Electrifying a Boat against Pirates.

Following the spate of piracy, theft and hijackings on the high seas there has been interest shown on the use of Electric Fencing to assist in securing a boat. Two projects have been undertaken where the wires have been strung around the boat and using the metal railings as the earth system.

White plastic insulators have been used together with high voltage Hotshock units. We felt this was necessary as there would only be one chance to belt the attacker coming over the side so the 10000v kick would prove a substantial deterent. This may be connected to an alarm that would sound a siren when tampered with.

A physical test was carried out and it is very difficult to maintain a hold when the shock kicks in. The worst was when climbing out of water as this was connected to the railings creating a direct link for the electricity.

The cost of the system as installed is not great, in the region of £200.00. Installation is easy and in both cases was carried out by the purchaser.

How NOT to use Electric Fencing.

8 November, 2009 - Pema Chezom, 52, was shocked with what she saw in her maize field on the morning of October 9. A man was lying face down near her house in Yonphula, Kanglung.

He looked familiar and on a closer look recognised him as her paternal uncle, a tshampa. His legs looked burnt below the knees. He was dead.

The Trashigang police arrested her the same day on charges of negligent homicide. Her uncle had accidentally touched the inner fencing of her field with his legs, which she had electrified a month before.

With her potato harvest from her five-langdo-field (a langdo is what an oxen ploughs in a day) lost to wild boars, Pema Chezom had erected a barbed wire fence around her field, the electric fencing is inside the barbed wire fencing, to protect her maize crop, double cropped with potato.

“I bought about four bundles of wire to fence my fields,” said Pema Chezom who lives with her only daughter and companion. They have been guarding the fields ever since her husband passed away 15 months ago.

The fencing didn’t prove effective so Pema decided to use electricity after hearing about it from her neighbours. She inserted the bare electric wires into an extension cord in the kitchen and tied it around small wooden poles to cover a 20 feet area inside the main fencing from which the boars usually entered. “The boars are intelligent and they try to come from the other side,” she said. But the electric fence had helped to reduce damage.

“I was aware of the danger but I had run out of options,” she said. There are also others in her village using similar methods to protect their crops. “All people in the village knew we’re using the electric fencing,” she said. “I would put it on at nine at night and switch it off before 5 am.”

Neighbours said that it was very unlikely that her fencing could harm anyone since it was inside the main barbed wire fencing. “The wild boars come very close to our homes and don’t budge no matter what we do,” said Pema Chezom’s daughter, Ugyen Lhamo. “And this year animal attacks increased manifold.”

The tshampa’s daughter, Tshering Dema, said that her father had left their home early in the morning of Oct 6. “He had said the previous morning that he wanted to go to Udzorong to treat some people so we thought he had gone there and didn’t look for him,” she said. It was not known why he visited Pema Chezom’s maize field.

“What had happened had happened so we don’t want to charge our relative,” she said. “What happened was purely by chance.”

Villagers said similar incidents had also happened in other villages. “We’ve heard a man died eight years ago in Bidung and in Jomtsang under Udzorong some time ago,” said Bumpa. Villagers also said that despite repeated discussions in numerous sessions of the gewog yargay tshogdus, nothing had been done.

Pema Chezom has been granted bail and is waiting for her summon order from the court. She was let out on November 3, after spending 26 nights in Lungzor jail worried sick about her daughter alone at home and her maize crop. But the incident has disturbed her and she is afraid to go back home.

“I don’t know if I should be guilty. I did what I did to save my crops,” said Pema Chezom who is temporarily staying with her sister.

By Tshering Palden

NB. Agricultural Electric Fencing does not use mains electricity.

