Electric Net Q's from the noob.

[Scooby308]

Ok, uber noob here. I spent my summers on my grandfathers horse farmshow horses and nothing else. I have been planning on starting a homestead (serious planning) for about 5 years (thinking about being a pioneer since I was a kid, lol). I am seriously going to give it a go.

We bought a small piece of land 5 years ago and it has sat pretty much dormant until this last winter when we started cleaning it up.

If you read my introduction post you know some of what I have to work with:
11+ acres of pasture (good pasture).
4+- acres of hardwoods.
Access to 200+- acres of hardwoods.
Small pond.
No fence (well not a good one).

I am starting with chickens but will move to Nubian (and maybe a few Boer) goats. Then add in American Guinea Hogs and rabbits. Hopefully all up and running by August 2013.

My questions are on Electric Net Fence:
I am looking at the poultry net for all the fencing needs. I have been told netting wont work, netting will work, you cant use solar because it isnt strong enough, you can use a solar charger if it has enough joules.
I am asking what your experiences are with net fencing and what (if any) solar charger would work?

Thanks in advance,
Christopher

 

[chubbydog811]

Regular sheep/goat netting is GREAT. The chicken netting has more wire, and will be harder to keep a large area hot unless you have a super awesome charger...Males and babies aren't good with the goat netting though, because typically they will run right through it, hot or not. They require a more permanent/solid fence line. Maybe use the chicken netting for the kids? Boys (mainly intact) still need a solid fence, especially to avoid "oopsie" breedings.

I have not found a solar charger that will support all of the netting I have - I only have about 1 1/2 acres fenced with it. The only charger I have that will support it is my "big" charger that is meant for 25 miles of fencing. I know there is a portable charger that you hook up to a large battery - more like a car battery - that works great. Though they are expensive (hence why I don't have one yet). Also not really a good option if you are thinking this will be your 24/7 fencing - good if you lock them up at night though, then you can shut it off and get longer life on your battery. If it is 24/7 turn out, you are better off getting a corded charger, and maybe have a smaller area for power outage weather with a solar so your fence is always hot (or just lock them up in their shed)
Solar charger also didn't work for the pigs. It wasn't nearly strong enough. Electric netting most likely won't work for them either. We had a 4 strand electric fence (the kind that has a constant zap, not the pulsing) and they still ran through it. They had about an acre of good land to dig through, and they still took off. Hog panels work great for them.
Not sure how the rabbits would do with the chicken netting...I've never kept rabbit outside

Anyway, hopefully that helps a little?

 

[sawfish99]

I recently purchased (new) 1 roll of the Premier poultry net for use with chickens. After that, I got a decent deal on 10 rolls (164' each) of Premier goat netting and a Premier solar charger.

For chickens, the poultry net is much more to keep predators out than the chickens in. We had to wing clip half the flock to keep them from flying over the net and being too stupid to fly back in at night. When they get spooked, the run into the net and don't care about getting shocked. I suspect the feathers do not conduct the electricity well.

I have had the poultry net positioned near other electric that is AC powered and keeps the horses/goats in without a problem.

For the goat netting, it works great as long as the charger is stiff enough. I had the net connected to the solar charger, but it just doesn't give enough jolt for the goats to respect it. I bought a 10 mile charger and hooked it to 4 sections of netting in series, and again, too much loss. So this afternoon, I am upgrading again to a 25 mile (or larger) charger.

1. Use AC if at all possible.
2. While you can use the poultry for goats, the poultry netting is much heavier, more difficult to set up/take down if moving, and requires more extra support stakes along the way. The goat netting is much easier to handle and move around.

 

[bjjohns]

We recently purchased 2 rolls of Positive-Negative-Positve goat fence from Kencove. Somewhere in the documentation it said you need 1/4 joule for each section of fence. We are the fencing as a rotational grazing set-up, so we move it every couple of days. Previously we had just run a bunch of twine on posts, but the goats would go through it whenever they wanted when the ground is dry. The charger for the twine was a older parmak and it worked well, but the parmak did not have the omph to run the netting. Our perimeter fence was powered by a Gallagher B200 thats rated at 1.45 joules. We moved it to the portable net pen and bought a Patriot P-30 to run the perimeter. Eventually we will convert the P-30 to solar.