someone please tell me what to buy

[Mom 2em All]

I need a hot wire fence I suppose. However, the area is too large to cover the pen so the top will still be vulnerable. I lost seven pullets and five 1 week olds - Mama hen did survive. this was in the evening and I only found feathers.
Yesterday I lost one more pullet that could have occurred before I came home, but I let them all out of their pen to free- range, and I sat out there with them the whole time. My guineas were flighty and crazy. Well, I noticed I was missing a dominique- pretty sure she went out with me, but cant say 100%.
I need a fence that can handle long grasses touching it. I can say I will keep it weedwacked all day long, but the truth is it probably wont.

What strength fence do I want? I looked at the store and there are so many pieces and parts. I just dont know what I need.
ETA:
its feather carnage out there Right from my coop, I lost four large hens last night. With a spotlight, with a motion detector sprinkler, with a radio playing. With a baby monitor in the coop- I never heard anything.

 

[Howard E]

Once your fence is up, you will want to "bait" it to assure varmint gets zapped. This is my newest invention for this......a bait can hung from the wire.



Just a standard tin can, with a couple holes punched near the top, and fixed with light wire that resembles a christmas ornament hook, that is draped over the hot wire, so the can itself is now HOT. If you put the clips on either side of a fence post, the fence won't sag under the weight.

Put your smellable attractant in the can. If they touch or lick the can....they get lit up.




That is the line voltage on the fence, and yes, that is 12,800 volts. Ouch.

BTW, if your fence crosses a ditch that allows an opening for a varmint to use to get under the fence by hugging the bottom of the ditch, you can use something similar to this......a lightweight aluminum can.....beer, soda, etc.....and hang it from the fence by a piece of wire, but let it hang down into the ditch. Punch a small drain hole in the bottom to avoid collecting rain water (or hang it upside down).
Varmint would have to brush past it to get buy......and that gets him.

 

[Mom 2em All]

i plugged it in and....
it doesnt work. yes. I touched it. multiple times. with shoes and without. I feel like I just sent my chickens to their death by locking them up.

i feel defeated.
ETA- ok, I had my tantrum. Then I researched then I reread everything here again...then I reached far back in to my brain to find old school lessons on making a circuit. And I fixed my ground...and it works!!!

thank you everyone.

 

[Mom 2em All]

It’s 3 am, I just came in from checking on them. Something woke me up- could have been the baby monitor from the coop, could have been my bladder. Everything looks quiet out there - but then again it did yesterday morning too. I’ll find out at sunrise.

No losses overnight. Ill relax after a week goes by.

 

[Howard E]

First off, the hottest fence going won't do lasting harm to anything.......cats.....chickens......you. May regret being born for a few minutes, but all will recover in short order.....but none be in any hurry to get a 2nd dose......ever.

To help you visualize what is intended......here is a quick, short term fence I put up in a garden area a few months back:

Actually, this was put up to keep the chickens out of this fragile area, but would also keep the birds in.....and varmints out. This one only has two strands.......adding two more.....4 strands total....is best. Even with 4 strands, top strand is only 20 inches or so off the deck and can be stepped over, so no need for a gate. Even at 20 inches, effective against almost all land based predators. They won't jump over it, but will try to crawl under or through it and get zapped in the process.

Look close and you can see all the clips molded into the white posts (posts have a large spike nail on the bottom......and a step......you literally "step" them into the ground. With the poly tape, fence can be stretched tight enough by hand and will not pull posts over. If you were to go all the way to the top, you might have to brace the corners, but the rest will stand up straight...no worries.

As an alternative, you could substitute steel T posts with donut insulators on the corners, which would be almost required if using wire.

As to your shopping list, for now, I'd suggest you go with a poly tape or poly rope vs. the heavier galvanized wire. Will be just as effective in the short run, and far easier for a beginner to work with. If you insist on using wire, use the lighter weight aluminum wire, and you will need at least one "strainer" per wire run. Strainers are the ratchet tighteners and are sold with the electric fence supplies. You will never be able to tighten wire as much as you need to by hand.

 

[Mom 2em All]

ok update-
feeling accomplished, I decided I was going to change my fence. I went back to Tractor Supply and bought 60 screw in insulators and redid the hot wires around the pen, eliminating the need for the white posts. I have a line at the very bottom- not even a mouse is getting through, in the middle, and across the top. Used a jumper wire to connect all three lines to the box...my hands are hamburger meat. ( yep you were correct, never be able to pull it tight enough by hand....well, you CAN, but your hands will be hamburger)..
I reused the wire from the first fence for the first line. By the second I said screw this, and balled all that wire up in to a heap and used fresh wire.
And then I ran around the coop and pulled all the grass and weeds from the bottom wire. I reused the white stakes to hold the chicken wire from the hot wire on the second go around.

Then- I plugged it in ( this took hours because every time I looked one of my girls or my littles were sitting against the bottom wire instead of free ranging. ). And it didnt work.
So, I pounded the ground post in about three more feet. Still didnt work.
Frustrated beyond belief I checked and rechecked my connections. Didnt work. Put my hand on the ground to push myself up to standing from sitting next to the groun post and felt pulsing not quite shocks.... so I went hunting. Yep, the chicken fence was touching the wire in the back of the pen. Pushed that back-
and tada!!!! It works!
You are all amazing thank you for all your help! Me and mine appreciate it so much!

 

[Howard E]

These are the strainers.......

These are attached inline.....in the middle of a run....so when tightened, they pull in both directions. They work like any reel type device......fishing reel, hose reel, etc. There is a ratchet that clicks as you turn the reel. Will not back up. These will tighten wire to the breaking point......which is not the point. You just use them to take the sag out of the line. With a soft wire like 19 gauge aluminum, the tension will flow through the corner donuts. With 17 gauge galvanized steel, it may do that, but not nearly as easy. The heavier wire is best left up to serious big fences......like half mile runs and such. Not very user friendly.

If you use poly tape or poly rope, you can tighten those by hand and these strainers are not needed.

 

[hayley3]

As for a place to go- I only have tractor supply and they think “ Pullet” is a breed.

yes, I asked them for fence help and they looked at me like I was an alien.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I wouldn't even attempt an electric fence, for all the same reasons you haven't yet. I have a live trap. You put stinky food in, they get stuck. It's up to you what you do after that. I also have a game camera set up so I know exactly what I have to deal with. Do you live in a rural or suburban area?

 

[Mom 2em All]

Ok this is hard!!!!! But I’m doing it! I have two strands around the coop and I’m running out of daylight. I want to put a strand around the top of my chicken wire fence and I bought self-starting insulators for wood. LIES! I cannot screw them in. I can’t find a working weedwacker so grass isn’t touching my bottom wire and I’ve been ripping out weeds. I’m soaked with sweat.
thank you for the pictures I’ll get to that part soon enough. Then I’ll examine them closer.