets back to your charger, therefore "saving" your charger. (If your fence got hit) you can also just unplug your charger or any appliance, and it will be the same ...

 

[Catnip5]

Life is not a Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon. Just like when an organic gardener grabs a weed by the neck and yanks it out of Mother Earth's bosom, if you want to raise free range chickens then one must be willing to kill in order to keep their poultry alive. Life is full of trade offs, this is one of the lesser ones.

Ha, I like your analogy - I don't weed either, lol. My garden is a free-for-all! No killing for me, thanks, not willing nor able. I think the best solution here is the electric fencing.

 

[Catnip5]

For those of you with Premier 1 electric fencing - did anyone go with the green & black? Just curious if it "blends" into the surroundings better or if it's better to have the black/white ? Ha, now it's decisions decisions... Perma or temporary - the netting seems identical just the posts are different I think. Need to order today so any further recommendations please feel free to shout it out You've all been so helpful, thanks!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Sorry, this is all new to me. 1. What is a lighting arrester? Also, please explain how the fence becomes "an imminent fire hazard 38 times a minute" - my actual house will be only feet away as will a boathouse. Thanks!

This is not a big bad danger but if you have a piece of brush lets say that is too close to the fence a spark may and in some cases will jump from the wire to the dry brush so it can go to ground.

Remember that dry objects are much less attractive to electricity than wet objects are. If this was not so then the prison guard would not put a sponge soaked in salt water under the skull cap thing on the electric chair.

The greatest danger of fire is when someone gets lazy about keeping weeds and brush from growing up under or in among the wires on the fence.

Remember that an electric fence is a dumb machine. You have to think for it because it only follows the laws of nature.

The fire potential is almost nonexistent in most of the country but in the Prairie States or in drought stricken California the danger is greater because of less moisture in the vegetation.

Electric fences are metallic by nature and metal attracts lightning. The danger is mostly to your charging unit because I know I am, and I doubt that you are machesiom enough to grab a working electric and hold on to the sucker for hours during a lighting storm. Most people dispense with the arrester because the shorter the run of fence wire the less likely that your fence will get zapped by a bolt of lightning.

Despite the old wives' tail about lighting only striking once, lighting tends to revisit the same sight over and over.

When there is an open short the fence will arc across that space, this spark or arc is the fire hazard, just like it arcs to a spark plug or to the fox's nose in this video. Note that the electricity didn't lay the fox out ready for the undertaker but that the fox though that the undertaker already had him in his grasp, he keeps his distance and keeps looking back over his shoulder at the chicken coop that "bites" back. This is how electric fences work by training the vermin to stay at arms length from you chickens.

I like the following video because it shows how effective motion activated flashing lights are at deterring foxes and other predators from snacking on your poultry.

Note: Watch the front left corner of the hen coop about, 12 - 15 inches above the ground and watch the night light go crazy. Also foxes can clear a 7 foot fence if it really must have to do it.

Finally here is what happens when the fox eventually breaches your defences.