electric fencing

[Howard E]

My fence tester (some call them a "fault finder") has a probe on one end that is inserted into the ground. The other has a stub that touches the hot wire. The tester measures the voltage going through the system.



A less painful way to test it (the old school way we did it before testers were around) was to take an insulated object, like plastic handled screwdriver. Holding the plastic part in your hand.......press metal shaft of the screwdriver against a metal grounded object......like a steel T post stuck in the ground......the move the tip of the screwdriver over to the wire. As the gap closes to about 1mm or so, a hot fence will induce a spark to jump the gap. Essentially, make yourself a spark plug. If it is sparking, it is going to hurt!

As for touching it, I would encourage any non-believers in the effectiveness of and E fence to touch a hot fence.....just walk up and grab it so you know what the sensation is. Unless you have a pacemaker, weak heart or something, it won't do permanent damage. You really should try it.....at least twice, maybe three or four times. Better yet, hang on and see how many jolts you can take in a row. My personal best was four times.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

NO.

 

[Raptorsgocluck]

NO.

Aww just try it once, it's shocking how much fun it can be! On a serious note I gotta get me that fault finder Howard E mentioned. I had no idea they made a tool like that! Last time I checked it my feet were wet and I didn't think about it. I touched it to check it and it felt like I took a shot gun to the chest.

 

[Chickylove12]

I have both poultry netting and also use wire and poly tape fences, and prefer the latter.

Poultry netting looks like regular woven wire fence, and thus looks like it would work better, but I'm not sure it does. I suspect animals see it the same way as woven wire, so jump over it. With wire and poly fences, in strands, they try to crawl through or under it and get it that way. You can also bait it to hasten their journey to discovery. A sniff or lick on a hot fence will put them out of the mood faster than anything short of #4 buckshot.

Also poultry netting is far more expensive, far less versatile and harder to maintain than strand types.

Once bitten by a seriously hot fence.......the closest thing to a near death experience most varmints will have encountered to date.....will send them packing and very few return for a 2nd dose.

Starting my 4th year and no birds lost to a predator yet. Secure coop at night and E fence standing guard during the day.

I live in Ontario Canada.. how would electric work in snow? I guess it wouldn't..

 

[Molpet]

I live in Ontario Canada.. how would electric work in snow? I guess it wouldn't..

nope it shorts out in wet snow

 

[Howard E]

We had a 20 inch snowfall event last winter that buried all 4 wires in wet heavy snow.



Interesting observation.......it didn't matter, fencer kept running and did not short out.......Except..........

It turns out that pure water....and pure snow.....does not conduct electricity all that well. So pure snow actually acts as an insulator. Animals......varmints......standing on deep pure snow may be able to contact the wires and not feel a shock. Not much you can do about that. Shovel the snow? Not me.

But around these parts, that is a temporary situation.......works fine the rest of the time.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My poor Golden (long ago and far away) once urinated on a clump of tall grass that had grown up around electric fence intended to keep horses in. I have no idea what the voltage was, but that was a horrible thing to do to a dog!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@Howard E - have you ever hit any open-mic comedy clubs? You'd be a hoot.