Electric Fencing for Foxes

The availability of electric fencing has transformed free-range poultry keeping. It is arguable that without it, the keeping of extensive commercial flocks would never have happened.
Electric fencing has been used in wildlife conservation and has been particularly effective in ground-nesting Plover and Tern breeding sites around the world where foxes predate on the nests extremely heavily.
Study on Fox predation on Lesser Tern Colony,
"Tracks and scats of the foxes were first noticed near the colony on 28th. May, and almost daily thereafter. On 18, 19, and 20th. June, observers recorded that the incubating terns seemed "skittish, nervous and uneasy." This phenomenon was first thought to be associated with hatching but no chicks were noted. Nest numbers decreased from 138 to 129 on 20th. June, to 61 on 22nd. June. By 23rd. June only 45 tern nests remained. Fox tracks crisscrossed the colony.
On 24th. June the electric fence was erected. On 25th. June we noted a slight increase to 48 nests; a week later, 2nd. July, we counted 60 nests, and by 6th. July, 85 nests. Fresh fox tracks were seen near the colony, but they never came closer than 10 ft to the electric fence, no tracks were found in the trial area. New nests outside the fence were consistently taken by the Foxes - none survived."

Beacon Lagoons Nature Reserve Easington, East Yorkshire

"Once again an electric fence was erected around the main breeding area. This is to protect against terrestrial predators such as foxes. No Little Tern losses were thought to occur through terrestrial predators. This was thought to be a direct result of the electric fence."

Hull University have completed a study on the new 125m (410ft) turbine at the Croda Europe plant in Hull assessing the effect they have on the wild life. The fear is that birds are flying into the spinning blades. Initial assessments were not considered successful even if no dead or injured birds were found below the turbines as fox spoor was prevalent. The assumption was that these foxes were picking up any birds struck by the blades. A fence was subsequently erected.
"No evidence of fox prints at all were found whilst the fence was up and operational, the ground was soft for the majority of the study (sometimes frozen however), and so I would assume that tracks would have been easily visible. Before the erection of the fence, the site was covered in fox spoor and so the fence has appeared to certainly deter if not eliminate the foxes entirely from the area within the fence." Anna Phelps.B.Sc (hons), M.Sc. Researcher


There is only one thing that will stop a fox dead..it comes out the end of a gun!
Electric fencing stops them....alive!! There is no cheaper or better combination. The availability of electric fencing has transformed free-range poultry keeping. It is arguable that without it, the keeping of extensive commercial flocks would never have happened.

Electric fencing is extremely portable and versatile; it may be used on its own for both permanent and temporary fencing and has been used around the world to control every mammal in some guise or other. It is cheaper, easier to erect, more effective and far safer than a barbed wire and is a fraction of the cost of a fox-proof wire mesh fence.
Permanent electric boundary fence lines should be constructed from four strands of solid hotShock electrical wire on insulated poles spaced at intervals suitable for foxes. Domestic stock are easily controlled but predators are quite a different situation. In the search for food they have to overcome different obstacles and the most difficult is fear of humans. Even a shock from a sub-standard electric fence is not too big problem for a mother following young, hungry wounded or old predator, to crawl or jump through the fence. A carnivore has to learn to respect an electric fence and the operational efficiency must be high for electric fencing to repel the carnivore penetration. If a fence lacks operational efficiency then animals will soon overcome their "fear of the fence" and it may take several weeks of training to re-block them. A fox does not burrow under an effective Electric fence nor jump over it due to the psychological imprint created. A a range of hotShock energizers have been developed to counter this problem. They run at a higher voltage than standard energizers so are very effective at controlling both poultry and foxes

Lightweight electric poultry netting is available, that can be dismantled, bundled up and re-erected further on. It is effective at allowing poultry access to specific grazing areas, as well as excluding a fox. The netting is made of polythene and stainless steel conducting twine and is erected with support poles and ground spikes. When taking a net down, do not try and roll it up, this causes a mess. Simply gather the posts together allowing the nets to fold against themselves.

