WARNING!!! Electric fence DEATH!

[bigstack]

I am an IDIOT!!! I used the electric fence to protect my flock. I ran 2 strands. The first starting at 4 inches from the ground, then the next 8 inches up from the first. Then I ran a third across the top. The entire pen is chicken wire except for the gate. The gate is 2x4 welded wire. Can you see the problem yet? I ran a ground wire from all of the fencing to the charger ground post. It Is an old unit and gives one heck of a jolt! Yes, I found out the hard way! It is what we around here have always called a weed burner! Any grass that grows up and touches it, is burnt off! Every thing has been great, UNTIL last night! I went out to lock up the babies. I first thought one of the chooks was just nestled down to stay warm. Every one else had went in to get by the lamp. We had a rain storm move through and it was a lil chilly. It was too dark to see clearly across the pen. I walked around and was talking to the bird. "Why are you still out side dummy?" THEN, I was close enough to see! Apparently the chook had reached through the fencing on the gate to try to eat something. When she did her neck touched the electric wire!!! I guess it had enough power to fry her lil bird brain!!! She was laying with her head resting on the wire! I emmediatly reached down in a panic and grabbed her head...... OUCH!!! still hot!! I was Mortiffied!!! I am so SAD!!!! I hate to lose any animals but it is especially bad if it is MY fault!!!!!

I was so stupid!!!! I should have known better!!! Please, Please, Please, If you use an electric fence.... Be sure that the birds CAN NOT reach the wire!!!!! I can't believe how stupid I was!!!! PLease Be careful! PLease! PLease? Please?.....

God Bless!

 

[Camelot Farms]

 

[bigstack]

Thanks! I should have known better! I just thought it would give them a lil shock too. I never thought about their lil tiny brains. Ora shock directly under the chin.

Godbless!

 

[Lolita]

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I am sooo sorry. We do use an electric fence, top and bottom of coop at night to keep predators away. We turn it on after everyone is in the coop and off in the morning before turning them out. Thanks for the reminder. I always wondered if it would kill them if they touched it.

 

[attached_mama]

I'm so sorry. I'd be distraught too.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

I always wondered if it would kill them if they touched it.

Chargers that don't "pulse" are more dangerous, but normally an electric fence will not harm a bird at all.​

 

[PhilErvin]

Thanks for the warning to us all. By warning us you are provideing a valuable lesson for us, your girl did not die in vane.

 

[Katy]

Is your fencer pulsing like it's supposed to?

 

[patandchickens]

I am sorry for your loss.

People do need to recognize that electric fences *do* sometimes kill animals; but your situation is not a typical one -- usually it's because the charger used was one of those 'always on' (not pulsing) ones or the animal gets tangled in the fence, or a very small animal touches both the hotwire and a metal fencepost.

I am concerned that you may have a lot of charger hooked up to not very much fence, and thus the fence may have a very high voltage on it. Have you actually tested the fence wire with an accurate (=digital, *not* one of those four-neon-lights things) fence tester? It is unwise to run it higher than about 5,000v. And if you have not much else hooked up to the charger, and it is a weedburner type to boot (more dangerous), then I could easily see it killing a chicken that happened to touch it. That does NOT normally happen with other setups, though.

COndolences,

Pat