I lost a Dominique hen to a fox yesterday

[tour1018]

I think getting the electric fencing sounds like my best bet here. My neighbor found the chicken feathers and a dead (ripped up fox, Coyotes?) in the rear of his property and I saw the female at my bird feeder trying to catch a bird. I think the female has lost her mate and is now trying to feed the young on her own. Not a good situation for letting the chickens out at all.

 

[JackE]

When I was researching what kind of fence I was going to get. I read online about a guy that bought the Premier poultry fence as a perimeter about his beehives to keep the bears out. The fence worked and he told a kinda funny story about how a bear screams when he gets into the fence. He was saying you could hear the bear for miles. That's the thing about this fence, you look at it and you are not so sure about it. But when an animal comes up to it, they always lead with their nose, to check it out. When they get zapped, they don't even want to come near it again.
I know this, it's really nice to be able to let the chickens out and not have to worry the whole time they are out. They can spend the whole day out again. I'm thinking I'm going to buy another 100 ft section and expand their run. One more thing, do you have a rifle? Shoot that fox the next time you see him/her, if you can. Goodluck
Jack

 

[rikithemonk]

I got a solar electric fence controller from Tractor Supply and went with a one wire set up that wraps around the coop three times. The manual recommends three ground rods but mine is working OK with just two.



Its a very basic set up. The wire starts at the bottom and spirals its way upward through three levels.





If I would do anything different I would have purchased the next model up. Wire nuts and switch is on the bottom, seems more weather resistant to me. Plus it has a little more bang. I would have also gone with electric netting instead of wire, but at the time I didn't know it was even an option.

They sell a product that is basically a light, that clips onto the wire. It flashes in time with the pulse and lets you know the fence is working. That way you can just glance out the window and see there is power flowing through the fence. That's my next purchase.

Over all, I'm happy with both the unit I purchased and my general set up. After all this is my first attempt. Things tried and lessons learned. The next attempt will be better.

Riki

 

[JackE]

I like that idea of the flashing light, I'm going to get that. Do you have a voltage tester? If so, what kind of voltage do you get out of the solar charger? I'm running an AC charger here, 7000V. Nice setup you have there.
Jack

 

[rikithemonk]

I like that idea of the flashing light, I'm going to get that. Do you have a voltage tester? If so, what kind of voltage do you get out of the solar charger? I'm running an AC charger here, 7000V. Nice setup you have there.
Jack

I didn't know they had testers until recently, but I'm going to pick one up this weekend. Ill list my voltage on this thread when I find out. I tested it the old fashioned way. I lit my self up. It caught me off guard because when I tapped the wire nothing happened. I tapped it longer and got nothing. I grabbed it and really got the jolt. I'm assuming the fence pulses every couple of seconds. If I'm wrong on that, let me know so I can trouble shoot.

Riki

 

[rikithemonk]

Here is an example of the light. It stops flashing if the voltage drops below 2000 Volts, so It makes a good trouble light too.

 

[JackE]

Thanks, I'm going to check out that neon indicator for poultry netting.
Jack

 

[tour1018]

I looked into the electric poultry fencing, don't the chickens fly out? or do you cut the wing feather,Michelle

 

[JackE]

I looked into the electric poultry fencing, don't the chickens fly out? or do you cut the wing feather,Michelle

The first day I set it up, all the birds were roaming the perimeter of the fence, checking it out. Every now and again one would get too close and would get shocked. It was easy to tell when that happened. I had 1 go over on the first day. I clipped 1 wing on her, and haven't had a problem since with her or anyone else. They have been out in the pen every day for over 2mos with no problems. The fence is 4ft high. With a regular fence you have a top rail, that gives an obvious target for the chicken to jump to, or over. The poultry fence/net does not have a top rail for them to sit on. And I think it helps to give them as big an area to roam as you can. I bought 3 of the 100ft nets. So they have a pretty good sized area to hang out in. I surrounded the coop, plus this brushy area behind the coop. They are totally content to stay in there. I'm seriously thinking about getting another section or two and expand further.
I saw the fox last night when I got home from work. He was in sight of the coop, sitting across the field looking at me. I was immediately concerned about the chickens, as bad memories die hard. But when I looked down there, they were all at the fence looking at me, safe. I thought of going in and quickly grabbing the rifle, but where he was at, it would have been unsafe for the neighbors for me to unload on him there. One of these days his luck WILL run out. There are others on BYC that have the poultry netting. If you do a search, you could read their comments about it. I know I'm happy with it. At this time of year, the fox is on the hunt. Look at all the sad stories in the predator section about fox attacks. I've had a couple of bad ones and I know how it feels. I had to do something here, or my birds would have been trapped in the coop for most of their lives. Building some kind of small and expensive birdcage was out of the question. These birds like to run around and stretch their legs. The electrified net was the answer for me.
Jack

 

[rikithemonk]

I like that idea of the flashing light, I'm going to get that. Do you have a voltage tester? If so, what kind of voltage do you get out of the solar charger? I'm running an AC charger here, 7000V. Nice setup you have there.
Jack

Just Checked my fence with the tester. I'm getting 7000V The manual says it pulses 7500V +- 2000V, so I'm in range.