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Electric Livestock Fences
This is off topic, so please respond by e-mail, if desired. I have 5 chickens that we use for eggs and as pets. They have a large coop that backs up to a very large fenced area. They use the coop for roosting and laying egges and use the fenced area for foraging during the day. We close the access door of the coop at night to keep out predators. The fenced area is constructed of 5 ft high, 14ga welded wire. It does a good job of keeping out predators in the summer when thay aren't hungry, but in the winter, it is likely they can easily scale the fence in search of an easy meal. When we are on vacation, we are not able to close the access door to the coop leaving the chickens vulnerable to predators who scale the fence. Currently, we have a loud radio on a timer in the fenced area as a deterrent when we are away. I am thinking about adding an extension to the top of the fence and running a wire around the perimeter approximately 5" above the existing fence. I then want to ground the fence and attach an electric fence controller to the wire so when a predator has one foot on the fence and one hand on the wire, he will get shocked and hopefully retreat. Does this sound reasonable or am I missing something? Does anyone have any other ideas on protection? The local Southern States saleman has been no help.Thanks in advance,Rob.
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Electric Livestock Fences
I would put about 3 strands 5" inches apart.The electric will definately be a deterent,do not buy "Dare brand insulators"they are junk and will dry rot in no time.Get the "Red Snapper" brand,I have had these up for 8 years and still are as good as new.Stock Yards Ranch and Supply has these insulators etc and will ship them UPS to your front door they also have a lot of other farming supplies. If this is all you are fencing you do not need a high powered fencer,I have a "Parmac" 50 mile low impedance fencer that will knock your socks off. But like I say a lower powered one will work fine.
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Electric Livestock Fences
Thanks for the advice, Hillbilly. I assume one of the strands has to be grounded?
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Electric Livestock Fences
I am sorry I did not answer your grounding question the first time. The way my fencer is set up it has 1 wire off of the fencer going to the fence and one wire off of the fencer going to a ground rod.If you buy a fencer it will or should have instructions to make it easy to install.
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Electric Livestock Fences
I have had my chicken coops with electric fence wire around them as predator control for several years and never lost a bird.
I have two strands around the chicken coop (bird) fence, one about 6" off the ground and another about 18" off the ground. My logic is that the lower strand will keep both climbing and digging predators away from the fence, and one that might jump the bottom wire (or larger critter stepping over it) is going to hit the upper wire.
My only recommendation is to avoid the solar electric fence controllers (battery powered charged by solar cells) if you live in northern climates. Mine worked well for about 2 years but weakened substantially in the winter (due to less sunlight and cold batteries) to the point that it didn't do its job. I changed over to a 110VAC controller which has quite a bit more of a jolt and that won't weaken.
As a disclaimer I also own several dogs and cats, and the coop is near yard lights and other activity, all of which I'm sure contribute to reducing predation.
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