Electric poultry netting

[munchkinsmommy]

Fenced runs and electric netting serve two different purposes. Think of a fenced run like a corral for cattle or horses. Keeps them confined in a small area. A pasture fence allows them to roam around over a larger area. As large of an area as you have or can afford to have.

Run is very tight and secure, but is expensive to build, so you can only do so much of it. By comparison, electric fencing is relatively cheap to install. Of the two options, poultry netting is expensive compared to E fences made from wire, poly rope, etc. In my experience, the latter are equally effective and a whole lot easier to maintain and install, and cost far, far less.

Wire fences are physical barriers. As such, to be effective, it has to be of the right size to limit passage by a whole lot of animals. Coons and other varmints can slip through some small cracks, can climb and dig. And are strong enough to rip through stuff to open up holes where they can't slip through. So creating physical barriers can be a challenge. Fort Knox was not cheap to build or maintain.

E fences present almost nothing in the way of physical barriers. The only thing they need to do is limit size and shape to such an extent that the target animals will touch it. Only touch it. In doing so, they get a violent (not small, not slight, but VIOLENT) electric shock.

Imagine telling your kid to stay out of the cookie jar. They don't, so you put it up higher and they climb. So you hide it and they find it. You keep doing things to keep them out, but they want a cookie and the reward if they find it is a cookie, with no consequences to them if they do.

But imagine you put that cookie on the counter, and to get it, they have to risk touching a fence with 8,000 volts running through it. Every time they touch it they get a sensation like their arm was just jerked off their shoulder. After a couple jolts of that, that cookie will be left alone.

Animals get this too, but as smart as they are and as determined as they are, that is something beyond their comprehension. They have not clue what an electric fence is, but they know the consequences when they touch it, and quickly decide that whatever is on the other side of that fence is not worth touching that. Avoidance is the key word. So your birds, like that cookie, remains safely tucked away, out of harm's way.

Do you have an E-fence you would recommend?

 

[fistfullofnails]

Do you have an E-fence you would recommend?[/QUOTE

I'm not the one that was posting about this, but we use Premier One Supplies as our source for it. Using the 48 inch tall fence, there are still some chickens that fly over it(mostly our two leghorns, an ameracauna did it once) I don't really count on it to keep night predators out, only to keep stray dogs and foxes out in the day. I go out and shut the chicken coop every evening to keep coons and such out at night. I use hardware cloth for the windows on it and I notice animal prints on it's siding very often, so apparently they try to get in but can't.

I like the electric because I can move it around so that they are never killing the grass down to bare dirt and it's a lot easier to set up than something permanent. One thing that no one seems to mention, is the power bill. Our's has gone up at least 25 dollars per month since we have had it for three months now. I do let the grass grow taller than I probably should around it, so it could be my fault. we also had a refrigerator going bad at the time and that could have something to do with it, time will tell.

Knowing there are at least three that fly around here, I have not had problems with hawks yet. A good reason why though, is that I keep the chicks inside a covered run until they get to adult size. I know the hawks around here will take mourning dove size birds because I've seen it happen a few times.

 

[Dailypix]

We got a fence charger with aluminum wire for the bees in the spring of 2016 after bears got into our two hives. No sign of bears after a second attack which resulted in a few wires knocked out but no damage to the bees.
This year when we introduced chickens I bought an electric poultry fence a few hundred feet long. I relocated the beehives near the new chicken coop and encircled them both in fencing. The webcam spotted raccoons getting in almost immediately. They forcefully attacked the coop but fortunately, it is built strong and the chickens were safe. (I always lock the chickens in the coop for the night). The nature of the nylon fence is the predators can slip underneath fairly easy and it is not much of a deterrent. The length of the nylon fence makes it a bit difficult to clear the grass and weeds all around so it can short out. Also, I am in a pretty rustic setting with lots of trees and uneven rocky ground making set up a challenge. You need a door or need to turn off the current and climb over or open an opening. Climbing over should be easy for a little girl who can jump over an elastic band rope held by her friends (do they still do that?) but for an old guy like me, I got my foot caught in the mesh a few times so I can feel for that deer who got tangled.
Anyway, in two days my hens were flying over it in search of greener pastures. It did not work for me.
I built the 10' x 20' run made of hardware wire over the coop and put a single strand of electric wire around the base. The Raccoons came back for a while but after a few good zaps they have yet to return. I feel pretty safe with the chickens in there. When I am around I open the run and let them free range in the garden. I think our presence keeps the predators away. The chickens go back to the coop by themselves to sleep at night. Lots of hawks around but the chooks seem to know about crow squawks and hide under the cabin or retreat to the run pretty fast. The absence of fencing allows them to make a beeline. I am a bit worried about hawks in the day but the owls only come out at night and the girls are safe in their run by then.
That is my experience with the two forms of protection.