Poultry fence killed my duck

[BamaBee]

Hello all!
Has anyone had any poultry losses due to their electric poultry fence? This is our first year raising chickens, ducks, and geese.

We had ours set up and everything was going fine until my son comes in one morning very upset because Elmo had died in the fence. (Our first death, other than babies.)

We weren't there to see how it happened, but he obviously wanted to go on the other side for some reason and got stuck.

Fast forward to last week. We're out watching them in the early evening when we see a duck try to go through. (The grass is greener...) He gets stuck also. Thankfully we are there to rescue him. He only got zapped once, thankfully, and hopefully learned a lesson.

But what happens next time when we aren't out there?

The setup isn't working at the moment, so we aren't using it. We just bought it this year. Premier 1 equipment.

Think I need to call them. Thanks for any info.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

Any kind of mesh fence can kill a bird that gets stuck because it's small enough to get partway through but too big to get all the way through. Birds breathe with their ribs so if their chest is constricted because they're stuck they suffocate.

Keeping the fence strongly-charged and well-grounded helps because the shock teaches them not to even try. Also keeping the fence pulled as tight as possible is the safest because it's harder to get stuck in taut mesh than in floppy mesh.

BUT young birds often jump up on a lower wire to pop through the larger mesh higher up. Since they're not grounded they don't get shocked.

Once they're large enough to know that they can't get through they stop trying.

There are tradeoffs with any kind of fencing and the risk of a bird getting stuck is one of the tradeoffs for the extra space for the money, portability, and strong predator-resistance of the electric mesh.

 

[aart]

How big is fenced area?
Pics would help immensely here.
How many birds total inside this fencing?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, call Premiere1 and see what they have to say. That would be interesting. Hopefully you will let us know what they say.

I've never lost any poultry to the electric netting. I have no doubt that it has saved several birds from predators, have not had any losses to ground based predators since I got it.

I have had three snapping turtles in the netting. When I cut the power and freed them two eventually walked away. One died. A 5' rat snake tried to crawl through and died. I think it got too far in before it got shocked and could not back out. One time a possum got tangled in the netting. She was still alive when I found her, the electricity did not kill her. I did though. I've found two frogs killed by the electricity. As many frogs as there are in that area I think that is a very low number.

To me the risk from ground based predators far outweighs any risks to the chickens. It allows them to forage in a fairly large area instead of living in a barren run. But that's an evaluation you need to make for yourself.

 

[Stevehoffi]

I know this is a few years late but for anyone needing help for future cases like this, I’ll explain what I do to stop our chicks or ducklings getting caught and or injured/killed.
I put a plastic barrier on the inside of the fenced area. I use either a roll of damp proof coursing which comes in a large roll and it’s best to get 25/30cm high to safe guard the birds. Or some thick heavy duty plastic mesh with small hole size. Amazon is good.
Birds on the inside don’t get zapped but outside predators do.
This has worked for over 10 years with no accidents for our poultry or wild foul. Hope it helps anyone.

 

[Krugerrand]

I know this is a few years late but for anyone needing help for future cases like this, I’ll explain what I do to stop our chicks or ducklings getting caught and or injured/killed.
I put a plastic barrier on the inside of the fenced area. I use either a roll of damp proof coursing which comes in a large roll and it’s best to get 25/30cm high to safe guard the birds. Or some thick heavy duty plastic mesh with small hole size. Amazon is good.
Birds on the inside don’t get zapped but outside predators do.
This has worked for over 10 years with no accidents for our poultry or wild foul. Hope it helps anyone.

Thank you for sharing that!