Electric Poultry Netting with Baby Chicks

[Kodapop17]

Good morning everyone,

After two years of free ranging our chickens with no predator issues, a local fox has finally realized they are here and has taken all but 3 of our hens. We are looking at installing some electric poultry netting because we have heard great things about it but my concern is this: We have a broody hen that we use to replenish our flock (she is currently sitting on 8 eggs now) but I was not sure if the electric fence would be dangerous to the baby chicks or if it would also just be a surprise to them like it is to their mom / other hens. We could obviously turn it off / remove it when they hatch but my experience is that the chicks are little escape artists and will often find themselves on the opposite side of a fence from their mom which is not the best place for them to be.

Thanks

 

[azygous]

I'm not entirely sure about poultry netting, but electric fence hot wire can kill small birds that manage to ground themselves while it has little effect on adult chickens, although I know they feel it.

It has to do with body mass, I am guessing, and being grounded. I wouldn't take the chance with tiny babies surviving the shock.

 

[Krugerrand]

@3KillerBs - didn't I see a post of yours recently with an inner fence inside the poultry netting to block chicks? I can't in find it.

 

[Penpal]

Little chickens will run right through the netting. They don't need to touch it, they just hop over the wires. They have to be pretty big before the netting stops them. My orpington were about 12 weeks old before they couldn't squeeze through. Their feathers protect them from getting shocked. That being said, poultry netting has smaller holes at the bottom than sheep netting, be sure to get the 48" poultry netting.

If you know when predators are lucking, you can let the chicks out when it is safe and get them back into a secure enclosure before danger lurks. If you have electric netting you can keep it around the general area to keep predators out, and also have a set up with chicken wire or hardware cloth to keep chicks in.

 

[Kodapop17]

Little chickens will run right through the netting. They don't need to touch it, they just hop over the wires. They have to be pretty big before the netting stops them. My orpington were about 12 weeks old before they couldn't squeeze through. Their feathers protect them from getting shocked. That being said, poultry netting has smaller holes at the bottom than sheep netting, be sure to get the 48" poultry netting.

If you know when predators are lucking, you can let the chicks out when it is safe and get them back into a secure enclosure before danger lurks. If you have electric netting you can keep it around the general area to keep predators out, and also have a set up with chicken wire or hardware cloth to keep chicks in.

You hit on one of the key issues I have with the little guys is that they just squeeze through the fencing I have on the run (I converted an old dog run into a run with chicken wire and chain link which works really well for everyone but the chicks). Last year I was able to just let everyone out together and we didn't lose any but I am worried this year with the numbers down to 3 and there being a predator that knows the chickens are around now. I am thinking of leaving them in the coop until well after sun up and then making frequent walks around their grazing area with the dog to deter anything from coming to close and hoping it works.

 

[3KillerBs]

@3KillerBs - didn't I see a post of yours recently with an inner fence inside the poultry netting to block chicks? I can't in find it.

I'm at work and my lunch break is about over but I'll see if I can find a photo when I get home.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have broody hens with chicks inside poultry netting all the time. The issues are not what you seem to think they are.

The current is not a steady current. It pulses about 50 times a minute. If it were a steady current it would kill whatever touched it because they would not be able to let go. But since it pulses they can let go. The shock kind of throws them off. Trust me, if you are bitten by that current you will turn loose and so will anything else that can. I've never had a chicken injured. I have seen an adult touch a hot wire with its beak, comb, or wattles. It squawks, jumps back and up about 3 feet, and then resumes foraging.

I have had three snapping turtles caught in the netting. Every time the current pulsed they jerked. After I got them loose two of them eventually wandered off. I never found bodies so I assume they were OK. The third one died, may have been there all night. A five feet long rat snake once got in that netting. I guess it tried to go forward instead of back up. It died. I found a couple of dead frogs in that netting, my guess is that it takes too long for them to jump away. Once I found an adult possum tangled in the netting. I think it just got tangled up and could not get out. Possum are kind of slow moving anyway. It died but it wasn't the electricity that killed it. It was still alive when I found it. I won't tell you there is no danger, especially if the critter is slow moving. I will repeat I've never had a chick or chicken injured by it.

With electric netting each horizontal wire except the bottom one on the ground is a hot wire. The soil is your ground. For a critter to get shocked they have to touch a hot wire while also touching the soil. A predator's fur insulates it but the bare soles of their feet, a tongue, or nose conduct electricity. Many predators can jump over the fence but that is not their first move. They inspect it with their nose first, get shocked, and run away, usually to not come back and try it again. Some people put peanut butter on it at first to encourage them to lock it and get shocked so they can run away and not return.

Young chicks can go right through the netting without getting shocked. Their down or feathers can insulate them but that's not what protects them. The chicken netting holes get bigger as you go up the fence. To get through a hole they jump up, land on the hot horizontal wire, and go on through. They never touch the soil when up there so they do not get shocked.

The chicks can go through the electric netting but the broody hens cannot. Some broody hens let their chicks go through but most call them back to her. I don't know what your broody hen will do so I don't know how much risk they are in.

My full-sized breed chicks can get through that netting until they are around 7 to 8 weeks old. I've had a broody hen wean her chicks at 3 weeks though some wait until over two months. I sometimes have 5 week old brooder raised chicks in there, no broody. I have had some chicks that size foraging outside the netting though they always return inside to sleep or to get feed or water. It is not every chick or even every brood. Some years it is really rare, other years more common. It's amazing how different each brood can be. The size and configuration of the area inside the netting plays a part. The bigger the better obviously, but a pen with a narrow section is worse than one more square or at least wide instead of narrow.

It will be interesting to see what 3KillerBs comes up with. I could see electric netting to keep predators out and a small mesh fence inside that to keep the chicks in.

 

[3KillerBs]

This is probably the best photo I have of my plastic netting and U-post inner curtain last year. I'm wanting to get some step-in posts to use instead of the U-posts since they're so inconvenient and since I have more important uses for them in my garden and orchard.

Warning, it is possible for chickens to get between the layers and get stuck -- unable to figure out how to get back out the way they got in. Most of the time they can be herded back to whatever gap they created (usually underneath), or cornered in a blind area and lifted back out with no issues beyond verbal complaints.

But I did have a tragic loss of a cockerel who got stuck there overnight in a freak situation. I *think* he panicked and broke his neck -- which may have been as much about being out of the coop at night as about the electric net. That particular cockerel was always panicking about anything and everything.