Electric poutkrt fencing

[Driley62]

Hello all!

I'm looking into extending my run for my birds(12 adults and 9 in a brooder that will be added later). But right now with the cost of materials I'm looking at extending it in the less traditional fashion of rolled fencing bordered and buried with hardware cloth and instead using this electrified poultry fencing I spotted at runnings. It's an 82 foot long section and is about 4 foot high. It's perfect when it comes to a one man one day project but have a couple concerns with it before I make the purchase.

1) will my birds be escape artists with the fencing? My smallest breed is "ameraucana" and white leghorn and I'm on the fence of weather I want to clip wings or not. Part of me says no to allow them to have the ability to escape any potential predator if need be(in case of a predator jumping and clearing the fence).

2) I saw on another thread it did fantastic at keeping the foxes at bay which is my main problem. But will the foxes dig or jump the fence?

I'm not super concerned about hawks as the area the roam(or am about to) is under heavy canopy cover plus they're locked up tight at night. The two photos attached is a photo of the current run(10x10) and the new coop I built with the old one off to the side. Where the extension will go.

Thanks everyone!

 

[DobieLover]

Do you have power to the coop? Where will you put the charger?
Driving the ground rods will be fun with all those tree roots!
The birds generally don't fly over the fence. They fly/jump up to the top of fences/gates then go over the other side. Netting doesn't have a solid top so they don't try to fly over that.
My net is 42" high and my flock doesn't fly over. But when then they were first contained to their pen I had to heavily clip wings to keep them fly getting out over the wood gates. Once they got used to it they stopped trying to get out and subsequent generations have never tried. No one is clipped now.
The thing about electric fences is they are more of a mental deterrent. When you first put that fence up, ground predators come up and sniff it. That's when they get a shock to the nose and they will turn tail and run in the opposite direction.
I've kept a local black bear out of my pen with my electric fence. Do not go cheap on a charger. I run a 10,000 volt charger. I wouldn't do anything less than that.

 

[Driley62]

Do you have power to the coop? Where will you put the charger?
Driving the ground rods will be fun with all those tree roots!
The birds generally don't fly over the fence. They fly/jump up to the top of fences/gates then go over the other side. Netting doesn't have a solid top so they don't try to fly over that.
My net is 42" high and my flock doesn't fly over. But when then they were first contained to their pen I had to heavily clip wings to keep them fly getting out over the wood gates. Once they got used to it they stopped trying to get out and subsequent generations have never tried. No one is clipped now.
The thing about electric fences is they are more of a mental deterrent. When you first put that fence up, ground predators come up and sniff it. That's when they get a shock to the nose and they will turn tail and run in the opposite direction.
I've kept a local black bear out of my pen with my electric fence. Do not go cheap on a charger. I run a 10,000 volt charger. I wouldn't do anything less than that.

I do not have a ground wire ran to the coop. I planned on going solar on the charger to avoid having to dig and run ground wire.

 

[Driley62]

Do you have power to the coop? Where will you put the charger?
Driving the ground rods will be fun with all those tree roots!
The birds generally don't fly over the fence. They fly/jump up to the top of fences/gates then go over the other side. Netting doesn't have a solid top so they don't try to fly over that.
My net is 42" high and my flock doesn't fly over. But when then they were first contained to their pen I had to heavily clip wings to keep them fly getting out over the wood gates. Once they got used to it they stopped trying to get out and subsequent generations have never tried. No one is clipped now.
The thing about electric fences is they are more of a mental deterrent. When you first put that fence up, ground predators come up and sniff it. That's when they get a shock to the nose and they will turn tail and run in the opposite direction.
I've kept a local black bear out of my pen with my electric fence. Do not go cheap on a charger. I run a 10,000 volt charger. I wouldn't do anything less than that.

I planned on the power wizard pw50s charger has a 7k voltage. My need for deterrence is fox. Bears are just about non existent in my immediate area. Not saying they're not here but they are very few and far between. They're more prominent in the mountains about a 30 minute drive from me.

 

[DobieLover]

I do not have a ground wire ran to the coop. I planned on going solar on the charger to avoid having to dig and run ground wire.

How are you going to run a solar charger under heavy canopy cover?
You still need to connect the charger to ground rods for it to function.

 

[Driley62]

How are you going to run a solar charger under heavy canopy cover?
You still need to connect the charger to ground rods for it to function.

I'm going to place the solar charger in a part of my yard nearby where the area I plan to fence and run insulated wire as a connecting wire so it will get sun. Not sure if I want to mount it on my shed or mount it on a aluminum post.

 

[Driley62]

How are you going to run a solar charger under heavy canopy cover?
You still need to connect the charger to ground rods for it to function

Most of my back yard is open to the skies but I don't have a large property. So im making use of what would otherwise be a dead space on my property because my wife doesn't want the trees removed because it does provide good shade for our children's play yard just in front of the coop and run.

 

[DobieLover]

I'm going to place the solar charger in a part of my yard nearby where the area I plan to fence and run insulated wire as a connecting wire so it will get sun. Not sure if I want to mount it on my shed or mount it on a aluminum post.

The charger needs to be protected from the elements. The insulated wire you're talking about is called a lead out wire and it has to be of the correct gauge in order to carry the voltage. The longer that wire is the more voltage drop you're going to get and the weaker fence you're going to have. Bringing you back to, you want the punchiest charger you can get.

 

[Driley62]

How are you going to run a solar charger under heavy canopy cover?
You still need to connect the charger to ground rods for it to function.

It's one of those things that if you could see in person what I'm thinking(hard to accomplish with pictures) you'd better understand haha. Immediately overhead where I want to place the extension is big maples but 15-30 feet(spot depending) is the edge of the canopy with open skies in my back yard. Again it's easier to see what I envision in person versus discussion. Best I can do is show you two pictures. The first is me standing right next to the coop looking forward toward the back of my home and second is with my back to the existing 10x10 run. The fencing I'm looking at is and 82 foot long fence which will basically encompass all of the space to the grass line you see in the second photo plus go back some to come back around the the back corner of the existing run(with a lil bit of fence play to get it to meet of course. The 3rd photo is standing on the opposite back corner of the shed in photo two and photo 3 is looking south west. Which is where I intend on placing the charger is along the south wall of the shed facing somewhat in the s-sw direction to optimize use. The review I read from another individual with the same charger I'm looking at has a similar situation. Their charger only sees 4 hours of light and said it is charged perfectly fine for the use it gets. Actually turned away a few foxes.

 

[Driley62]

The charger needs to be protected from the elements. The insulated wire you're talking about is called a lead out wire and it has to be of the correct gauge in order to carry the voltage. The longer that wire is the more voltage drop you're going to get and the weaker fence you're going to have. Bringing you back to, you want the punchiest charger you can get.

That's where you lost me. Something designed to be outside needs to be protected from the elements?