Electrifying our chicken run?

[Clay Valley Farmer]

a hot wire just a couple inches off the ground does well at detering skunks, racoons and other small critters. Most all in one solar chargers come up short on shock factor, 0.05 joules is not going to stop a determined preditor. There are some that have a decent sized solar cell and more powerfull charger but they will set you back at least a few hundred bucks.

I picked up a couple of the bigger 12 volt chargers, hooked up some solar panels I found on sale and a couple old car batteries for much less. with about 10,000v on the wires ther is no question they will deter chicken eaters. a big car battery on its own will run a good sized charger for weeks, if you don't mind swaping and charging batteries you can skip on the solar part.

A fencing voltage tester is a handy item. Knowing you are getting over 5000 volts to ground is comforting.

Another thing too that many people skip on, is installing ground wires. If the earth is dry or rocky even the best fencer can fail to give enough shock, hooking up alternating ground and hot wires in the fence will fix that problem and ensure full power is delivered.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Here is an artical with some pretty in depth testing of different units.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/eng3060/$FILE/752.pdf

 

[mjuenem]

My guess is the cheaper battery fencers are skimping on shock potential to help extend battery life. Not a good trade-off since the whole reason for a fencer is to deter predators. You are right in suggesting the more-expensive alternatives. I haven't see a "good" battery/solar fencer for under $200.

 

[harveyhorses]

Most of the new battery types don't pack much of a punch over the distance they are supposed to cover, i'm not sure how they would do on just a coop and run. Helped a neighbor put some up around his garden, his ground rod was just silly, he went and bought a piece of rebar (the whole time grumbling that his first one was fine) drove it in about 4 ft. He had been convinced his charger was bad, glad he didn't have a pace maker.

I have used a plug in charger inside my garage and run a length of the underground wire to the fence, I didn't want the extention cord across the yard.

 

[wyoDreamer]

If you can, install the ground rod near the spot where a roof drain runs. The downspout will keep the soil moister and increase the effectiveness of the ground rods. Working for the county conservation district, we were working with a strawberry farmer with deer issues, he installed three ground rods, wired in series and located 3 feet from the downspout of his house roof.

 

[dlynne1123]

This is no where near our house so we went with the solar. It's supposed to feed 3000 Watts and it's a 12 volt battery that we charged ahead of time. One of the dogs caught it accidentally and she screamed. It's definitely working. Hope it's enough to zap a raccoon or skunk.

 

[dlynne1123]

http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/electric-fence-chargers/sp3

A zareba charger is what I got from TSC. It sounds scary with the zapping!!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

When joule ratings are thrown out without being accompanied by a shock duration spec, the term is useless as a decision tool. A high joule rating (all else being equal) is easy to obtain by simply lengthening the shock duration.

That is true, and any decent charger sold now will pulse rather than stay on continuously.

Most are only on for 1/10th of a second, every 1-2 seconds, though you often have to search for the specs on them​