My electrified poultry fencing arrived today... PICS page 2!!

[chickenannie]

Thank you both. very helpful!

feedstore chick... does your fence keep foxes away? do you keep your chickens in there all winter?

To Gsim: Gates? fenceposts? yikes. I was just thinking I would de-electrify the netting while I did my morning feedings and egg gathering, then re-electrify. For winter they are in an old milkhouse coop and there is a concrete pad outside that I can't make a permanent fence at. For summer, they'll be moved out to the pasture.

Also, I am putting heritage turkeys in one pen, and though they can fly out, I was advised I could "train" them by clipping their wings 2 or 3 times and keep the fence electrified, and that they would soon learn the netting is "impossible" to fly out over. A BYC turkey owner said his turkeys "think" they can't fly over the netting from this method, even though he stopped clipping their wings a long time ago. He said they walk out the netting gate when he opens it, then they fly once they're out. That's how good his training worked. So I will try that.

 

[canada-goose]

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I don't use gates or corner posts! In fact, what I use is exactly what you were thinking! I certainly wouldn't bother with cement~then you can't move the fenced area at all.

 

[raizin]

how does it work if it is touching the ground? My regular electric fence grounds itself out when it touches the ground.
raisin

 

[feedstorechick]

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We have a game camera, so I know we have foxes. They've never gotten past the fence. It also turns back dogs and livestock. We have a huge raccoon problem here, so I keep them in the electric fence all the time. I have a 100' section joined to a 164' section right now, so the pen give them plenty of room.

 

[feedstorechick]

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The bottom wire is not hot, but the rest of the horizontal wires are.

 

[chickenannie]

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We have a game camera, so I know we have foxes. They've never gotten past the fence. It also turns back dogs and livestock. We have a huge raccoon problem here, so I keep them in the electric fence all the time. I have a 100' section joined to a 164' section right now, so the pen give them plenty of room.

Wow, that's great that you proven the fence against predators. I really like your system -- I may do the same system out in the pasture in March once the weather warms up.

Do you power it with batteries or solar? How often do you have to change out the batteries?

With my fence, now I'm stumped as to how to link up the insulated cable. Do I dig a trench and lay the cable underground (the cable would have to go under my gravel lane. It seems like a lot of work. I have a P5 charger that plugs in. It can run off a battery, but they said I'd have to buy 2 batteries and then switch them out every 2 or 3 days to recharge. I thought if I plugged it in, then I wouldn't have to bother with it at all.

 

[feedstorechick]

chickenannie- It's way easier than you think. My fence energizer is the Patriot PS15. It has a built in solar panel and a place for a 12volt battery. The battery is charged by the solar panel. The entire unit sits on top of a t-post. The ground rod is right next to the t-post. One lead from the energizer goes to the ground rod, the other clips to a tab coming off the top wire of the poultry netting. It has an on/off switch on the unit. It works great!

 

[fancbrd4me02]

My heritage turkeys can all fly, even my old 4 + year old (Est:35-40lb) Tom. He doesn't fly as much, but he can fly up onto a 6 foot fence to roost if the occasion really calls for it. My hens & youngsters easily get up onto the roof of my chickenhouse, 8 to 10 foot high. You might want to clip some wing feathers on one wing when you first put them out there so they will come to believe that they cannot fly over your new fence.

 

[feetsoup]

A tip if your running any kind of cable under a gravel road - get a piece of pvc pipe wide enough to fit the cable (and probably then some in case you ever need to fit more cables in there) and long enough to go across the road. Run the cable through it, and bury that under the road. That way the cable won't ever get accidentally severed by gravel bits being pressed into it by the traffic above.

 

[gsim]

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Good tip. Let me add that if you are pouring a walk or driveway, It might be a good idea to put a conduit under the thing before it is poured. Then later on, if you need to run a telephone or power line across it, you will have a place to put it with no work whatsoever. It is an inexpensive thing to do that will save a lot of work. Just plug both ends with foam rubber packed in tightly. I did it near to my elec meter with a 4" scrap of pvc. Boy, am I glad that I did too. Have since run 100amp line to shop, 20 amp line to coop, and tel line to both. Darned thing is just about full!

I am also going to bury one for a driveway extension past my shop building. And I am also burying one about 18" deep just in case the water line ever was to burst or leak under the driveway or shop bldg. That would give me a route to make it good without tearing out concrete in floor of bldg or driveway. It could be only the black corrugated stuff. Thinwall drain PVC is good too and cheaper than sch 40 pipe.