# Building an electric fence.



## jason_mazzy (Feb 4, 2011)

I have figured out it will be much more cost effective and predator dettering to build an electric fence. This will also give me much more land coverage as 1/2 of my property is wooded. This should allow me to cover more are for the goats and mini cows to graze and browse, while discouranging foxes and racoons from trying to get into my chickens. So I have read on how to do this properly, but I am not 100% sure how to install a gate. I will need to have at least 3 gates/openings so i can go through with either a car or walk the property without taking 5000 volts trying to climb it. 

What would be your suggetsions?


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## jason_mazzy (Feb 4, 2011)

Hrmmmmmm no electric fence experts here I see.


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## glenolam (Feb 4, 2011)

I believe people bury a line with a grounding wire or something like that.  I don't have any gates that require doing this so I'm not exactly sure what the process is, but I believe you just stop all wires but the bottom wire at the point of the gate.  Then run the wire under ground (they make special wire covers/grounders for this) and bring it back up on the other side.  Then, run the hot wires down to the bottom wire to re-connect them.

Or, you could run the wire over the gate by putting 2 posts on either side of the gate, about 8ft high (or however high you need).  Do the same as running the wire under the fence - stop all wires but the top wire, run it across the top (no need for a grounding/cover wire) and reconnect all hot wires on the other side.

I'd probably run the wire under ground just so I wouldn't have to worry about anything hitting it above the gate, though.


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## jason_mazzy (Feb 4, 2011)

I was thinking more along the lines of a hot gate, but I can turn off the juice at the box open the gate and then turn it back on. 

Just not sure if there is a special way to rejoin leads that will be hooked and unhooked.


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## glenolam (Feb 4, 2011)

I know Zareba sells gate handles, and I'm pretty sure they're for hot gates:

http://www.zarebasystems.com/learning-center/all-about/gate-handles/gate-handle-expert-tips

Here's the picture from that link:


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## jason_mazzy (Feb 4, 2011)

That looks good. Now I just have to figure out how to build one myself. I use a simple hand made and bent metal hooks attached to cattle fence to open and close my chicken pasture. i don't think that is going to work the same way with an elctric fence. Anyone know what would happen if I ran hot wire to 1 small panel of preformed chain link swinging gate?


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## patandchickens (Feb 4, 2011)

There are two ways to get your electric across the gate; and three ways (two of which are generally a bad idea ) to actually wire the gate itself.

To get your electricity across the gateway, your options are either a) dig trench, run double-insulated wire (preferably thru something extra protective like some old garden hose), and rebury; or b) go the "up and over" route, with an overhead wire or wire-attached-to-horizontal-2x4.  

The advantage of burial is that you do not need to worry about attracting lightning strikes nor about clearance for trucks and haywagons and so forth. 

The disadvantage of burial is that even if you use good double-insulated electric fence wire (NOT household insulated wire) AND run it through conduit or hose or whatever, there is STILL a fairly nonzero chance that someday all the protection will get nicked by a rock or whatever (as traffic presses down on the earth above it) and cause a ground fault. This has three down sides: it will weaken or blank out your fence, it is a giant pain in the butt to dig up and fix, and it can cause a tingling shock transmitted thru the soil near that gateway that can in just a day "train" your livestock not to want to go through that gate no way no-how even once you have fixed the problem.

So in most cases burial is probably the best option but you should think it over carefully because it is definitely a tradeoff.

As for how to WIRE the gate itself, so that it is electrified (whether this is an only-electric gate or, better for most purposes, a regular gate that has hotwire *added to* it), your options are either to wire it so that the gate is always hot even when it's open, which is generally stupid because it results in you getting zapped a lot; or to wire it so that the gate AND ALL 'DOWNSTREAM' FENCE is "off" when the gate is open, which is easy to do but kind of stupid because you are losing electricity on a lot of fence that way; and the almost-always best way, which is to wire it so that the gate is "off" when open but the rest of the fence is unaffected.

To do this latter (proper) method, put a terminal insulator on the hinge end of the gateway, that is not attached to any other part of the electric fence system. Then put a "live" insulator on the latch (opening) end of the gateway, that is attached to the fence hotwire and is always "hot" as long as the whole fence is turned on. Run the electric across the gate however you want (either an all-electric "gate", or adding electric to a regular farm gate), with a gate-handle hook to attach the gate's wiring to the "live" insulator on the opening-side gate post.  Thus, to open the gate you detach that gate handle (rendering the gate itself "off") and open the gate, and the rest of the fence is unaffected. 



> Anyone know what would happen if I ran hot wire to 1 small panel of preformed chain link swinging gate?


It would not work well at all unless you take some special measures to hinge the gate, because the metal hinge posts it sits on would conduct enough current thru the fencepost to create a pretty noticeable loss of charge. Also electrified metal mesh is inherently somewhat of a hazard, since if someone grabs hold of it real quick or an animal gets a leg or horn thru it they will not be able to escape and can get shocked to death.

I would recommend instead a couple of hotwires added to a regular gate, as per above.

(I do not like "all electric" gates, like strips of wire or electric rope or tape going across the opening or those spring-style ones, because when the fence current fails -- and all electric fences fail SOMEtimes -- it is just INVITING the animals to get loose. At the very least, if you do this kind of gate make sure you wire it PROPERLY so it is off (without affecting the fence) whenever it is open, otherwise you can zap animals/self or accidentally turn off your whole fence )

A couple other generic electric-fence suggestions: 1) do not try to skimp on type, depth or number of ground rods. Really really. And 2) buy a good DIGITAL (not four-neon-lights) fence tester and use it DAILY, finding and fixing problems as the occur, which they will.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat


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## Fiberfling (Aug 8, 2012)

Look at the picture posted. You will see insulated wire that is looped around the post on the right. Follow one wire to the black handled object on the left. This is Spring loaded, it allows you to unhitch the wire and then double it back to the fenceing on the right. The insulated wire is the gate, the handle allows you to move it, the hook makes it hot to the other side. You only need one to connect the entire fence. not two.  The fence post on the left can have a "runner" from the hot wire on the top to the one below.


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## Alice Acres (Aug 8, 2012)

Fiberfling said:
			
		

> Look at the picture posted. You will see insulated wire that is looped around the post on the right. Follow one wire to the black handled object on the left. This is Spring loaded, it allows you to unhitch the wire and then double it back to the fenceing on the right. The insulated wire is the gate, the handle allows you to move it, the hook makes it hot to the other side. You only need one to connect the entire fence. not two.  The fence post on the left can have a "runner" from the hot wire on the top to the one below.


We've used those insulated handles - you just buy that piece and use it wherever you want the gate opening to be.


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