Need a help with electric fence design

[Rodrad]

I am thinking to add about 4-6 strands of electric wire just outside of my grounded chicken wire, possibly just 4” or so. I would think that any predator trying to climb it would need to touch at least one of the electric wires while either being on the ground or holding onto chicken wire fence.

what do you think?

i appreciate your input,
thank you

 

[Krugerrand]

I posted a couple of links above that may help you. I have electric wires around my coops and pens, good heavy duty netting covering all of my pens and concrete under the gates all due to losses from predators in the past. So far nothing has gotten past the hot wires. Make sure your fence charger packs a good wallop as the predator won't be phased by a tickle. You want the predator to know the hot wires are there and hurts. I use the poly rope wires. Good luck...
View attachment 2768211
This is the fence charger I have on at my outer coops and anything that touches the wires will hurt. I think the adult predators teach their young that a bird isn't worth getting zapped for.
View attachment 2768218

cmom, does that bottom wire keep out the little things ... weasels/rats?

 

[McChooky]

I like it .... I assume that ever other wire is hot and the ones in between are ground?

You would be correct yes!

 

[cmom]

Probably not. I have learned not long ago that we do have weasels in Florida but not where I live (so far). I had a rat infestation in one of my coops. I renovated the coop and set traps but there were so many, trapping was impossible. I invested in some rat bait stations and put them in our barn which is behind the coops. I check the baits regularly and re-bait as needed. I did not or have not found dead rats laying around so I assume they went into their tunnels that were around the coops and went into the tunnels and died, buried themselves. I put the bait stations in pet carriers on shelves so the only things that could get to the bait are the rats. Rats are good climbers.

 

[lizo97]

I strongly advise you to run a series of wires extending outward from the fence on top .It will keep foxes and cats out.

@ChickensComeHome2Roost How does the animal get shocked? Is the wall considered "ground?" Is this a product or something you put together?

 

[McChooky]

@ChickensComeHome2Roost How does the animal get shocked? Is the wall considered "ground?" Is this a product or something you put together?

Run a ground wire from the ground rod to the chicken wire fence .If an animal touches the chicken wire fence and electric fence wire at the same time it will get shocked.

 

[cmom]

I have a ground wire attached to my fence. I also used metal posts.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@aart I beleive, is also a good resource for this.

Many electric fences fail because of bad grounding - that you are grounding an area so small helps immensely. I have sandy clay soils, well above the water line (hard to believe, living in FL, I know). When it hasn't rained in a while, I could casually touch the fence, and though it pushes 2 joules, it was merely annoying. After a rain, when the soil conducts well? I can hear it arcing up to 1/2" or so to any available path.

So I ran (from the earth up) hot, ground, hot, ground, hot and then added additional grounding bars essentially every 150' or so. That way, instead of the furthest point being 1/4 mile from completing the circuit, its not more than 75'. I no longer casually touch the fence to test it. Even dry season, I do so with trepidation.

If you have dry rocky soil, adding another ground at the furthest corner, connected to your ground wire will help - or grounding a secondary fence to ensure a short path. After that, its a matter of number of wires and spacing between them, such that any likely predator has to make contact with a hot wire and some source to ground at the same time.

 

[cmom]

A good place to put a ground rod is in a drip line if you can. My wires are around a foot away from my fence. So far so good. My wires average 10,000+ volts. It will hurt.

 

[FARMminiature]

We just lost one 4 months old chicken to, likely, a fox. When I went to lock the chickens in the coop , at about 9 pm Infiana time, one was missing. I couldn’t see any trace of blood or feathers but will check again tomorrow. Our run is 50 ft square and has 4 ft chicken wire around it and electric fence at about 8“ above the ground on the outside the perimeter. I looked but i couldn’t see any dug hole under the fence, but it was dusk so I will check tomorrow.

I know that fox can jump over my low electric fence (I was advised to set it so low to protect raccoons from coming over the fence) but wonder how the fox avoided to touch the wire before deciding to jump over (and clime the fence). I assume it was the fox since the whole chicken is taken away.

I would like to get info about building a better electric fence.
i would appreciate any input.

thank you

Have you tried setting live traps as well?