Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Shadrach]

I don't think I will finish today. I will need my daughter to update the plans so I can include them. That might take a day or so. This is really a huge undertaking. I knew it would be big but I had no idea how much work it would be.

Articles are quite a lot of effort; well, good ones are.

 

[RoyalChick]

2 miles! That’s amazing! You did a great job with this.

Thank you. I was a bit intimidated but very pleased with how it turned out. I only electrified that one area and I plan to extend and hopefully create a protected garden area for them too in the spring.

 

[Shadrach]

Hopefully this will help.
So far nobody has dug under the skirt. They find little gaps where the horizontal skirt joins the vertical hardware cloth. They are fixed together but not tightly enough it seems.
In terms of the hot wire set up it is still a bit temporary but here are the parts.
1) This is where the juice comes from. It is the only expensive part of the set-up. It is a solar panel fixed to a 6 Volt battery.
View attachment 2413246

2) This is the hot wire. I set it up as a loop with one low down and one higher up. I set the heights after observing the raccoon behavior. They poke their nose low down and stand up and lean their paws higher up.

View attachment 2413254

3) Then I ran a ground (earth) wire to a ground rod. I need to bury that part so I can landscape over it and plant some shrubs. The ground wire is on the top of the pasture run because that is where the raccoons jump up. When I extend the hot wire to areas where there isn’t a pasture run lid to stand on, I will rely on the actual earth to complete the circuit back to the ground rod.
View attachment 2413268

it all sounds more complicated than it actually is. I read up a lot before buying anything and was still a bit unsure. But the charger came with reasonably good instructions and I just jumped in.
I am pretty pleased with the set up. The charger can charge 2 miles of wire so I could create a nice safe zone for the ladies to free range with a 2 mile perimeter.

When I put up the sheep field fence I added an electric tape on extended holders on the inside to discourage the sheep from sticking their heads through the stocknet fence which is metal. When the wind blew hard the tape used to touch the fence and the whole fence would go live. At night you could see all the sparks where the stocknet shorted out.

 

[Shadrach]

I read the whole book.
SPOILER: In the End, God wins!

I've read it. I've read the one from the main opposition as well. Overall I though the Koran had a better story line.

 

[Kris5902]

Those are not chickens, (Sheep maybe)?

Definitely not, as you can see these creatures are clean, cute, and cuddly... obviously must be some
Form of chicken. Sheep are smelly, bloodthirsty, finger biting, monsters

 

[Shadrach]

Definitely not, as you can see these creatures are clean, cute, and cuddly... obviously must be some
Form of chicken. Sheep are smelly, bloodthirsty, finger biting, monsters

You've kept sheep then.

 

[RoyalChick]

When I put up the sheep field fence I added an electric tape on extended holders on the inside to discourage the sheep from sticking their heads through the stocknet fence which is metal. When the wind blew hard the tape used to touch the fence and the whole fence would go live. At night you could see all the sparks where the stocknet shorted out.

I am trying to figure out what to do about that exact problem for the chickens if I create a garden area for them.
Mostly I think people just let the chickens learn to avoid the fence by letting them get zapped a few times. That could work, and now I see that the raccoon just didn't like it (rather than being completely fried) I am considering that option. But I worry about them getting in a panic and getting injured.
So I am leaning more towards an inner fence that is just a regular physical barrier to keep the chickens in - maybe even simple deer netting - and then an outside perimeter that is hot and would keep the foxes away.
In the spring I want to plant some shrubs around the back door to the Chicken Palace and that could be their garden to hang out under shrubs but still safe because of the outer fence.
Still thinking it through but it seems like I could create a nice big area for them (and me).

 

[Shadrach]

Need to get some pics up or go elsewhere......
Each of these is worth three pics of 'ordinary' chickens. They also get another free picture for controversy value and a free rainbow to go with it.
This is Lock. She's a transgender chicken. She doesn't lay eggs and behaves much like a junior rooster.
I think she's gorgeous and on top of this, she isn't the slightest bit wary of me. I was very naughty and picked her up today and put her on the steps in order to get a decent shot of her/him/it.
None of the pictures I've posted before were 'arranged' in any way so this is a first.

 

[starri33]

@starri33 what breed if chicken do you have as as your icon it looks like my hen and we do not know her breed

I'm not sure what breed it is, it was the closest picture I could find to my black sexlinks, which is what I had when I first joined BYC.

 

[Shadrach]

I am trying to figure out what to do about that exact problem for the chickens if I create a garden area for them.
Mostly I think people just let the chickens learn to avoid the fence by letting them get zapped a few times. That could work, and now I see that the raccoon just didn't like it (rather than being completely fried) I am considering that option. But I worry about them getting in a panic and getting injured.
So I am leaning more towards an inner fence that is just a regular physical barrier to keep the chickens in - maybe even simple deer netting - and then an outside perimeter that is hot and would keep the foxes away.
In the spring I want to plant some shrubs around the back door to the Chicken Palace and that could be their garden to hang out under shrubs but still safe because of the outer fence.
Still thinking it through but it seems like I could create a nice big area for them (and me).

That would be the way I would go if I had runs and the money. What's more, I would make the outside electric fence a bit hotter than a mobile charger permits.
She sheep don't think anything of crashing through the standard tape electric tape fences here. Unless they stick their noses on the tape, they don't feel the shock through their coats.
There is also the matter of preventing the electric fence from shorting out and that means regular groundwork; easiest with a strimmer.