Problems with Poultry Netting

[centrarchid]

I use the stuff and like it a lot, but no without reservations. It is sometimes hard to carry and requires a stronger charger relative to the area it encompasses. Working life-span when moved a lot appears to be about 5 years. It can also entangle a Great-horned Owl requiring nearly an hour to free bird that does not cooperate. The biggest problem is that it can kill. Box turtles, snakes and toads are easy to see. The most difficult issue is it can kill the wife's cat even when fence was turned off. Collar gets hung and cats panics. Cats outside should not wear collars. Wife not going to be happy.

 

[sawilliams]

I'm really sorry I chuckled at the end. I'm sorry about your wifes cat and I'm sorry she will be upset. But your right cats that go or regularly probably shouldn't wear collars for thier own safety. I gave up on collars for my cats after about the 5th one on my oldest girl. I swear she would purposefully crawl under fences and such to get it off, I always bought the quick release type. She would have it off and missing with in about a week

 

[centrarchid]

I have known about collars for a long time and been reluctant to use them on dogs because they get hung on fences so easily. My wife capitulated after seeing collars lost and being found dangling from barbwire. We let vet talk us into it for cats. This additional ammo to tell vet something more to consider than superior flea and tick management.

Nets just put up for season. A darn kitten tried to play in stuff as we rolled it up.

 

[varidgerunner]

Those things will kill chickens, too. Wife had a crooked toed hen that was a pet of sorts. Died hung in the netting.

 

[centrarchid]

A neighbor chronically lost young Cornish X chicks to the netting. The breed is prone to dying from many causes so not particularly noteworthy. Still more birds saved than lost.

 

[sourland]

You are in trouble with the wife. There is an oral flea/tick product for dogs, Bravecto, that works really well for me. I believe there are also oral feline products.

 

[centrarchid]

My wife is more the advocate for flea management. The flees do not go after me and critters generally not bothered. The vet is the real advocate and promoter of particular brands. Advocate of exterminating parasites more than simply managing which gums up my sensibilities.

 

[annagoodspeed]

Oh dear. Kitties and collars.

This is the third season for me and no ground based predator deaths, knock on wood. I love lots of things about the fencing, mostly being able to change the shape of the yard so easily, and that it seems to work so well. I live among many wild animals.
No deaths due to the fence itself, but when I try to go over it, it does have a tendency to reach up and grab my foot, flinging me to the ground.

My kid's large dog was here this summer, and he managed to get himself caught up in it THREE TIMES, trying to get into the yard. Not a chicken chaser, we were all there and he wanted to join us. I didn't have it on for two of them, mistake for training him, but there were toddlers wandering around so definitely didn't want them to encounter it live. The second time I think it was on, but he didn't seem to notice, maybe at that point it wasn't all connected properly. The third time no one was even out there, maybe he was thinking that it worked so well the first two times he should try it again. I found him with his head jammed through one square, a foot through another, and he was chewing a big hole through a spot somewhere in between.
He had visited earlier this summer and he definitely connected with it and did not try this, so it was most likely about him knowing it was off.
A friend who had electric fencing for her goats said she had one young one that figured out that the clicking sound meant on, and would time his breakthroughs for in between the clicks.

 

[centrarchid]

I have had dogs get into the fencing, even when hot. Fence often got damaged and dog could get free quickly. Exception involved dog going after raccoon on other side. Damage to fencing extensive. Dog pushed into fencing even when getting zapped as very motivated to get at raccoon.


Another incident involved a rooster trying to fight another through it. One go good and tangled and might have died if I did not intervene. That was a very artificial situation that I do not consider realistic even for here.

 

[SonoranChick]

All of our animals run naked and free. But never unaccounted for.