Question about electric fencing and weather

[esjro]

It has been a long time since my original post, so I can now answer my own question.

The electric poultry net works well in dry weather, great in the rain, and so-so in ice-covered ground. The voltage dropped off a lot in the snow, but we always got at least 1000 V still. We didn't have any losses since installing it. I use the same poultry net as Uriah Heep, but my charger plugs in. (We live in a wooded area, so I was worried a solar charger would not get sun consistently enough). If you have foxes, raccoons or other clever predators I'd strongly suggest the poultry netting because there are just more places to make contact - predators could find a way around a wire strand fence.

The hawks are still an issue; the fence won't help with that. After we lost one chicken to a hawk the others seem to have wised up and now they are more observant and take cover when they see one. We did add some pallets and suspended some poultry net over some parts of the fenced in area to give them more opportunities for cover, and I think that helps.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts.
Quote:
I have electric wire around my bird’s yard, runs and coops. A neighborhood dog dug under my fence and killed one of my hens. So I put up the wire. As a previous poster said "the wetter the better" How true!!!
Quote:
I had my wire tested with a possum. When it touched the wire it did let out a scream. It died from my gun.
My birds sometimes like to try and be escape artists and create dusting holes along the bottom of the fence until they can crawl under and out. The only problem is once they get out they can't seem to find the hole to get back in and run around the fence line trying to find a way back in. The wire doesn’t faze them. There are pictures on my BYC Page.

 

[jjdesch]

I have the premier1 netting and suspect it might have been a cause for the sudden death of one of my RIR's. Came home from work one day (coincidentally on the very first day I decided to let them range outside of the hardware cloth run and into the premier1 electric poultry netting run) and found one of my sweeties on its side dead inside the hardware cloth run. A working theory is that she came into contact with the netting and had a cardiac event (which I hear can be common in chickens). I carefully examined her and she had no visible (at least to me) signs of external trauma. I called premier1 and inquired about this, and they said if the chicken had a weak heart such an event was possible. Will this stop me form using the netting? No.

 

[esjro]

That is too bad about your RIR.

We've had the fence for almost 2 years now, and no problems - keeps the family dog and foxes out, so overall for us I would say the benefits have far outweighed the risks. I'm sorry about your red though.

 

[jjdesch]

Thank you. She was a sweetie and a real producer too.