My BBW hen

[Frosty]

Tonight I put my 6 month old BBW turkey hen in the hen house. Long story short, the pen she was in was that electric poultry netting - there were chickens in with her - and I saw coyote tracks on the outside of the fence. I decided I needed to move them, electric fencing doesn't work as well after the ground freezes. Anyhow, moved them all into the hen house, and the last I saw before I came in was my 6 month old BBW turkey hen standing on top of a nest box, about 4' high. The nest box has a slanted top (about 45 degrees) but that didn't phase her at all. It'll be interesting to see how long she can continue to roost.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Can you get a really long ground rod to drive in the ground beyond your freeze line there in ND? That would help with your electirc fence and the frozen ground.

 

[Frosty]

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What would be best would be to change the wiring hook up on the netting so that every other wire is hot and the rest are ground... I needed to get the birds out of there anyhow before the snow got too deep (thanks to the wind the garden usually has drifts 5 - 6 feet deep). The freeze line here is at minimum 4' down. I don't really see driving a ground rod too deep for a portable fence in the garden, it could be darn near impossible to get out later.

I don't have a digital fence tester, but the one with lights was showing that there was at least 6000 v on the fence when I installed it and the birds didn't even seem to notice it. I am wondering if they would notice it more if I changed the fence to a hot/ground set up? I have bipolar fencing on a pony pen (even my escape artist stud leaves that stuff alone!) It's tape with hot wires along the top edge and ground along the bottom. A little bird landed on it one day, and I guess the tail dropped and hit the ground. I heard a loud snap and the bird took off. With the set up on the netting like it is, I see chickens push their heads through and the turkeys would push against the fence and stomp on it, no one seemed to notice that it was hot. No coyote tracks inside the fence, but then again I had a bunch of Brown Leghorn chickens that kept flying out (and I couldn't catch them to clip wings). Out of the 19 I should have, last night I caught 8 and saw 3 out of reach in a tree so there are maybe 8 unaccounted for? Unless they are hiding somewhere else, they may have given the coyote something to eat so it didn't need to go into the pen.

But I was mosly writing about a 6 month old BBW hen who can still get herself off of the ground to perch. I know not as high as the heritage birds perch, but not bad for a BB turkey!

 

[ColbyNTX]

See, that's why I live in Texas!

I don't want to deal with 6' snow and frozen water all winter!

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

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AMEN!