4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[chicken-drummer]

Hi All,

 

We've got some Omlet netting and let the girls free-range in a netted off part of the garden whenever we are outside. I've never seen a fox round here but I have heard them - so I don't like to leave the girls unsupervised.

 

I'd really like the girls to be able to spend more time in the garden and was looking at the possibility of electrifying the omlet netting. If we did this, would we be able to leave the girls safely free-ranging within the netting on their own? Is there anything else we would need to take into consideration? Although I would like the girls to be able to free-range more my main consideration is that they are safe from foxes!

 

I'd be grateful for any advice!

 

Thanks,

[..lay a little egg for me]

Hi cd

 

We have electric netting.

 

We are here most of the time (though out of ear-shot) but I'm sure they will be fine free-ranging unsupervised during the day as long as the fence is working properly. We always shut them in overnight AND leave the fencing switched on. All the info I read before getting the fencing was the electric fencing is the only sure way of keeping the fox out. Our neighbouring farm shop has about 200 free-range hens, protected by electric fencing and the owner told me that he reckons the fox visits about 3 times a night trying to find a weak point. He thinks that a fox got in once but was so scared by the electric shock it went straight out again. Not sure how it got in, but their fencing is the fixed type where wires are strung between wooden posts (so no vertical strands), so the fox might have got between the wires I guess.

 

So, lets see, my tips are:

 

You need to make sure there is nothing touching the second wire up from the ground (the bottom wire is not electrified) and shorting the fence and so causing the voltage to drop below 2000 volts (I have a fence tester to check this). A few strands of grass is OK but a lot will stop the fence working properly.

 

Make sure the sender (aka energizer/fencer) unit is rated for electric netting. Lots of them are for single wires such as used for horse fencing. It needs to be pretty powerful because there are a lot of wires to be electrified. A fully charged ex-car battery will last about a month before needing re-charging.

 

When you make your enclosure, don't join the wires at the ends of the fence to make a complete circuit, or it won't work. I have kind of overlapped the ends (but not touching) and held the posts together with a piece of bungee cord.

 

The other thing to be careful of is that a fox can't get up on something and jump over the fence.

 

Hope this helps...

[chicken-drummer]

Thanks Caroline - this is really helpful.

 

I'll go and do a bit more research and have a look at our setup (currently the cubes in a corner of the garden next to a fence - so will probably need to move it if we go for the electric option!)