Electric Fence - Help Please!

[Karianne]

Hi all, I'm having a problem as I would like to let my chickens free-range more often, but I have a major racoon / coyote / dog / hawk? problem and I have no fencing. I'm in Michigan and I live rurally surrounded by woods / swamp and farms on the other side. I have about a 3-4 acre area cleared of trees with pasture, needs to be something portable got no power out there.

I think I want to do a small / medium sized electric fence area and move it every once in a while just for the chickens. Does this really keep dogs and coyotes out and chickens in? I have free ranging large dogs that cannot have access to them (and strays). I also regularly see hawks? Eagles? I don't know, but they have huge shadows! Can these carry off an adult Wyandotte? Any tips for this? Is it safe to put the electric fencing around medium to large size apple trees, or in the periphery of the woods, or does this invite predators? I'm lost, but I would like to buy something asap. Anyone recommend a specific product that I can get asap, set up easily (even for a dummy like me with pain problems?!). Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Properly installed electric netting and electric fence (two different things) are very good at keeping dogs, fox, coyotes, bobcat, racccoon, possum, skunks, mink, and such out. They do not do anything about flying predators. Unless they are feeding babies in a nest flying predators often do not carry their prey away, they eat it right there. So flying predators are a risk.

It sounds like you have adult full sized fowl. Until they are 7 or 8 weeks old my full sized fowl chicks can get through the holes in my Premiere1 electric netting for chickens. After that they are too big. While they can fly over the netting, mine don't. When I have several immature cockerels in there, one may get trapped next to the netting and go vertical when they are having their fights. Some of those come down on the wrong side of the netting and do not know to fly back in. I've had one hen get out, I think she got trapped next to the fence by an amorous rooster. I found that a lot fewer of the cockerels get out if I set the netting up with no sharp corners. 90 degree corners or shallower are OK sharper than 90 degrees allowed more to get trapped. One time I made a long narrow corridor for them to get to a wider area. That wasn't good either. When I reconfigured it back to a wider rectangle the escapes stopped. Remember, this was immature cockerels, not mature hens.

I don't do electric fences but if they are set up correctly they are extremely effective too.

Electric netting and electric fences require maintenance. If grass or weeds grow up into them they short out the circuit so they don't work well. I've had dead leaves or freshly cut grass wash up against the netting and pile up there in a rainstorm. That shorts it out too if it is wet.

I don't have any experience with solar power to power the netting. You might call Premiere1 and chat with them. I found them very helpful when setting mine up.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

We have had feeder pigs on occasion, and have 11 of them now. My chickens normally have access to free range in the afternoons. They freely go in and out of the pasture and hang out with the cows, and into the goat pen with the goats. I have never spotted a chicken brave enough to visit the pig pen, in spite of all the best loved treats being found inside that pen.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I have a similar predator load to you. I set a 3 wire electric fence around my coop plus about 2500 sf free range area… my chickens fly over and hang out under whatever tractor, car, porch (garden ) routinely so often mitigating the risk of predation is a mute point for me. The coop/run is safe and the chickens do go there often enough to get shade. There are battery and solar units you can use, or electric netting; pricey but more portable.
I kill weeds under the fence line with agricultural grade vinegar (30%). The vinegar kills bracken fern, which is common in Michigan, particularly above 45th parallel, and it is a health hazard to chicken and human due to spore release being carcinogenic.

 

[3KillerBs]

Properly installed electric netting and electric fence (two different things) are very good at keeping dogs, fox, coyotes, bobcat, racccoon, possum, skunks, mink, and such out. They do not do anything about flying predators. Unless they are feeding babies in a nest flying predators often do not carry their prey away, they eat it right there. So flying predators are a risk.

It sounds like you have adult full sized fowl. Until they are 7 or 8 weeks old my full sized fowl chicks can get through the holes in my Premiere1 electric netting for chickens. After that they are too big. While they can fly over the netting, mine don't. When I have several immature cockerels in there, one may get trapped next to the netting and go vertical when they are having their fights. Some of those come down on the wrong side of the netting and do not know to fly back in. I've had one hen get out, I think she got trapped next to the fence by an amorous rooster. I found that a lot fewer of the cockerels get out if I set the netting up with no sharp corners. 90 degree corners or shallower are OK sharper than 90 degrees allowed more to get trapped. One time I made a long narrow corridor for them to get to a wider area. That wasn't good either. When I reconfigured it back to a wider rectangle the escapes stopped. Remember, this was immature cockerels, not mature hens.

I don't do electric fences but if they are set up correctly they are extremely effective too.

Electric netting and electric fences require maintenance. If grass or weeds grow up into them they short out the circuit so they don't work well. I've had dead leaves or freshly cut grass wash up against the netting and pile up there in a rainstorm. That shorts it out too if it is wet.

I don't have any experience with solar power to power the netting. You might call Premiere1 and chat with them. I found them very helpful when setting mine up.

This.

My electric poultry netting from Premier 1 has been very effective so far. My only loss has come from a hawk when a neighbor has lost 2 flocks to raccoons and stray dogs.

 

[sdm111]

I had a big problem with dogs fox coons etc. Electric fence have not lost one since.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you everyone for all the help! I think I'm going to go for the electric netting as seems to be widely used. Quick question if anyone knows, can I put pigs in the same area as chickens or will they eat them? Is that a stupid question?

Like chickens, pigs are omnivores that eat anything that does eat them first.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not sure the netting would stop the pigs either. Maybe something to chat with Premiere1 about.

 

[aart]

A Chickshaw is a portable coop used with portable electric netting.

Not really a good setup for Michigan.

I'm in Michigan

Welcome to BYC! @Karianne
Come on over the MI chat thread.
Here's how to add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[3KillerBs]

No different than locking chickens up in a regular coop ! Add an automatic door and the chickens get out at dawn and walk out into a secure electric fenced area while you enjoy your morning coffee.No one has to cram it full of birds lol

No, there is every difference.

A Chickshaw breaks all the space rules -- just barely enough room to get all the hens onto the roost and nowhere for them to be when it's not open.

If you're allowing the usual square footage and making a coop on wheels that's a coop on wheels and not really the Chickshaw concept at all.