An adequately designed and constructed electric fence works by the combination of a weak physical barrier (the fence) and a strong psychological imprint (the 6000v sting) created in the mind of the animal. An Electric Fence energiser attached to the fence wires produces a short but painful sting when touched by the animal, similar to a sharp "thwack" from a riding crop. The low amperage (15-100mA) and short duration (about 1/300th. of a second) results in a sharp but safe sting that then creates a psychological barrier that the animal associates with the fence and discourages it from touching again. Fortunately it only takes one or two animals to be affected and the rest will copy these, called "Socially Conditioned Avoidance"

Techniques used to increase the effectiveness of an Electric Fence

Techniques to Increase the effectiveness of an Electric Fence.

The Energiser.
There is an all too real reason to buy an energiser that just meets your requirements due to price considerations. The majority of figures quoted by manufactures’ capacity are based on a fence of good quality and in perfect condition, often under laboratory conditions. Unfortunately this will leave you with very little capacity when there is a fault, vegetation growth or increased challenge. If at all possible get an energiser that is larger than required. This will allow you plenty of latitude and it will be able to power through most situations as they arise.

The Earth Post.
The ground constitutes 50% of the electrical circuit but 90% of all problems originate at poor earthing, either at the earth stake itself or on the fence. Fortunately this is easy to rectify. Additional earth stakes may be added by driving them into the ground about 2m away from the existing stake and joining them together. Copper, Stainless Steel or Galvanized steel rods are best as mild steel will rust so creating a poor conducting barrier. All rods should be in permanently moist soil, under the building eaves, in a river bed, below a dripping tap or in an irrigated flower bed. In particularly dry weather the soil around the stakes may be watered.
If the fence extends over 500m away from the main earth it will be necessary to add an additional earth line to the bottom of the fence and bury a stake at those intervals. Wire is a better conductor than ground so a ground rod every +/- 500meters will greatly increase the effectiveness of the fence.

In dry climates or where the soil is very sandy resulting in poor conductivity through the soil, it will be necessary to consider an Earth Return fence. This is where the fence is constructed from equal numbers of live and earth wires to remove the ground from the electrical circuit. The animal is required to touch both wires to achieve the desired effect. An earth post is still utilised to cater for current flow through the ground.

Positioning of the Fence Wires.
The first rule of positioning the wires for a particular target is to realise that all animals utilise their noses to investigate a suspicious object. Therefore the object is to make it easy for the target to investigate a live wire by placing it at the resting height of the nose. It is important that the target is not forced to stretch to investigate the fence and encounters it naturally and easily.
Horses are sometimes fitted with blankets. These thick blankets are effective insulators so a second wire must be positioned to miss the blanket. This may be aimed at the knee area below the edge of the blanket so that the knee will make contact with a hot wire when the horse presses forward.

Baiting the Fence
This is the most effective technique to increase the effectiveness of a fence where an animal that simply ignores the pain or where its natural instinct enables it to evade the fence all together. Here we are referring to Springbok, Impala and some species of Deer. These animals simply walk up to a fence and will simply jump over the fence without investigating it. They can all clear well in excess of 2meters (6ft) so a substantial fence must be utilised.
By attaching suitable bait to the fence these animals are encouraged to investigate the wires with their nose and tongue that are packed with sensitive nerve endings so the animal will receive a shock that really re-enforces the psychological imprint of the fence. This should only be done in the initial stages and discontinued when they have achieved their desired effect.

There is no point in baiting a fence for an animal that is naturally curious, that will naturally slowly investigate a fence before trying to make an entrance. They will often sense the electricity as being alien and not try the fence or receive an effective shock anyway. It would be cruel to stimulate them to test the fence if they were going to respect it anyway.

