How do you bait an electric fence?

[Finnie]

It will be interesting to see what others do. I'm curious too. They can't jump over my fences because I have good heavy duty netting covering the pens to protect the birds from aerial predators. I see plenty of predators on my game cameras. Good luck...

Thank you!

I haven't gotten around to doing this for my poultry net, but I have baited my horse/llama fence. My fences are electric rope (mostly rope with small embedded wire) so I baited it at the gate where I make gate loops & connectors of solid 14 gauge steel wire so the bait would be sure to have a good electrical connection to the fence.

I used cat food cans (3 or 6 ounces) but tuna etc would work the same - open with a can opener (don't pull the tab) leaving a 1" or so hinge, then use the food but don't wash the can. Bend the sticking-up lid in half and loop it over the wire. Stinky cat/dog food or tuna will attract carnivores, and if you did it right so there's good contact then the whole can is "hot" (you can use your fence tester to confirm that).

I can't say anything about the wildlife, but I saw a definite change in behavior in our dog - after I did this he would not try to go through the 5-strand fence at all!

I got the idea of using cans from the Wellscroft fence people, but decided there was no need to waste the can contents when the empty can was plenty stinky: "6) Bait: Wellscroft highly recommends baiting the fence. Before turning on the fence, hang a partially opened tuna can from the top conductive strand where it intersects a post (to support the weight of the can). Be sure to punch a couple holes in the bottom of the can to allow water to drain. If necessary, place an additional bait cup at an appropriate height for your predators."
https://www.wellscroft.com/support-center/product-support/instructions

Oh, and I didn't do the top strand on my llama fence - I did maybe a foot or 18" from the ground as I was trying to discourage coyotes. I'd bait the top of fence when doing the poultry fence, though, for the bears - and still bait low for the foxes.

Thank you for this.

So you only baited the gate, but your dog learned to stay away from the whole fence. I’m thinking maybe if I do one bait per side of my fence, maybe that will be enough. I expect predators to come from the back or the two sides, but they easily could come from the front as well.

My fence used to be 3 strands of wire, and it mostly used to keep my chickens in, and obviously didn’t keep coyotes or whatever out. Then a deer or something big ran into it and broke a couple wires and posts. After that, more and more of my chickens started to go through it. Now that I’ve fixed it, and raised it to 5 wires, and upgraded my 5 mile solar charger to a 10 mile one, the chickens are respecting it again.

I think the raccoons are respecting it too, because for a while there before I did the fixes, I was losing birds to what turned out to be raccoons. I scrambled to do the repairs before I went on vacation, and there were no attacks while I was gone. So I think the fence is working even without being baited. But I think when the foxes and coyotes start coming around, I would like to have it baited. I guess a few stinky tuna cans could sit out there and rot all summer and it wouldn’t be a problem.

@Overo Mare , I have heard of the bacon strips method too, but it seems like such a waste of good bacon!

 

[cmom]

For those considering putting up electric fences or electric wires, this a great thread.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-treatise-on-electric-fencing.1117877/

 

[Rodrad]

I also plan to increase my electric fence from one wire (close to the ground, at about 8” above) to several more strands. We have chicken wire fence the keep chicken in.

i would like to hear the details on your electric fence, like how many strands you have and what is the the vertical spacing.

thank you

 

[Rodrad]

My fencing is all grounded so if anything touches the electric wires and the fence they will know it. My wires are 10,000+ volts. At least 7000 volts is adequate for most predators. I do test them with a fence tester every day. I also have all of my pens covered with good heavy duty netting. So far no issues and it's been up for many years.
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Do I see correct, you have only 3 wires? Can you tell me the spacing? Would it work for both raccoons and foxes?

thank you,

 

[cmom]

They are around 6" to 8" apart. I also have some good heavy duty netting covering all of the pens, Tensile Strength: 85/245 LBS per Mesh. So far nothing has penetrated. I did have an owl issue. Originally I didn't have enough good netting to completely cover all of the pens so I bought some cheap netting and put it up over those pens thinking it would still deter any aerial predators. It did for awhile until an owl discovered it could plow right through it. I replaced the netting each time and the owl would go through it and kill a bird. I moved the birds and replaced that netting with some good netting and the owl tried again but got stuck. We managed to get it into a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it.

The key is really having a powerful enough fence charger so when a predator touches the wire it will hurt, not a tickle. My original fence charger was not hot enough but the one I have now will knock your socks off. You will know it if you touch the wires. Found out the hard way. Once a predator gets a good shock, they stay away. I believe the adult predators teach their young to steer clear that a bird is not worth getting zapped for.