electric poultry net

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You need: the electromesh fence, a charger, something to stick into the ground as a ground rod (you'd use one or more lengths of 1" galvanized water pipe for a serious stock fence but for a chicken paddock you could probably just use a 3' length of rebar) and a clamp to attach the ground rod to the lead from the charger. You will almost certainly want a few plastic step-in posts or something like that to tie back the corners of the electromesh paddock for greater support vs wind. Plus you *might* need some double-insulated electric fence cable if the charger has to be housed some ways away from the fence.

Plug-in will be cheaper than battery (and MUCH cheaper than solar), as long as your power supply is reliable enough and the fence will not be too awfully far from wherever the charger is. (It must be under cover i.e. not exposed to rain and so forth, and it is by far smartest to build a little OUTDOORS hut for it just outside the building where it's plugged in rather than placing it actually inside a garage or barn or anything like that, b/c of the fire risk). To run the electricity from the charger out to the fence, buy double-insulated electric fence wire (note that it must be double-insulated and it must be sold for electric fencing -- household insulated cable WILL NOT DO IT). Put it somewhere you won't be tripping on it or running the lawn mower over it
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If you don't go with plug-in, it will almost surely make more sense to go battery-operated rather than solar. Solar actually still does need a new battery every few years and the purchase cost is MUCH higher.

How often you need to replace the battery depends a whole lot on things like how much fence you're running off what size charger; how lazy you get about letting weeds etc ground the fence out; and how much of the year you're using it.

I would suggest talking to the nice folks at www.premier1supplies.com about charger selection - they have excellent quality products for good prices and GREAT customer service. They could also advise what ground rod setup would be appropriate.

Remember you will have to move the fence and mow under it before the grass grows very much.

(e.t.a. - cost depends on how much of what you get. I got 80' [if I recall correctly] of electromesh for like $100 or so; if you buy premier's chargers you will pay like $100-150 but if you ONLY ever want to run a length or two of electromesh off it you might could do better with a well-chosen Zareba or Red Snapp'r or whatever from the farm store, like $50-100 depending whether you go plugin or battery and what size you get); step in posts should be like $2 each or so at the farm store; and double-insulated fence cable is something along the lines of $10 for 25 feet or that sort of general ballpark.)


Pat, who has some in the garage but will not use it til I get some broiler chicks next month, but is a big fan of the quality of Premier's products for the electric fencing for our horses.
 
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I use it and I love it. I went with the solar charger. We used to use a battery operated one for the horses as there was no place to plug into anywhere near the paddock and it got costly to buy a new battery all the time so we went solar with that also. Eventually you have to buy a new battery for the solar but in the long run for us it was not as expensive as buying the batteries all the time for a battery operated one.
 
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We ordered ours from Premier. however, when hubby ordered it, he forgot, (ahem) to order the solar panel. so now, we will order that, but it will be a while before that happens, as other bulls take precedence.

My dh gets "used" batteries from his work. Batteries that basically are just replaced, even though there is still life in them, so batteries are not an issue for us, as, even though they may not last as long as a new battery, he has an endless source of them.

As Pat said, Talk to premier, they were really helpful with their info, and the price we paid is the same as what it says on the website.
 

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