electric fencing, anyone?

[farmgirlie1031]

Quote:
Hmm? I've seen lots of birds sitting on my electric fence with no ill effects. The hummingbird rests on the electric tape daily and seems just fine. I know there is an electric poultry netting just for poultry so I don't see why they would sale it just for poultry if it would "fry" them.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Maybe it's just coincidence, then. We've found dead birds lying right beneath the fence-line just after putting up new fence. Maybe we had something connected irregularly at one point. Obviously, we've been putting way too much trust in electric fencing being safe, too. There's always more to learn, so I'm glad for places like this.

 

[amazondoc]

Great info, guys, thanks!

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Ahhh. Thanks!

2. Err on the side of "too much" charge, within reason. Chargers measure strength in miles, generally.

Right. So far, I have seen 3 mile and 20 mile.

Thanks for your comment about the 12 pound poodle. I don't want to end up killing squirrels or birds or whatever inadvertently. How about if a chicken manages to hit it?

I would put the fence up on the boundary with the neighbor, and also post several little signs, one every few feet, facing out that way, and talk to your neighbor about it as well.

I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to risk having the neighbor kid hit the fence, but I'll think about it. Thanks for the input!

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Ahhhhh.....making a parallel circuit? I think I can remember that far back into college.......

There are tables of how much charge you need to contain (or in the case of predators, exclude) different kinds of animals.

I'll look for some of those tables, thanks!

Your charger needs to be sized according to how much length of what type of fence material you will have, and what your soil conditions are, and what kind(s) of animals you're trying to impress.

Oh, great, more details to figure out.

I will definitely consult with Premier, thanks!

And 2) you don't want your ground rod(s) installed near buried power, phone or water lines...

That shouldn't be a problem. There isn't any buried power or phone anywhere close by, and only one water line -- so it would be easy to avoid.

Electric fences are wonderful, if designed intelligently and installed and maintained CORRECTLY (so many are not) and treated with a modicum of respect.

This is what's worrying me. I don't want to end up doing it wrong, and creating some unforeseen problem!

Hm, if your land "is solid rock" you may not be able to use a conventional electric fence anyhow... they rely on the water content of the soil to provide a conductive path to complete the circuit.

Uh-oh. It very nearly IS solid. Every fence post-hole but one had to be jack-hammered. I kid you not.

There is a few inches of soil, and in some places enough soil to support trees, but there is a lot of surface rock and the whole thing is basically a smear of clay over solid limestone.

Look into "positive-neutral" fence designs, where instead of hooking the ground terminal of the fence up to ground rods, you hook them up to alternate wire strands on the fence. An animal thus completes the circuit, and gets zapped, by touching BOTH types of fence wire AT ONCE.

Oh, no, more research!

But thanks for the thought!​

 

[ninjapoodles]

I don't know what would happen to a chicken who hit a hot-wire...all ours are on the outside of the poultry areas. I'm glad Pat chimed in to correct the stuff I had wrong, so I didn't give you a false sense of security based on just our experience. I know better than to make generalizations based on a sample of, um, ONE. Really, I do. Sorry about that!

Maybe I can blame all those times I got zapped in the HEAD by the hot-wire?

 

[ninjapoodles]

Also, I'm wondering now if our bird-killing fence was controlled by the "weed-burner" charger we used to have. We don't have it any more (it wore out). It had either a longer, or "hotter" pulse than a regular fence, specifically so that weeds would not short it out. In hindsight, that seems like really not such a great idea.

 

[panner123]

Well I have used electric fence for some time now with nothing ever being killed by it. Could be because it was installed corectly. I will grant that electric should be repected. My present fence puts out at least 7000 volts, I say at least because that is as high as my meter goes. It is a pilg in, the only type I use. I will touch it any place someone wants me to, with no real ill effects. As for the old wives tale about peeing on it, I will do that too. There you won't even get a tingle. There is one possile way a bird could get shocked on the fence. That being it was able to touch the electric wire and another wire at the same time and that wire needed to be grounded.

I have read so much B S about electric fences, my poor old brain hurts. I am telling everyone, the only place I was able to get a straight answer was from American Fence Supply Co., they are located in Texas. Their e-mail is afence.com

 

[amazondoc]

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And that's one of the things that worries me. I KNOW there's a lot of BS about electric fences out there, but I don't know enough about the fences to know what's BS and what isn't!

 

[ninjapoodles]

I've used it for nearly 18 years, too, with no problems other than zapping my own stupid self by leaning into it. When I read Pat's scary post, I went searching, and while I didn't (yet) find any actual stories about electric fence injuries, I did find multiple references to electric-fence fatalities being "very low," which means that they DO exist. All the scenarios I could find described, though, had to do with getting trapped or hung up (like in electrified barbed-wire) so that someone received prolonged or repeated shocks, or somehow getting in some water while tangled up in the fence, or people with heart irregularities or pacemakers, etc. Still, it was enough to be scary.

I also realize that, in answering AmazonDoc's original post, I should have been more circumspect, and instead of, for example, saying that it "doesn't harm a 12-pound miniature poodle," I should have said that MY fence never injured MY 12-pound miniature poodles.

I would hate to have made a statement that caused someone to get careless around something that might get someone hurt.

 

[wishin4chicken]

We have an electric fence for our horses and, I hate to admit, I've bumped into it on several occasions. Definitely gave me a good jump

but I certainly don't remember it being painful. We have field fencing with a hot wire running around the top and about six inches from the bottom. Life got much easier once the electric fence went in.

 

[MissPrissy]

I have goats in one field and sheep in another and a pig in another. Ours is regulated for 100 miles of fence.

This is some very good info if you are of a mind to read a bit -

http://www.zarebasystems.com/products/fence_planning_electric_faq.aspx