Recommendations for electric fencing set up (mains)

[nmayhew]

Hi there,

Sadly we lost our four hens to Mr Fox the other day when free-ranging in our yard.

They had a 6m x 3m secure cage but we always liked to let them out when we were beetling about, but this time we were in the house and so the fox pounced with predictable results

Their cage is old and due for a complete rebuild anyway, so am thinking electric fencing to give them permanent access to free range (we have lots of room).

There are lots of brands and packages out there for electric fences so are they all much of a muchness, or anything I should go for?

We need the fencing you can pick up and move around ie the charged mesh, rather than the fixed fence 3 wire system

Any advice much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Nick

[burnie]

I don't keep chucks, but where we went on holiday last year were using this stuff, seemed to work ok, could be one to consider?
https://www.electric-fence.co.uk/ele...20fence%20kits

[Nicos]

Really sorry to hear about the attack.
We had a dog attack ours which prompted me to get the netting.

We've had ours for about 11years and can't fault it.
Its quite high too and very easy to move around.
it can also be run off a battery...
Will check out its make in the morning for you.
We've spotted 5 sets of fox eyes at night in the field behind our house but so far nothing has got through.

[MartinRSharpe]

With electric fences it really depends on what sort of length you wish to power. We've had a few different ones over the years for horse fencing (using electric rope rather than net but the general principal is the same) and my "go to" brand for energisers now would be Rutland.

Most will specify how long of a fence they will run, half it and you probably get a more accurate number. The value in Joules will tell you how "powerful" the energiser is rather than the voltage.

If its a permanent fence then consider getting a really good/big earth stake, we ended up driving a couple of 3ft steel rods into the round and it made a massive improvement.

Get yourself a tester (can be picked up cheap on ebay etc) that gives you a number value for how many volts is running across it, if its less than 3000-4000v then you need to have a look at your setup. Test it periodically, particularly in spring/summer when plants might grow and start touching the fence.

[Nicos]

This is the company we bought from.....

https://www.electricfencing.co.uk/el...ting-kits.html

we chose the finer mesh gauge to discourage rats and the taller fencing.

Its been brilliant. Bought it 11 years ago and it's still going strong. Sometimes the wire clip need resecuring, but not often.

The plus side too is that it's green so it doesn't look part of a building site!