Question about electric poultry fencing

[minichic]

I am seriously considering installing some electric poultry fencing in the spring. I have one acre of property and about 1/3 of which I stopped mowing a few years ago. While that makes my property upkeep easier, I really hate the way it looks. So I am thinking about rotating my chickens around that area to help keep it in check. My question (since I know zero about electric fences) is it a pain to enter and exit the fenced area? Do I have to turn off the electric power to enter and exit the area, then re-energize it when I'm through? I can totally see myself forgetting to energize it when I leave and I don't want to put my hens in harms way because I got distracted. I suppose the logic can be reversed - could I zap myself entering and exiting because I forgot to de-energize the area?

Many thanks for any advice.

 

[happyhensny]

A friend of mine love the electric poultry netting fence. To enter and exit we just lean down the post with your show and walk on the post. Never turns it off. Can be moved around to different areas easily. They use it for their meat birds which are too lazy to go inside the coop at night so they do get picked off by owls now and then because they can fly in and help themselves. Possums have been found stuck, dead, in the fence. Grass needs to be trimmed or it won't work as well. Snakes have gotten in, ate a chicken and got stuck going back out. In all I would love the fence but I need full enclosure.

 

[Dusty Chicken]

It depends how you set up the fence. I use electric poultry fencing & my gate is where the fence end meets another fence. I just lift up on the last post to pull it out of the ground walk through & put the post back in the ground. I can get my hands between the strands without shocking myself so I could technically go in & out without turning the fencer off..... but I don't.

It seems to be murphy's law that when the fence is left on I get the urge to straighten a post or mess with the fence. I now always turn the fencer off before I enter the enclosure. As a strict habit I always shut the gate behind me & when I leave the enclosure I have rarely forgotten to turn the fencer back on. I had horses for most of my life & as a small child it was drilled into me to close every gate I walk through & recharge the fence if necessary. It is an important habit for me & a ritual that has kept my animals safe for many years.

 

[minichic]

Thanks for the info. Thinking of putting the coop in this area and then rotating the "pasture" around it. This way the girls will have access to their coop when needed.