Electric fences as a deterrent. psuedo poll.

[bakerjw]

Since getting involved in chickens earlier this year I've been educating myself on secure coop designs and general construction practices to keep predators at bay. A lot of that education has come from reading posts her eon the P&P sub forum. This last weekend I picked up some chicks from a good ole boy who had electric fences running all over his chicken yard. Every coop had a wire at the base and his losses are very low. He does lose some occasionally to hawks but hasn't had issues with coons or fox in a long time. My new run is going to be a large fenced in area with an outer boundary electric fence. I'll be having to pay attention to overhanging trees and the like but it got me wondering what peoples reasons are for not using an electric fence.

If you don't use electric fences to protect your flock what are your reasons? cost? Availability of electricity? ineffectiveness?


If you do use electric fences, how effect have you found them to be?

 

[Mervin]

barkerjw

I asked this same questions a couple of weeks b/c my studies had led me to the same conclusions as you. Basically the response indicated that folks were concerned about having them around their children/pets or that their local ordinances forbade it. Although my my nearing-completion coop was recently destroyed, I do intend on implementing an electric fence when the rebuild is completed. I've already procured a small, pulsing charger and some of the wire. I see the constant fussing with live traps to be a complete pain and I really don't want to catch non-targeted species (neighbor's cat and dog) in a live trap or other. I also fear that I'll probably have to deal with bears, coyotes and bobcats and others that quickly become weary of traps. I'm hoping that their habit of exploring with their noses will work to my advantage.

My wife is not keen on the idea of a charged fence, but I like to point out that I've been zapped more than a couple times and I'm basically alright (at least I'm sure it had nothing to do with electric fences anyway). My elders generally adopted the "let him touch it, he'll learn" approach and I did. My cousin, on the other hand, progressed to lighting "lady finger" firecrackers and holding them while they went off. In either case, I believed they learned something valuable about each of us and we're both basically OK as adults.

 

[chickensioux]

I have a hot wire running along the top of my fenced in area for my chickens. It has kept raccoons away definately. I feel lot better about having it there. Still have some hawk issues but CDs hanging around have helped that too. I have not had a coon or fox dig into my area so far either.

 

[BlackBart]

I use a three strand electric fence around the perimeter of our property to keep cougars, wolves and bears out. I am sure it has kept the raccoons out too.
This year, we are switching the electric fence charger with a solar powered one.

My neighbor has one strand of electric running around the perimeter top of his chicken run and then he criss-crossed the top with electric so the hawks etc. couldn't fly in.

So far so good.

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
Awesome! I asked about criss-crossing the top a while back and immediately everybody started talking about chicken wire and bird netting. Has he had good luck with it? I was also considering brightly color contractor twine, more as a visual deterrent.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

criss-crossed the top with electric

That's a wasted effort.
The visible wire is what keeps the hawks out.
It wouldnt shock them if they touched it​

 

[myway57]

I have a hot wire running along the outside about 8 inches above ground, It has work very well. So far I have 1 opossum and 1 squirrel and 1 big bird..

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
That's a wasted effort.
The visible wire is what keeps the hawks out.
It wouldnt shock them if they touched it

Unless you could weave grounded wires into it, of course. And they'd have to touch one hot and one ground. I was more thinking of it as a visual deterrent (thus the contractor twine) and to make it harder for them to "dive".

 

[gallusdomesticus]

I have a two strand electric fence around my shadow box wood fence of the girl's run. One wire six inches off the ground and the top wire is 18inches. It works like a charm....one rat, one possum, one crow killed so far.

 

[peepdaddy]

I have 3 strands of electric fence wire around each coop. One at 4-6 inches (due to unlevel ground), the second at ~12", and the third around the top. The ground wire is attached to a 5' rod driven into the ground and to the run wire. So far no losses to predators. However, the runs do have hardware cloth, a wire apron, and are covered. The coops are locked, at night, with hasps and keyed locks as well as a second hasp and spring fastner!