Help choosing best electric fence for predator protection

[Howard E]

Coop dG:

In my opinion, your the fencer you use should be hot, hot, HOT!!! Mine is rated for up to 30 miles of fence and is throwing out 13,000 volts. No animal is going to die if they touch it, but may wish they had have. Get it that hot and it is an effective deterrent to the most hard headed predator. A couple doses of that and they may not have any teeth left to chew with anyway. I like em that hot.

If you have that much fence, you may not want to invest in that much poultry netting, which would be about two of the 160' fences. You may not need the tall stuff, however. The shorter garden fence netting may work for you, as might poly rope with wire, or simply wire.

In case you have not seen it........this thread is on the predator forum:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1117877/a-treatise-on-electric-fencing

 

[Cryss]

So the main concern is bears?

I would suggest three things: 1) put the fencing as far away from the coop as you can, ideally around the *yard* or something like that, so that you are keeping the bears as far as possible from the chickens. 2) Use something hard-to-break, like electric rope or electrobraid, for at least one strand of the fencing; a reasonable argument can be made for having some strands be semi-invisible i.e. 16 ga wire, but if you want them all electrobraid/electric-rope that works for lots of people too. And 3) Have the fence ALWAYS running at like 5-7,000 volts (this is higher than you'd typically use for coyote or dog deterrence, or for livestock, but it is what you need to deter bears - though keeping the fence baited will help if you *have* to run at a lower voltage) -- so buy a GOOD DIGITAL tester [and by digital tester no I do not mean your finger <g>] and check that fence every day so you can troubleshoot when necessary. Not one of those five-neon-lights jobbies, they are too inaccurate.

What fencer to buy depends on how large an area you will be fencing (see #1 above), but unless it will be measured in acres, a 2-5 mile fencer is likely to be quite adequate for you. MIND YOU, this "charges X miles of fence" promotional copy is UTTERLY MEANINGLESS and generally incorrect (sometimes very, very incorrect), for a whole slew of reasons I will not take up space with here, and you should just IGNORE it if you have a more normal situation where you are fencing a larger area; but in your case, if this is a small area, it should be adequate to give you a vague idea of what to shop for. Again, though, do not get sucked into believing that a fencer that is labelled "charges 5 miles of fence" will ACTUALLY charge a 5 mile fence for you, because it almost assuredly will not and often nowhere *close* to it.

Do stay away from inexpensive fence chargers intended for dogs. They are generally too weenie for your needs, plus a distressing number of them are non-pulsing (always on) which is pretty dangerous. There may be a few situations in life that really require non-pulsing chargers but this is NOT one of them, really.

Personally I would suggest a battery-powered unit. Once you figure in the difference in initial purchase price vs solar, and the fact that solar batteries cost almost as much and still have to be replaced every few years, they usually make more economic sense. Or, if you have VERY RELIABLE electric service and somewhere to house the charger where you are ok with the risk of lightning blowing it up and starting a fire, you could consider a plug-in unit, which is the cheapest type to buy and operate. (You can add a lightning diverter to the system but this does not totally prevent the possibility of fire).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I would like to protect from black bear. I have dogs, not chicken protecting dogs. My dogs are getting up in age and have never been around chickens. My question is how much damage would the volts you suggest for near protection do to a medium sized and a small dog? It sounds dangerous.

 

[Cryss]

So the main concern is bears?

I would suggest three things: 1) put the fencing as far away from the coop as you can, ideally around the *yard* or something like that, so that you are keeping the bears as far as possible from the chickens. 2) Use something hard-to-break, like electric rope or electrobraid, for at least one strand of the fencing; a reasonable argument can be made for having some strands be semi-invisible i.e. 16 ga wire, but if you want them all electrobraid/electric-rope that works for lots of people too. And 3) Have the fence ALWAYS running at like 5-7,000 volts (this is higher than you'd typically use for coyote or dog deterrence, or for livestock, but it is what you need to deter bears - though keeping the fence baited will help if you *have* to run at a lower voltage) -- so buy a GOOD DIGITAL tester [and by digital tester no I do not mean your finger <g>] and check that fence every day so you can troubleshoot when necessary. Not one of those five-neon-lights jobbies, they are too inaccurate.

What fencer to buy depends on how large an area you will be fencing (see #1 above), but unless it will be measured in acres, a 2-5 mile fencer is likely to be quite adequate for you. MIND YOU, this "charges X miles of fence" promotional copy is UTTERLY MEANINGLESS and generally incorrect (sometimes very, very incorrect), for a whole slew of reasons I will not take up space with here, and you should just IGNORE it if you have a more normal situation where you are fencing a larger area; but in your case, if this is a small area, it should be adequate to give you a vague idea of what to shop for. Again, though, do not get sucked into believing that a fencer that is labelled "charges 5 miles of fence" will ACTUALLY charge a 5 mile fence for you, because it almost assuredly will not and often nowhere *close* to it.

Do stay away from inexpensive fence chargers intended for dogs. They are generally too weenie for your needs, plus a distressing number of them are non-pulsing (always on) which is pretty dangerous. There may be a few situations in life that really require non-pulsing chargers but this is NOT one of them, really.

Personally I would suggest a battery-powered unit. Once you figure in the difference in initial purchase price vs solar, and the fact that solar batteries cost almost as much and still have to be replaced every few years, they usually make more economic sense. Or, if you have VERY RELIABLE electric service and somewhere to house the charger where you are ok with the risk of lightning blowing it up and starting a fire, you could consider a plug-in unit, which is the cheapest type to buy and operate. (You can add a lightning diverter to the system but this does not totally prevent the possibility of fire).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

I want to protect from black bear. I have two older indoor dogs, one medium sized the other is small. They've never been around chickens so are not good for guarding chickens. How dangerous is the voltage you suggest to repel bears for my dogs? Sounds scary.

 

[Cryss]

OOPS! Thought I lost the first post so I did it again!

 

[Howard E]

Fence chargers work very much like a powerful static electric shock. While posing no real danger of physical harm, they are painful.....which is why they work so well. Get a really powerful dose of that and it's something you do not want to happen again, so you avoid it. Animals feel it too, yet are not smart enough to understand the cause of the pain. They only know if they go near it.......they get it.....so they avoid it. They are smart enough to know to do that!

 

[Howard E]

Electric fences are the A#1 solution to dealing with bears. Have become almost universal in bear country.