Talk to me about electric fences

[BYC-user-452147]

This is what I use to surround the perimeter. It is keeping dogs and varmints out and the birds in. Consists of 4 wires.......17 gauge aluminum wire. Bottom wire about 5 inches off the deck. Others stacked on top at 5 inch or so intervals. Steel posts on the corners. Step in poly posts for the longer runs. Spacing is actually set by the clips on the step in posts.







Varmints see this and think they can either go under it or through it and get zapped in the process. There are not many repeat customers. As such, it is a psychological barrier only. Flipping the fencer on is like Capt. Kirk calling for "shields up"!


Closer in you could use the same fencer to charge a small area of poultry netting, which not much is going to get past unless they jump over it. Same issue though.......once zapped, varmints tend to go elsewhere. Poultry netting is a physical barrier as well as the psychological one.

The issue I'm finding with poultry netting is keeping the ground beneath it clean and bare so as to not short it out. If you don't mind Roundup, that would work.

There is enough room under the wires that I can run a weed eater under it to keep the grass and weeds down.

I have been using polytape for the last couple months and the chickens have respected it but now that I changed the setup they just step over it. do you think wire would work better?

 

[Howard E]

Mine step on it. If hot, it zaps the bottom of their foot and they then respect it. If not hot, it's nothing to them. If hot and missing them, can you add a second tape above the first?

The strange thing I've seen is if they want to, they can easily hop over it. Effortlessly. But if it's hot, for some reason they don't hop over it to get out. They will to get back in.

That 4 wire system shown in the photo is hot most of the time and they never try to cross over it. Perhaps they fear the unknown of what might be waiting for them on the other side?

 

[Howard E]

Unless the tape is a long run of several hundred yards, such that the voltage drops off as it goes around the run, tape should work as well as wire. It's also more visible.

This assumes your fencer it powerful enough to charge the whole thing to at least 7,000 volts. If not, you may need more ooomph in your fencer?

 

[BYC-user-452147]

Do you have some wires grounded and some hot or are they all hot?

 

[Howard E]

My wires and poly tape are all hot.

Having alternating hot and ground wires are needed in some cases........like at the top of a board fence (board fence being a poor conductor of electricity), but in most other cases, as long as you have an adequate ground connection at the fencer, and if the animal you are targeting for the shock will be standing on the ground, I would not run alternate hot and ground wires. I would make them all hot.

 

[BYC-user-452147]

My wires and poly tape are all hot.

Having alternating hot and ground wires are needed in some cases........like at the top of a board fence (board fence being a poor conductor of electricity), but in most other cases, as long as you have an adequate ground connection at the fencer, and if the animal you are targeting for the shock will be standing on the ground, I would not run alternate hot and ground wires. I would make them all hot.

I used to have all my poly tape hot but now that I changed the shape of the pen the chickens have been stepping on the tape.

 

[Howard E]

Curious to know what shape you did have they would stay in, and what you changed to that they do not. Are you sure the fence is still hot? Do you have a way to test it?

When my fence is HOT, they won't step on it. At least not more than once.

 

[ThenewRoosterintown]

We have small predator problems (fox, opossum, raccoon) but we also have a bad feral/roaming dog problem and coyotes. One of my nearby neighbors has fighting pits, one of which is nursing pups and roaming the neighborhood all hours of the day and night. (We've called the sheriff on them several times for other reasons too.)

I'd really like to have free range chickens, but my neighbor has lost 90% of his flock and so have my parents (they live 1/4 mile behind me). I have 8 acres with a small pond behind the house. The coop will be a lean-to on the shop with the run attached. If I had my way I'd put a 3-strand around the two acres immediately behind the house and get a mini donkey.

Dad uses a solar powered 3-strand around his pea patch to keep the deer out, and I'm considering a similar setup for the coop and run we are building. I've already priced a solar power supply that will run a 2 acre enclosure and can get all the other fencing stuff locally (wire, posts, insulators).

The big question is: How many strands? If I'm keeping out small predators, obviously one around the bottom of the coop, and a wire close to the ground around the run. I'm thinking another wire a foot up to keep the &^%$#@! dogs out, but I guess I need an actual fence to keep the chickens IN.

Thoughts?

I was having the same problem. but nothing that getting peppered with some bird shot didn't fix. we had a feral dog in our area that could jump over our 4' electric fence in a single bound. check your states laws but most read the same. anything that is killing your livestock basically can be shot and killed. check your state laws first before you shoot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have not tried this but someone said they put some peanut butter on a hot wire to entice a critter to lick the fence. That way they were sure to learn about the fence and its properties.

 

[ThenewRoosterintown]

I have not tried this but someone said they put some peanut butter on a hot wire to entice a critter to lick the fence. That way they were sure to learn about the fence and its properties.

LMAO