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.

Photography

It is not often that I highlight a photography website but sometimes a series of equestrian photographs will make you pause and take a longer look to appreciate the composition and the unusual style and technique of the photographer. Some are pretty standard but others are taken from unusual angles and the use of black & white highlights the composition.

Electric Fencing for Cattle.

Historically cattle have been fenced by using several lines of barbed wire. This has done the job but has resulted in many maimed, mutilated, ruined and destroyed valuable animals over the years. Fortunately this has being replaced by the use of electric fencing in more and more situations. It is cheap, highly effective and best of all the chances of maiming an animal are negligible.

Dairy cows are typically docile creatures due to the regular close contact with humans and so are easy to fence with Electric Fencing. A single strand of wire at a low voltage (3000v) is frequently used on wetland and irrigated pastures to rotate the animals around the pasture. The portability feature of Electric Fencing permits this function so that the pasture is not permanently divided up by fencing. The overall ease with which a pasture may be managed is a feature of using Electric Fencing.

Beef cattle are not handled on a daily basis so are more intractable than dairy cattle. They may be still fenced by one or two strands of electrified wire but at a higher voltage (6000v). The fencing used for beef cattle is typically of a more permanent nature surrounding larger pastures indicating the more extensive nature of beef raising. This may best be seen in more arid regions where beef is raised in extensive pastures but still rotated to allow the pasture to regenerate such as the High Density, Short Duration techniques. Continuous grazing represents zero grazing management and graziers who do not pro-actively manage their grazing process will unwittingly place themselves in an ongoing confrontation with nature.

Bulls that are separated from cows may try to escape their pasture to breed cows that are in oestrus. Fencing is erected to thwart the targets desire to get where he/she wants to go to and the stronger that desire – the stronger the fence has to be. To keep bulls fenced separately, use up to four strands of wire. Keep the wire energized with a minimum of 1.5 Joules and 6000 volts. If one or more bulls are super-aggressive, you can train them to respect the fence by baiting the line. This entices them to investigate the fence with their noses or tongues. These highly enervated organs are very sensitive and the fence will be reinforced in their brain as something to respect.

The typical reaction of an animal to receiving a shock is to retreat from the fence a short distance and soon recover. They learn the limits of the fence and it is possible to see a line of cows with their heads below the energised line, but not touching, and grazing as close as they can to the fence.

The wire spacing for electric wire can vary, depending on the cattle breed. But typically you'll want at most three strands that are place at the cows' nose height, lower chest height, and knee. For cows with nursing calves, you'll need a strand of electrified wire at the nose level of both.