Electric Poultry Netting??

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Quote:
Did you buy the stronger doublespike PermNet? It is on eight foot centers, and the posts are more robust. Furthermore, it is a simple affair to use intermediate posts, like they sell at Tractor Supply, to prop up the net over small hills. Plastic tent stakes work well also to secure the net to dips in the terrain.

 

[greyfields]

Once they switched to double spiked posts, most those problems went away.

Also, if you just mow the grass around where the perimeter will be,t he bottom wire zappign the ground isn't an issue. Or, in my case, my fence charger is big enough that it just cooks the grass and there is no short.

I will say one thing against it. If the power goes out, or somehow I forget to turn it on, I've lost more birds strangling themselves in it than I have to predators. If you use it, it *must* be electricfied.

I live amongst turkey vultures, bald eagles, golden eagles, osprey, 12,000 varieties of hawks and falcons. Of those, I've only ever lost birds to great horned owls, and then it's minimal. Just grow enough extra and realize that sometimes you lose a few to mother nature and we're part of the food chain too.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

No I don't have the double spiked post... however may give those a shot. I will go with a higher fence too if I try them again.


I thought about using the tent stakes to keep the bottom down and to keep it tight... so this does work? I will have to try it.

What kind of charger are you using? I have the p-5 that they sell and the thing is junk. I don't think it gives off a strong enough zap... but that could be from the grass. I do mow strips where the fence will be as it does help tremendously.

 

[greyfields]

One of these:

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=399&cat_id=54

And one of these:

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=398&cat_id=54

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

I have found that one needs to cut the botom 2 wires on the fence at each end post and the shorting out goes away. I have never had a predator go under the fence.

But I will say if you are not on flat land they are a pain in the @** to get all set up right. It takes alot of those plastic posts to help secure it in all the highs and lows.

I have used mine for turkeys,chickens,broilers,goats,calves and pigs. It works for the most part as long as you have it electrified at all times, they can sense when it is off !!!

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
Who has that kind of money laying around??! My egg money will NEVER pay for those. :^(

I guess that's why i'm a hillbilly chicken farmer...

 

[greyfields]

Well I have cows, dairy goats, meat sheep, ducks, geese, llamas, broilers, pigs, laying hens, border collies, Greyhounds and am surrounded by coyotes. It's cheap insurance compared to the losses you can sustain from predation or your goats eating hundreds of pounds of broiler feed.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

which height netting did you use?

I used 48" netting. My egg-layers can easily fly that, and as others have pointed out there are many reasons not to clip their wings.

If you're raising broilers in an area of flat terrain and are willing to accept losses from airborne predators, then electric netting might work for you. Under different circumstances, another solution might be to use top netting, but then you get into more expense and complication with setup and moving.

The temporary run that works for me is enclosures of 48" tall 2" mesh wire strung around heavy duty steel T-posts with a polyethylene top-net. A 50'X50' enclosure costs me about $270 and is harder to move than electric netting, but it's cheaper and less hassle in the long run.​

 

[Bossroo]

I have the Hot Shock 1000 110 v Ac Energizer around my pasture. One of my weanling fillies just loves to put her butt against the HOT wire and get her butt scratched , err... zapped by it, every day and really enjoys it. My neighbor across the street also has one to protect his 17 sheep plus their lambs in his corral. The coyotes just jump the fence with no problem and in one night killed 9 lambs. He now uses a .223 on the coyotes when his Border collie starts to bark.Too, the soil must be moist so that the animals feet are in contact with the moist soil and when the animal touches the wire to complete the circuit, they get zapped. When the soil dries out in the summertime when we have NO rain here in Cal., the animals don't get zapped at all even when they make full contact and the energiser is on. Small birds land on my electrified fence wire all the time and don't get zapped at all. If anyone or animal or bird touches only one high voltage wire on a power pole , no poblem. But, Touch another wire or the ground at the same time , you are a gonner. In my area, Deer jump over electric fences all the time too.

 

[Buster52]

You can set up electric fencing so that touching a single strand will still shock even if the critter isn't touching the ground.