Help with electric fence

[PhiberOptikx]

I am fed up with feeding the wildlife fresh chicken. We have lost 6 birds in two weeks to predators here while letting them free range. So I am ready to build a fence. The issue is that I don't want to build a giant fully enclosed bird aviary. I don't really like the look of them and am really only interested in keeping out things with teeth at the moment. So, my plan was to build a 5' high fence like in the picture. My plan was to run a single strand over the top so that raccoons couldn't just climb the fence. However, if I understand correctly this would not work because the raccoon has to be touching the ground to receive a shock correct? Or, since the raccoon would be standing on metal wire that is buried in the ground would it still work? I know that I could just put the strand about 8" off the ground around the base but I am concerned it would just jump over the wire and climb the fence. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Tomhusker]

I suggest you bite the bullet and buy an electric poultry net. They are a little spendy if you're operating on a tight budget, but the peace of mind is priceless. I bought mine from Premier 1. It's a good solid fence, and according to my yellow lab, it works great.


Eta: spring for the gate as well. You won't regret it.

 

[texsuze]

My 'barnyard fence' setup is as follows. The purpose was multifold: provide a decent-sized contained area for my free-ranging hens, keep deer from eating my native plants around the barn, keep cows out of the barn/barnyard area when we have them on the property.

We used 5' no-climb horse fence because it was used for my horse's adjacent barn pasture, and because it is well-suited for my purposes listed above. It is more expensive than the 2"x4" 'field fence' (shown in your photo) because the strands are woven, not welded, and it can withstand large animals bouncing off of it. Due to our rocky soils, we used t-posts, along with metal pipe for corner posts and line posts. There is a strand of twist wire (not barbed) strung at ground level, too. Standard procedure around these parts, although most folks use barbed wire. I use smooth twist so my chooks would not hurt themselves if they scratch around the bottom of the fence. This was a fence guy job, not DIY, in our case, but so far, the money was well-spent.

I've added a strand of electric tape along the top and along the bottom of the fence (about 7" off the ground), on the OUTSIDE of the fence, using the yellow plastic extenders found at Tractor Supply. Our charger is plugged into an outlet in the barn, but I also use solar fence chargers for horse pasture on other parts of the property.

I also attached an "apron" of some field fence we had left over from another project. This is hooked onto the bottom of the no-climb, below the lowest hot tape strand, the entire way around, and extends out about 16", laying on the ground. I'm hoping it will at least discourage digging critters.

My husband tells me that even if a raccoon climbing the fence manages to avoid touching the lowest hot tape strand, he will likely encounter the top strand and get zapped because he'll be in contact with hot tape + fence + t-posts + the ground. The concept of electrons and their like escape me, so I'm taking his word on this

I'm also making sure that the grass is cut next to and around the fence perimeter, both inside and out. I figure that my chooks have a better chance of evading lurking predators if they have a clear field of view.

The weakest link in my setup is protection from avian predators, but my chooks have a barn, plus a large variety of objects to hide underneath throughout the barnyard if they are fortunate enough to see a predator in the sky. Fingers crossed. Your mileage may vary.