electric fencing, anyone?

[amazondoc]

Yeah, I like the idea of that netting, especially the more permanent version --

http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=93

I'm going to have to read more about the netting, especially things llike expense relative to regular wire, how you deal with gates (different than simple wire, obviously), safety, installation, and so on.

 

[michickenwrangler]

We have 2 x 4 welded wire, 48" high with three strands of electric tape on the outside, 4" 12" and 48" high respectively. The run is trapezoid shaped with the gate at the short end. My fiance just rigged it so that the welded wire bends between 2 T-posts. It's held closed with bungee cords and the plastic gate handles (3 of them) to detach the wire when needed. We have a 2 mile charger and we have it plugged in in the garage out of the elements with the wires running through a tiny hole.

When my parents brought their two inquisitive golden retrievers over, both earned a healthy respect for the fence. A stray cat tried to get through to get at the hens, got zapped and we haven't seen it since. It's a mild hassle to get in and out, but at least we know the chickens are safe.

An acquaintance of ours who works at the local TSC said it wouldn't keep the local black bears out, but my theory is ... if a bear wants the chickens, it can have them! We have enough grubs and blackberries for the bears to munch on

 

[Bren1222]

We have electric fence for our 3 bucket calves. It is solar powered so we don't have to worry about batteries. Covers about 5 acres. We put little orange flags on the wires so the kids know where it is at and they know to stay away.

We are very careful about keeping the weeds down and away from the fence. It worked great until I was at my kitchen sink on Friday morning and I looked up and there were the cows all staring at me like I was a dork! I had to go out and shake my grain bucket to get them back in.

We have an electric fence tester (good idea, no more wondering if the darn thing is working) needless to say it wasn't working. We took the fencer back to the store we bought it at (that was about a month ago) and they gave us a new one for free! We didn't even have the box it came in.

We use the plastic handles where the gate is at. This way we just unhook the handles and walk through if we need to get in the cow lot.

Good luck they work well but I do test mine every fews days just to make sure it is working.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
Good idea, thanks! I'll make sure I get a tester. And it looks like I'll need a weed whacker too!

 

[patandchickens]

addressing miscellaneous topics:

-- the most common way for birds to get killed by electric fences, and yes it does happen, is when a bird sits on an energized wire and brushes against an adjacent metal t-post. Game over.

-- you DO still have to worry about batteries when you have a solar charger, because what do you think keeps it working when the sun isn't shining?

The solar charger has a battery in it, and if you run the battery flat-dead (or do it too many times anyhow, depending what type battery you have) it will no longer hold a charge and your fence will be non-electric from sundown to sunup. If your solar-charger battery is more than a few years old you really ought to go out there just before the sun comes up and test it...

-- fence material matters considerably unless your charger is massively larger than you need. Heavy-gauge aluminum wire is more conductive than smaller-gauge steel wire; hgh-quality (expensive) electrobraid or electric rope is more conductive than cheapo-brand electric tape; ANYthing is more conductive than electromesh fencing

, etcetera. The difference between a high- and low-resistant material can, in a number of cases, mean the difference between an adequately charged fence vs one that everything just walks right through.

-- amazondoc, call Premier and tell the nice people that you are on rock with just a coupla inches of soil and see what they recommend. It makes a big difference vs being on 'real earth' so to speak.

-- if you are contemplating using electronet (incl. the pos-neutral electronet) you need to have a good Plan for preventing weed growth from grounding out the lowest strands.

-- it is quite difficult to find data on electric fence injuries/fatalities, mostly I think just because of not having easy access to the right literature. However you might contemplate the following links, which despite the controversy seem pretty clear that people DO sometimes die from electric fence accidents. And even *if* all the accidents involve some version or another of getting hung up in the fence (which is not clear that is the case), they do NOT seem to all involve blatantly-dangerous installations (such as electrifying barbwire) or stupid actions. There seems to me to be pretty good reason to believe that anyone can just get unlucky. And thus it is wise to a) not be smug about the safety of one's fence, and b) go
the extra yard to make it as safe as possible.

http://202.125.172.193/energy/worki...sing_electricity_safely/electric_fence_safety
http://www.nzfarmersweekly.co.nz/cg...ticle_id=2599&view=view_printable&border=none
http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/news/articles/2003-04/CanterburyFarming-06-04.shtml
http://www.premier1supplies.com/lis...43&P1SSESSID=582855f9babce16da1ef7b38a295098e
(at bottom of page, under 'please read')

I just think it's a good thing to be aware of.

Pat

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
So -- if you were using a hot wire in *addition* to a regular fence, so that the hot wire was close to the regular fence, would you therefore have a high risk of killing birds that might sit on the hot wire and then brush the regular fence wire?

ANYthing is more conductive than electromesh fencing

, etcetera.

Does this mean that poultry netting is a bad idea?

-- amazondoc, call Premier and tell the nice people that you are on rock with just a coupla inches of soil and see what they recommend. It makes a big difference vs being on 'real earth' so to speak.

Will do!

-- if you are contemplating using electronet (incl. the pos-neutral electronet) you need to have a good Plan for preventing weed growth from grounding out the lowest strands.

That I can do. A good weed whacker oughtta do the job.

Thanks for the added info!​