Best way to make existing fence electric..

[Chelsa'sChicks]

I have an area where I have a coop for new birds. I have the chicken wire fence up around the coop its on a slight hill making it 5'-6' tall. So for fox/raccoon/etc it would be harder because the coop is on the slight hill side. I am putting a heavy duty wire fence at the bottom for digging predators, but I would also like to make the top electric and possibly run another wire 6" or so off the ground. Should I attach the wires to the fence or just let the electric wires be above the fence at the top and the outside of the fence but not touching the fence? I do understand that because the chicken wire is such a large area the shock would not be that great, but that's why I'm thinking I may just have a few wires placed in a few spots along the fence.. Ideas are welcome (I am set that I want the fence to be electric and do not want to pay for the electric netting as I did look into this).

 

[Cryss]

Not sure about any of this. The grounding might not be right. I'm sure someone else would have better advice. The one thing I might add is be absolutely sure you use an intermittent pulse energizer, never continuous. Recently read someone hook up to continuous, then accidentally touched the fence. Because it was continuous he couldn't let go and was electrocuted. Intermittent allows you to let go before permanent damage.

 

[Backyard Bruce]

If your chicken wire is not isolated from ground it will NOT work. You can not create a short circuit to ground with any electric circuit.

 

[jthornton]

A photo of the fence will help a lot.

JT

 

[Howard E]

A photo of the fence will help a lot.

JT

This.......^^^^^........X2 !

There are special insulators you can use along with your existing fence to hold the electric wires out from the other fence, but it will help greatly to know......see......what you have to work with.

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

Thank you all for your help so far! The wire would be above the fence. The fence does touch the ground and I have a heavier fence to keep predators from digging under it. I would agree with intermittent electric pulse! I'll post a picture..

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

Ok no laughing! (Haha).. the blue line shows where the fence is, but it is not touching the chicken wire.. I'm going to bend the top of the fence down just have not yet. The blue circled area is where the fence is held above the fence post with a plastic tube. Super homemade

 

[Cryss]

Let me see if I understand. So you are planning to bend down the hardware cloth and run an electrified wire above that. Are you not planning wire along the bottom? Where is your ground wire located? What Energizer are you using and where? Just trying to get a clear picture in my mind.

 

[jthornton]

Ok no laughing! (Haha).. the blue line shows where the fence is, but it is not touching the chicken wire.. I'm going to bend the top of the fence down just have not yet. The blue circled area is where the fence is held above the fence post with a plastic tube. Super homemade

Looks like T posts, if so they make stand offs for T posts for hot wires.

http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/electric-fence-insulators/t-post

JT

 

[Cryss]

Following because I am researching to do pretty much the same thing.