Electric fence but my chicken don’t feel it

[Zwillingsmama]

I finally got the electric fence hooked up. Zareb 10 mile dc powered. After some grounding problems it seem to b ok. My husband flew through half the yard when he touched it. The voltmeter reads 7000. so all seems fine. But yet my chicken walk straight through it. I have 2 hot wires(17 gauge) at 4 an 18 in height and in the middle I run the ground wire since part of the run is always dry during the summer. ( I live in CA so no rain April - November about). Any idea why my chicken can walk straight through it?

 

[Chickassan]

Chickens are insulated by feathers, electric fences do much better at keeping things out than keeping chickens in.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Chickens and bears are mostly insulated or isolated from the hot wires. Chickens are insulated by their feathers and bears by their hair. Since the hot wire is not touching your chickens skin, a complete electric circuit is not created.

 

[cmom]

I have had long pants on and touched my electric wire with my pant leg and I certainly felt it.

 

[WthrLady]

Lets just say a chicken with a wet comb, also flies clear across the pasture! LOL.

 

[Howard E]

Would you believe this is all I use to keep the birds off the patio?



The reason being they step on it, so have one foot on the hot wire and one on the ground when it reminds them to keep out.

That single wire replaced a 2 foot high plastic fence that they ignored completely. It didn't bite em, so they ignored it. This one does and they respect it.

And yes, these are the same birds that will fly up to to 5' high crossbar on a line of pole beans. So they could easily hop over it, but don't. The question is why? My guess is they know the fence is hot if they touch it and don't know what is on the other side when they come down. So they assume it is hot too. So they keep out.

 

[Chickassan]

Smart! Really smart. How long have you had that up just out of curiosity.

Would you believe this is all I use to keep the birds off the patio?

View attachment 1558787

The reason being they step on it, so have one foot on the hot wire and one on the ground when it reminds them to keep out.

That single wire replaced a 2 foot high plastic fence that they ignored completely. It didn't bite em, so they ignored it. This one does and they respect it.

And yes, these are the same birds that will fly up to to 5' high crossbar on a line of pole beans. So they could easily hop over it, but don't. The question is why? My guess is they know the fence is hot if they touch it and don't know what is on the other side when they come down. So they assume it is hot too. So they keep out.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Would you believe this is all I use to keep the birds off the patio?

View attachment 1558787

The reason being they step on it, so have one foot on the hot wire and one on the ground when it reminds them to keep out.

That single wire replaced a 2 foot high plastic fence that they ignored completely. It didn't bite em, so they ignored it. This one does and they respect it.

And yes, these are the same birds that will fly up to to 5' high crossbar on a line of pole beans. So they could easily hop over it, but don't. The question is why? My guess is they know the fence is hot if they touch it and don't know what is on the other side when they come down. So they assume it is hot too. So they keep out.

How do your birds get to your patio when you keep them locked up all the time? My chickens would just hop over that. Some birds are brighter than others.

 

[Howard E]

They are not locked up. During the daylight hours when they are out and about, they have access to that yard.....plus one other adjacent to it. They come right up to it and wait for me. Before, they hopped over it and waited by the door, or hung out on the patio......I got tired of cleaning up the droppings, and getting yelled at because there were droppings on the patio to clean up. That and they kept using the flower pots on the patio for dust baths, destroying the flower beds in the process.

That fence has been up for about 2 or 3 months. Part of this is they were trained from an early age on just such a fence. This is where they were brooded........



They were exposed to this setup at about 5 weeks of age. All found it the hard way and that kept them in all summer. Almost all of them found it by stepping on it. Either that or word traveled fast not to touch that thing.

I now am able to routinely use this type of fence for crowd control.....to keep them out of places I don't want them to go.

 

[roosterhavoc]

How many wires do you have that are protecting the birds from foxes and coyotes? I’m obviously confused.