[Koojie]

Can anyone recommend an electric fence or are they all pretty standard?  We just got so confused as to the amount of batteries that there are!  Some with solar (I know a friend uses one to charge the battery) - some expensive, others not so.  Does that mean expensive equals quality?  We would have a fairly large area for the ladies to range, but have already ordered a huge run (getting ready for Defra lock down) but as we have foxes around (just recently mum and cubs) so I definitely need extra protection.

Cheers

[Black Sheep]

We have a Gemini and can't fault it. Mains or battery powered. Ordered online from Electric Fencing Direct who were very helpful answering questions and suggesting configuration ideas when I was trying to work out what was needed - they are recommended too.

[Koojie]

Wonderful!  Thank you so much.  It was beginning to get to be a headache!  I'd been staring at so many different sorts that the more I saw, the more confused I got!
Cheers Black Sheep.

[chrismahon]

We have a Rutland ESB275 unit which is battery powered but needs to be housed in a waterproof box- a spare coop in our case. We bought large leisure batteries which were expensive, but they last a month. Our enclosure consists of two 50m poultry nets which are the earth circuit as it is difficult, if not impossible, to stop them shorting to earth when used as the manufacturer intended. Then we have two lines of electric wire around the outside. Adding to that we have solar lights every 10 metres. So far we've had no problems although all the chickens are locked up at night in secure coops anyway. Not sure this arrangement would work in UK as you have fearless urban foxes rather than the cautious rural ones here.

[Koojie]

Well after much thought we went for a package but had to add a battery to it, so I've bought 2 batteries so one can charge while the other is fitted.  I was advised to lay a damp proof course along the bottom of the netting so that the grass can't interfere.  Screwfix do several sizes of small widths so we will be looking into that too. 

Thank you Chrismahon for your input too.  I figure that I will only need the 50m at first and will see how it goes before adding another section.  The batteries will also cover more than 100m so should stand us in good stead for a while.  I think the extra protection for the battery is a good idea so that it should last longer - we are quite exposed here - the rain is lashing down and it's blooming windy!  Or as the locals say, a little bit breezy!  Yeek!

[GribinIsaf]

We bought 1m wide ground cover fabric then folded it back under itself from either side to make a 50 cm wide strip without the fraying edges that are an environmental hazard from that kind of material.  This was all firmly pegged down with ground cover spikes.  In addition we put in sturdy wooden posts at the corners, ran tensioned wire between them and used cable ties to fasten the top of the fence to the wire so reducing sag.  It is possible to mow occasionally over the edge of the ground cover with a flymo or similar to stop grass encroaching.  With all that the fence does not earth to ground via grass etc but as a previous poster has said (was it another thread) it is takes a lot to prevent that happening.

[Koojie]

Cheers Gribinslaf.  I'm still waiting for the chicken run to arrive although the electric fencing kit is ready to be set up as soon as we've erected it.

[kernow64]

Reading this thread with interest as we need some fencing to protect our hens.

One (I’m sure there will be more!) question is, presumably most people join the fence to the coop so that the hens can come and go as they choose - how do you stop a fox climbing onto the top of the coop and jumping down into the protected area?

Is this not an issue or can you run some wires (need to be earthed) from the fence to create a barrier on the roof or is barbed wire the answer or is it not an issue?

Many thanks,

Jerry

[kernow64]

We have a Gemini and can't fault it. Mains or battery powered. Ordered online from Electric Fencing Direct who were very helpful answering questions and suggesting configuration ideas when I was trying to work out what was needed - they are recommended too.

Which Gemini energiser have you got - I was look at the kits available from EFD and although their netting and posts seemed higher and stronger, the energiser was a Gemini 40 whereas most of the other retailers where offering the more powerful Gemini 120 in their kits.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JK

[Black Sheep]

We've got the HLC80 but it is used for the pig fence rather than poultry.

We didn't buy a standard kit but put together a package of materials needed to put electric onto existing wooden posts.

[Nanzilela]

Gemini 40 is 0.45 joule - only good for 1 standard net at best.
Gemini 120 is 1.2 joules and good for 5 nets. Price difference will not be 5 times as much.


Anyone thought of the tall Chicken net 145 cm tall. No fox well get over that.

[chooksquacks]

Thanks for the responses. We've got a mains electric unit which we run a wire around our pig pen at about 15 inches above ground level to stop the pigs digging, and we've go two strands around the chickens. One is on the outside and is, again, about 15 inches high, and the other runs around the top - which adds a bit of extra height.

I had historically thought that just the humming of the electric fencing was enough to put the fox off, but as it was on (and is always on unless i'm outside) when the ducks were taken it's clearly not. I think we may have to get some of those angled jobs for on top, which hold the electric wire out and angle them so that they are higher and further out than the actual fence. Like these ones:

https://www.ukcountrystore.co.uk/acatalog/Extra-Long-Pigtail-Insulators.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwiZnnBRBQEiwAcWKfYgbc2DRPkBmNNBhPRuFwgsLwOetDcZoDx0ji60pfUlIT-3k-Wij8NhoCpBUQAvD_BwE

I think we have so many small holdings around us, and absolutely everyone has at least chickens, that shooting/removing the fox will be fruitless as another one will just move in. Obviously it currently sees my ducks (remaining ones are inside still until the danger period has passed and fence has been corrected) as the current weakest link locally.