[oldjalopy]

we want to freerange our chickens as much as possible, but as we get foxes in the garden and not just at night, as well as badgers, we are thinking of going down the electric fencing route. Would this Forcefield M160 electric fencing energiser, with 50m of flexinet poultry electric netting, be powerfull enough to prevent these pests getting at our chooks?    
We have slightly uneven ground,  would this be a problem in setting up the fence?
The link for the energiser is  http://www.forcefield-uk.co.uk/m160.htm
All help will be greatly appreciated.

[cjr]

This looks like a mains powered unit, sure you want that and not a battery one?  Otherwise it looks fine for the job. Make sure that the netting is green poultry netting because orange looks awful in the field.  The lowest strand of the netting is not live, and the kit should come with some pegs which helps.

Cut the grass where your netting is to go and remember a square is a larger area than a rectangle.

Seeing your location have you looked in Scats there's a branch in Heathfield, Redhill, Billingshurst - its where I got my netting from.

[Hawkins]

I bought this fencing kit

http://www.ukcountrystore.co.uk/acatalog/Poultry-Chicken-Net-Kit.html

I have to say it has been brill, we had a fox and a minky problem but its not a problem any more. You can also put down damp proofing and run the fence over the top so the grass wont grow and short out the fencing. This one runs of a leisure battery that you can get from any camping shop.

This one will also run upto 7 50m nets thinking ahead   you never know how the herd will grow.

[pushrod]

Wise to get a more powerful energiser than the minimum recommendation as long grass branches etc can short them out a bit, mind that one looks like it could give you fox burgers  

Sloping ground does make it more difficult to set up the net and you will probably need at least double the number of posts to what the kit supplies. Mind you can improvise with some plastic rods/bamboos and insulating tape to hold the net up.

Putting 20 cm damp proof membrane down is a good idea to keep the grass away from the net (you just skewer the membrane with the posts).

If you get hedge hogs its worth putting 6" gravel board around the base of the net to stop hedgehogs blundering into it in the night. If they do they just curl onto the wire and they die slowly   . It also stops chicks straying out accidentally.

[Molly Hen]

surely if it will kill a hedgehog, then there isn't much hope for a poor little chick!!!  Or is there something I don't know about chickens and electricty!!!! :?

[Foxy]

Unfortunately hedgehogs will curl around the netting -its their instinct
so far only had one fatality, bad enough though.

[nnbreeder]

The feathers of a bird are excellent insulation against electricity.

[Roughlee Handled]

The amps (power) kill
The Volts make you jump.

Most fences work between (SHOULD) 6000volts and 9000volts.

My advice is that if you can use a mains powered unit.  As you do not have to bother with charging batteries and checking the batteries are charged.  

I would suggest
http://www.rutland-electric-fencing.co.uk/PageAnimalPoultry.aspx
http://www.rutland-electric-fencing.co.uk/PageProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=217

[stickywicket]

Can you explain what 6" gravel board is please?

[oldjalopy]

Thanks for all your input. There is quite a lot of usefull information that I can now put to use for fencing the chooks. Would an energiser pushing out 3200v be enough of a deterent? or is 6000v considered the minimum for thwarting the foxes from getting getting through the netting?

[Foxy]

I was told 3,000v should be enough, however taking into consideration all the factors which can increase the load on fencing (vegetation etc)-would always go for an energiser with more oomph than needed. I like to have mine around 5,000 plus to be on the safe side-and on all the time.

[Sassy]

A mains powered energiser is a better bet than a battery powered one. It will have a constant voltage rather than the battery wearing down and the fox getting in. Also they should be cheaper and more convenient to run.

Plastic tent pegs can help with uneven ground.

You can get poultry netting with smaller netting at the bottom to keep chicks in.

[pushrod]

Can you explain what 6" gravel board is please?

gravel board is just the rough wooden board they put on the bottom of wooden fences that is in contact with the soil. It is treated to prevent rot, but when it does eventually rot you replace just that not the whole fence.
TBH any treated timber would do but a timber merchant would know what you were talking about. By the way proper timber merchants are massively cheaper than your wickes and B&Q type stores.

[oldjalopy]

Has anybody any information on, or has used a Hotline p100 Eagle fence mains energiser? I have been offered one cheap by somebody who has given up his small holding which had a couple of horses and a few sheep.  What I would like to know is,  would this energiser  comfortably run a couple of 50mtr. poultry nets with ease and be powerfull enough to deter the local fox and badgers population?  If so, it will offer me quite a saving as against having to buy a new energiser.

[Roughlee Handled]

Has anybody any information on, or has used a Hotline p100 Eagle fence mains energiser? I have been offered one cheap by somebody who has given up his small holding which had a couple of horses and a few sheep.  What I would like to know is,  would this energiser  comfortably run a couple of 50mtr. poultry nets with ease and be powerfull enough to deter the local fox and badgers population?  If so, it will offer me quite a saving as against having to buy a new energiser.

Look closely it shows a chicken.

http://www.hotline-fencing.co.uk

http://www.electricfence-online.co.uk/shopscr3.html

if you look at example two from the above website.
Example 2: A typical electrified sheep net has 8 horizontal strands lines, therefore a for a 600 metre fence line you would have a total distance requirement of 4800 metres or 4.8 Kilometres (i.e. 8 x 600m = 4800m).
I am assuming that the the sheep netting is similar to poultry netting then
 A typical electrified sheep net has 8 horizontal strands lines, therefore a for a 50 metre fence line you would have a total distance requirement of 400 metres or 0.4 Kilometres (i.e. 8 x 50m = 400m).

P100 EAGLE - Discontinued 2007 use HLC120    0.9 joules     10 Kilometres

Looking at this information I would say yes.