Electric fencing question...........

[gabby3535]

I am planning to provide as much of a Fort Knox of a 20 x 30 ft. run for my chickens that I can afford.
Part of my plan, for those climbing predators, is to have 3 strands of electric wire running around the entire
perimeter. I was planning one strand at ground level, another 1/2-way up (at 3 feet), and the third strand along the top.
With, say, 2 inch insulators to hold the wire off the actual fence itself.
Do the 3 levels of wire sound about right? (vs. 3 strands at the top only......) or is there a better way?
Also, do 2 inch insulators sound right?
Any electric fence advice for this application would be appreciated.
(I plan on a 14 volt (big zap!) charger to power the wire............and initially "baiting" the fence with bacon........................so those
who might be drawn-in by the smell, and who might venture to bite down on the bacon, would, um, NEVER think to do "that" again!!!!)
Thanks in advance!

 

[miss_jayne]

you don't need to bait them. they can sense it pretty well.

you might, however, want to remind yourself, so as you don't get popped!

(ask my DH, it hurts. of course, he keeps bumping it!)

 

[patandchickens]

This is going to be run as stand-off strands attached to your run fence, yes? If so, I would seriously consider a longer standoff, like, the longest insulator you can get. Reason being, if your charged wire is too close to noncharged wires (running more or less parallel for a good distance, I mean, not just crossing past) some of the charge will transfer to the noncharged wire by induction. This will mess up the charge on your fence (worst case scenario it can even make it impossible to keep your fence wire charged); and if the noncharged wire is not very firmly grounded it can cause it to be lightly charged as well, which can yeild unpleasant surprises for you and for livestock

The ground level wire should probably be like 6" or so off the ground, and you will have to be VERY careful to keep weeds/grass cut down below it, and make it so that you can manually disconnect that bottom wire when there is wet snow on the ground (as it will otherwise ground out your fence). (Hint: if you use an insulated gatehandle as the means of making that separable connection, you won't have to remember to turn the charger off before disconnecting that bottom wire in a snowstorm, which means you won't *forget* to turn the charger off before doing it, which means you are less likely to get knocked on your *ss by it

)

Be real, real careful with intentionally oversizing a charger...

You will kill more animals that way, and even tho the risk to humans is low it is not zero no matter what some people prefer to think and the more oversized the charger the more (tho small) chance of a serious problem.

Baiting won't hurt but inasmuch as predators move in and out of areas a whole lot as time goes by I am not sure it will do much good in the long run. Unless you are already having problems with a specific individual, then it might be well worthwhile.

Good luck and have fun,

Pat