Do i need poultry electric fencing

[howdale2009]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone can help. Do we need poultry electric fencing? We live in the country and have been keeping chickens for about 6 months and are about to start breeding them, currently they are kept in a large run with 6 ft fencing around and locked in on a night. We are going to move them into the field soon again with 6ft fencing around and locked up at night, i say we need poultry electric fencing up as well, but my husband says it will be fine without, please does anyone have any advice.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
GAWD it really depends on the part of the country you are in. I am in the High desert. Part of the Sonoran Desert. My last flock was taken by Bobcat. Thirty chickens in thirty days.... Bobcats can climb six foot easy. The dilema is... Keeping chickens in is easy... Keeping the predators out is tricky. We have Hawks and owls bobcat and Mountain lion and coyotes and feral dogs. Hot wire or electric fence strategically placed will keep them all out.

 

[Delmar]

I have a fence charger around here somewhere that I am hoping to find, to put around the tractor this spring. We just have to many hungry critters around for me to feel like risking it. No mountain lions or bobcats, but plenty of raccoons and stray dogs and cats.

 

[howdale2009]

Hiya you do have some preditors where you are, we have badgers and foxes not really anything else, i think i am going to get some just to be safe, i would be gutted to come and find them all gone.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If by "electric poultry fencing" you mean electronet, then I would say No, you don't need it and it'd be WAY more aggravation than it could ever possibly be worth in your situation.

If however you mean just "adding a coupla hotwires to your existing fence", then I would say that only you can tell whether you NEED it, but it can't *hurt*. Basically it will be giving you extra margin of error against coyotes and foxes and loose dogs which might otherwise wish to dig under (or in the case of grey foxes and some dogs, climb over) your fence. Since your field's fencing probably cannot easily be digproofed otherwise, electric might be of some value. OTOH only you know how many coyotes, foxes and loose dogs you're likely to have, and how motivated they're likely to be (which depends onthings like how many other ways there are locally for them to get food, and how visible the chickens will be from the fenceline)

If you do want to add hotwires to your existing field fence, what you would probably want to do is run one wire (on a 3" standoff insulator) as low as you can get it without risking it grounding out from sag or from weed growth -- you will have to keep the weeds whacked down regularly though -- and another one on the same standoff insulators up near the top of the fence. Get a GOOD digital fence tester, not one of those four-neon-lights jobbies which are just way too inaccurate, and test the fence every day or two to make sure it is running at about 4,000 v. It would not hurt to tie the metal mesh of the fencing into the ground terminal of the charger (as well as using a regular ground rod or three, I mean).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I just take a screw driver out and see if it will jump a nice spark across to ground. If I forget the screw driver I brush it with the back of my hand. You don't want to use the front of your hand! The current will make you grip the wire! Not good!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yeah but that won't tell you whether it is running high enough voltage. 2,500v will set you back real good but not impress a determined predator the way 4,000v will.

The screwdriver thing CAN work if you are quite reliable at visually measuring the gap -- 1/32", 1/16", 1/8" etc -- as the size of the gap you can draw a spark across will indicate fence voltage, as long as you are well-grounded. But most people can't do this reliably. And the brushing-against thing is really not enough to tell you what your voltage IS, which is crucial to know.

A fence can quite easily be "on" but radically-insufficient to deter predators.

Hence digital fence meters.


Pat

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
Yeah but that won't tell you whether it is running high enough voltage. 2,500v will set you back real good but not impress a determined predator the way 4,000v will.

The screwdriver thing CAN work if you are quite reliable at visually measuring the gap -- 1/32", 1/16", 1/8" etc -- as the size of the gap you can draw a spark across will indicate fence voltage, as long as you are well-grounded. But most people can't do this reliably. And the brushing-against thing is really not enough to tell you what your voltage IS, which is crucial to know.

A fence can quite easily be "on" but radically-insufficient to deter predators.

Hence digital fence meters.


Pat

Brushing your hand against it will defiantly tell you if it has got enough juice to get a predators attention.