Quality of the Conductors.
There is only one thing to be considered when looking at tapes, rope or twine to use on an Electric Fence:-
The Conductivity (the ability to carry electricity) of the material.
An Elephant or horse will not be fenced in by plain rope or tape but apply an electric current and they are easily contained.
The quality of the Electric "sting" delivered to the target is directly dependant on the quality of the conducting material. This is the "barb" that will keep your target animal where you want him. The conductivity of the material is quoted as Ohms per metre or Ohms/m. (this is a measure of the inline resistance). The higher this figure is - the less of the current that is delivered to that important sting. The lower the Ohms/metre is, the more electricity it will carry and deliver an effective sting. For example:- An energizer capable of energizing 9klm with a 0.05 Ohms/m. conductor will be reduced to just 1.3klm if you use a conductor of over 10 Ohms/m.
Conversely, when an energizer is used to charge 1.3 klm of fence using a good conductor it will use far less energy than using a poor conductor;- your batteries will last far longer.
Generally the conductivity of the electric fencing rope is reflected in the price of the product. There are plenty of un-declared products on the market - make sure you know what you are buying. Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. Copper or Aluminium is by far the best conductor, but generally more expensive. This may be off-set by having more steel conductors but it is important to compare conductivity (however it is delivered) to get the best return per pound spent. A tape with 6-8 conductors may not be as economical as one with 3-5. There are plenty of un-declared products on the market - make sure you know what you are buying. As a general rule, a product with only steel conductors is normally of a lower conductive quality, normally reflected in the price.
The strength of the conductive material is supplied by the plastic strands, not by the thin stainless steel or copper filaments. Rope is stronger than tape as the strands are closely wound and so combine their strength better than tape.
Life of the conductor is determined by wind action and Ultra Violet rays from sunlight breaking down the polyplastic material. Tape has a greater surface area exposed to sunlight and is more affected by wind action. Because of these two constraints the life of tapes may be substantially shorter than rope. The only advantage tape has over rope is its visibility.

Training difficult animals to respect a fence

I have often been informed that a certain horse is totally impervious to an electric fence and will simply wander through the fence that is keeping others in quite comfortably. This applies also to other varieties of animal, in particular deer or impala.

There may be several reasons why this should happen and may be broken down into physical attributes or behavioral instincts.

Physical attributes includes horse with long thick coats or wearing blankets, sheep with long woolly coats. These all create an insulating barrier that require a higher voltage to bridge. This will be achieved by using a higher running energiser or maintaining a full 6000v on the fence. A tester is vital for this situation.

Behavioral instinct is normally the domain of high jumping antelope such as impala, springbok and deer where they do not investigate a fence but simply walk up to it and jump over. An electric fence relies on the psychological imprint it creates with the shock rather than the flimsy construction to function. Here it is necessary to attract the animal onto the fence by use of bait. This draws the animal onto the fence and generally use his nose and tongue to investigate the attraction. The large number of nerve endings in these organs are severely stimulated by the shock and the animal rarely returns for a second.

This method may be used for nearly every type of animal but should not be used on those animals that are normally inquisitive and easily controlled anyway

Hull University have completed a study on the new 125m (410ft) turbine at the Croda Europe plant in Hull assessing the effect they have on the wild life. The fear is that birds are flying into the spinning blades. Initial assessments were not considered successful even if no dead or injured birds were found below the turbines as fox spoor was prevalent. The assumption was that these foxes were picking up any birds struck by the blades.
In order to completely satisfy the study objective it was decided to fence off the turbine to eliminate the fox as a factor. This was done using poultry netting coupled to a Hotshock energiser. During the study period from 2008 - 2009 NO bird carcasses or evidence was found.
















"No evidence of fox prints at all were found whilst the fence was up and operational, the ground was soft for the majority of the study (sometimes frozen however), and so I would assume that tracks would have been easily visible. Before the erection of the fence, the site was covered in fox spoor and so the fence has appeared to certainly deter if not eliminate the foxes entirely from the area within the fence." Anna Phelps.B.Sc (hons), M.Sc. Researcher

Coupled with visual observation noting that birds did not fly into the blades and were quite obviously taking avoiding action before getting too close to them.

"The project demonstrates successful cooperation between industry and environmental/conservation science, working towards a sustainable future for our local environment."