[Knight Family]

Hi all long time no speak! Well after 9 months of living away from home and my chickens it would seam I may be moving in 2 months time (As long as this house sale goes through!!!)

Anyway, the nice plot of land I'll have has fox's passing through nightly I beleive so our plan it to have a small orchard (4 trees I did say small) and place the ladies inside with electric fencing groing around, now I dont mind the cost but I'm looking at £215 for a 50m net and just want to ask those with this time of fencing is it worth the money? Or should I just build a big mesh fence?

Any comments would be helpfull even if its a recomendation on were to get it from! So far looking at the http://www.domesticfowltrust.co.uk/ since its 5 min drive from my hopfully new place.

Have read this http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=25998.0  But another question is it better to buy wooden posts and attach the net to this instead of the moveable posts?

[brownhandbag]

I am interested in advice re electric fencing too.

[ehs284]

We have wire net fence to keep chicks in and electric fence to keep foxes out. Both have problems in that they collect leaves so the wind pressure is something to consider. Chooks will fly over the electric fence so you'll need something to keep them in. Our wire mesh net is made as panels so it can be rearranged, hence the need for the electric fence as the foxes could burrow under the panels. If you want a permanent fence then probably a good fixed welded mesh fence with an L at the botton (see DEFRA sites) would be better as it will need no power complications and cost will be similar for 50m. The 'posts' you get with the electric fence are not sufficient and you'll need supports at (around) 1.5 metres or it will sag. Once it sags you get shorts and a dead battery. Wooden or plastic covered metal posts are needed. Uneven ground is difficult to deal with as the gap at the bottom should be small but also enough to prevent the lowest live wire touching the ground. Weeds and grass need to be kept down; some people put down damp proof course material under their electric fences to deal with this.HTH

[Knight Family]

mmm thanks ehs284, not really what I wanted to here but I'm starting to think I may well need to do a proper fence and not just elctric mesh.

My thinking being:

1. Electric fence will be the only thing between me and the next door allotment / veg patch.

2. It will also contain Fruit trees so thinking about picking etc.

3.  It would be permanent fence and not moved really.

I was thinking of doing the Rutland electric fence plan e.g. alternating wires of live and earth but not sure if this would be any better since I would have to place good quality Round posts in the ground.. Howevr it wouild stop any issue with saging / leave catching etc. But not Mr fox digging under ground.

Never had this many proplems in my current house 8 ft high fencing with Mesh pannels etc..... Life in the country side I bet!!

[Roughlee Handled]

"For a secure boundary fence which will also exclude foxes, consider a 9 wire fence approximately 120cms (4ft) high, using stranded steel wire. With the fence wired alternatively live/earth a fox scrambling over or jumping between wires will receive a shock even though his feet are off the ground." http://www.rutland-electric-fencing.co.uk/PageAnimalSwine.aspx

I have a 5.8ft high weld mesh with electric wire as above.
I also have a "trip/dig" wire 2inchs off the ground and a foot away from the bottom round my run. 

DO NOT TRUST Panel fencing what ever it is mesh or wood as FOXES can climb and do.

I have not had any problems so far.  1 year on since loosing my flock bar one. What have you considered for access?  It will be your weakest point.

[Knight Family]

thanks Roughlee, thats my thinking currently is to do what you recomended in the other post somewhere. However doing this type of elctric fence, means I have no idea of how to do the gate!

I would love somthing not to block the view, but would love idea's if you got any......

Also need to work out what the cost of doing it this way will mean, but I would expect it to be simular.

[Roughlee Handled]

I used weld mesh and a wooden frame, along with one strand at the top. I also dug in 9inches of weld mesh to a depth of ...

[Knight Family]

Roughlee, am I right in thinking you have another fence after that since the fence would only by 4ft high? and I know my girls would jump over / on to it.

I was thinking approx 6 ft high but is this over kill ? as not sure on the depth of the posts I'm going to have to put in, lots of hard work me thinks.

[Roughlee Handled]

This is the door and fence nearly finished about may time last year.  Notice the electric wire. 

I know it is not very helpful bit this is the only photo I have finished.


Mine is 5ft 8inches tall.

Posts are 24 inches down and have the one bag post mix in the bottom.

All my girls that can fly have wings clipped.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Hmmm Roughlee your snow pic looks just like my run did - poor chooks were so fed up!   

[Knight Family]

So were ours I believe sadly I was not there but 140 miles away stuck in my flat

Anyway thanks for that Roughlee, got me thinking on how I'll do it but I think that may be the best way, will have to test to see how the new next door neighbour thinks of the a joining Electric fence, but dout they should mind as long as they dont touch it..... 

[Knight Family]

Ok another question on fencing.......

Been looking at rutland electric fencing and I'm wondering about doing this:

http://www.rutland-electric-fencing.co.uk/PDFs/TipSheet-Chicken.pdf

This would not be as well as a mesh fence but instead of what do you all think?

[Foxy]

we have something similar around our permeter, it is just stock fencling with a electric wire around the top - threaded through insulators (like Roughs)

We will be doing something like your attachment around later on this spring as the ground is quite uneven.

Around the runs we have about 200m of electric netting attached to a mains energiser. The ducks are in their winter run(veggie patch!) which is surrounded with hazel hurdling with insulators attached and electric wire threaded. That is powered by a simple battery energiser.

[ehs284]

The Rutland system looks the best out of the variations on the market and is more sensible when it comes to maintenance and fault finding. The low height means that you still have to think of the chooks flying. Wing cropping doesn't always work - they just fly crabwise! Another point not yet mentioned is that of flying predators. We have a problem with Buzzards. As they like to swoop in and out, a high fence is a deterrent even though it is open at the top. Some posts mentioned gates. There are electric fence gates available, but it seems that they are problematic so most people put in a mesh gate.

[Knight Family]

Gulp just working out the cost! Will be looking at £390 for 50m to 66m circumfrence. Thats including an estimate of wooden posts then everything else (excluding making a gate)!!

All I can is I must love the girls!!!