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Grandmashazzie

Electrified fencing

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We are shortly moving to a house which adjoins a country park. Their emblem is a fox! My hens have a walk in run which is plenty big enough for them but they are very much used to FR and there is a lot of squawking if they are confined to barracks. I was looking at electrified fencing on the omlet site and see it is marked as not fox proof. Could any omleteers let me know how you have found it. I would be using it when at home though obviously in the house at times.

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I agree with other posters. We've been using electrified poultry netting for about 5 years, have foxes and badgers as regular visitors to the garden, and have only ever lost hens to predators when something happened to the fence (when neighbours with less experience were looking after the chickens), and once when I forgot to clip a bird's wing after she'd finished her moult so was able to hop over the fence. However, I don't rely on just the fence overnight. We have runs attached to the cube & eglu so shut each run at night, but I don't bother locking the houses except when it's very cold.

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Heard good results from electric fencing, although our approach is electric lines outside a chicken wire fence. Problems that can arise are shorting to earth because of undergrowth, poor earth because of dry ground and unit failure. A fox can sense when the electric is off and will be in immediately. So it is going to be a risk, even in daytime, relying on just an electric net in your location Grandmashazzie. My suggestion is to approach it the same way as us. Heck of a lot more work though. It took two months to build our enclosure and during that time the chickens were getting very fed up being confined to their runs.

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Do you mean Beantree a totally enclosed area with wire, ? also ot top.Then wire just out side perimeter.We were going to have paving slabs around perimeter then electrified fence.They would be in WIR at night,it is wire meld (sp) on concrete slabs plus wire buried beyond slabs. I think they will be safe at night and they are put in if I go out. I suppose it is a little crazy as there are 6 chickens in a 9 by 6 enclosed run but I do feel I like them to potter elsewhere as well,though not becoming someone's dinner.

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We've enclosed 580m2 with 5'8" height of chicken wire Grandmashazzie. It's all built to enclose an Orchard. The bottom of the netting is turned outwards but not buried, because outside that we will have 5 strands of alternating live and earth electrified wire. The chicken wire will be earthed to improve the circuit. At the moment we have 100 metres of electric netting which is a pain to maintain because it has to be lifted to strim the undergrowth. The chicken wire has three 3.0mm tensioned wires to support it. The bottom one is at ground level to stop the net being lifted. Tensioning is done with 8mm double hooks with a breaking strain of 500Kg, so plenty against a fox. Posts are set at 5 metre spacing all round, just to carry the weight of the netting really and reduce the sag on the top line. The corner posts are supported and extra support wires are strung from the top of the posts and onto steel stakes in the ground to take all of the strain. The chicken wire is deliberately loose to stop it being climbed. It's a complex structure, not pretty, but pretty strong. Pity it isn't bigger but we haven't got enough space.

 

There is no wire on top because none of ours can get over that height, even when they launch themselves from the top of a coop. The outer electric fence prevents anything from jumping up, even when it is switched off, because it just gets in the way. All of them go into secure coops at night. The enclosure is divided into sub-enclosures separated by at least metre to stop the cockerels fighting. Within each of those is a secure run and the coop. We aim to provide 15m2 each bird within the enclosures. Perhaps one day I will video it, but time is short at the moment.

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Ours is great, we've had no problems at all apart from having to mow the grass a little more often than I'd like!

 

We have a little voltage meter keyring device which means I can easily check the fence every morning. With cut grass the meter shows 10kV, which is probably a bit optimistic, and as the grass grows it slowly drops. When it gets to 7kV or so I'll cut the grass. At the moment that's three or four weeks of growth so it's not too onerous. Anyway, the meter is great as it gives you the confidence that all's well. Ours came with the kit but I think they're about £20 and well worth the money for the peace of mind.

 

The little girls still shock themselves every now and again but the local cats seem to steer well clear. I'm yet to see a fox in the garden even though the neighbours tell me they're everywhere!

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I appreciate that you have great confidence in your netting Rob. It is very effective, even though a fox could jump straight over it they stay well away. But you need to be aware that if the power fails for any reason the foxes will be in immediately. I don't think you should rely entirely on it. Certainly if the neighbours tell you foxes are everywhere. It is down to convenience versus potential loss. Whilst our double fence system took a lot of time to install, we know that even without power it will still be very effective.

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