Can I see a picture with your Electric fence for your poultry?

[MIKE555444]

I have the power supply already and also bought the 17 gage wire and conectors to attach to my post. What else might i need? I am thinking about doin only 1 single wire around the top of my run fence... comments?

I have smaller children that may be a concern with a lower wire.

Here is glance of my run fence:

 

[grumps]

You might need a grounding rod, depending on how strong the power supply is. I recently discovered that Lowe's has them. I couldn't find them at Home Depot or any of the feed stores. But then again, I've never put up an electric fence for a small poultry run either.

 

[MIKE555444]

Ahhh good point.... I'm sure I need a ground rod...

Maybe 2 to be safe?

I was thinking of grounding directly to the fence as well.

 

[patandchickens]

Yes, unless it is a teensy little fence you will want a ground rod of some sort for the charger (size and number depending on size of fence), and it would be smart to make sure the fence is WELL grounded too since you'll be relying on that connection for your zap. If the bottom of the chainlink is sort of half-buried in soil, that alone would be adequate; otherwise you might drive in a 2' piece of rebar every so often and wire it securely to the chainlink.

Another thing that sometimes comes in handy is double-insulated electric fence wire (the double is much better than the single-insulated, and not much more expensive)... good for when you want a connection from charger to fence that will not zap someone touching it, or if you want to bury a line under a gateway or something like that.

The main item you want, though, is a FENCE TESTER. The 5-neon-light $15 jobbies are adequate to give you a general idea of whether the fence is dead, somewhat charged, or more charged, but don't place much faith on the #s they are supposedly telling you, as they are notoriously inaccurate. A digital fence tester is much better but also more like$75 and may not be worth it for a leetle setup like yours. You can also estimate charge strength by the size gap over which you can draw a spark with a screwdriver, but most people are better off with a real fence tester

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[MIKE555444]

Anyone have any Pics of their electric fence?

 

[briana1975]

What you can't use the kids as the fence tester. Really I am sooo kidding. When I was a kid we would test my uncles fence by how big or small a weed or stick we could use to touch it with before we would get zapped. hhmm... Maybe that's what is wrong with me.

 

[newchicksnducks]

Just a thought... a wire at the top of your fence will deter animals from climbing all the way over, but what about those reaching through the fence? You would have to watch for weeds growing up and shorting it out, but a strand of wire 3-6" from the bottom would be good for this. It would also zap the critters as they began to attempt to scale your fence!

 

[MIKE555444]

Quote:
Hmm.. Well my chickens are very consistant about going to the hen house at night to roost so I don't think they will be outside at night and during the day time I can't imagine anything coming near the fence with all my neighborhood dogs (which was one of the main preditors I had to guard against).

If I really have to do a wire low NEAR the ground it will have to follow when I can convince my wifey to let me invest money in a photo electric eye system to turn it on and off. Hmm anyone know of a cheap way to pull off the dusk to dawn controls for this?

 

[ray2310]

Quote:
Hmm.. Well my chickens are very consistant about going to the hen house at night to roost so I don't think they will be outside at night and during the day time I can't imagine anything coming near the fence with all my neighborhood dogs (which was one of the main preditors I had to guard against).

If I really have to do a wire low NEAR the ground it will have to follow when I can convince my wifey to let me invest money in a photo electric eye system to turn it on and off. Hmm anyone know of a cheap way to pull off the dusk to dawn controls for this?

For my corn patch I usually use a outlet timer. Like the ones you would use for Christmas lights.