The Failure of African Politics.

Reading the outcome of the SADC meeting attempting to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis held on Sunday 9th November leaves far more questions than answers.
The most striking....why on earth the leaders continue to pander to Mugabe?
Here is a person continually dragging the African reputation into the mud. Ian Douglas Smith portrayed the African as being in-capable of governing a nation in any way. To illustrate that he used the host of failures in Africa at that time where none had progressed from where they took over from their colonial masters and most had regressed. Where wealth in the country was present, this was locked into the privileged few, mostly politicians. Furthermore this wealth was exported to safer banking systems so the population was denied twice, firstly by the money not being spread around and then secondly when the internal banking system was denied the currency to use for the advancement of the general public.
Mugabe has continued to prove Ian Smith correct having taken over a country with an efficient civil sector, growing manufacturing base, vibrant agricultural sector and a very diverse and profitable mining sector. The country should not have required international aid AT ALL, ever.

It is clear that African leaders cannot condemn Mugabe because they are actually all in the same boat. Making a mess of their countries on a daily basis. It has become clear that there is no saving Africa. It is only a matter of time before South Africa descends into the same path of oblivion.

Perhaps it is time that the Afroican continent was cut off from aid and told "Sink or Swim"

Using electric fence to protect poultry against fox

In order to test for myself the effectiveness of Electric Fencing in preventing Foxes from predating them, I was able to persuade a farmer to sell me 25 culled hens and let me use a field on his farm for a trial using netting.

The birds were split into 5 lots and housed adjacent to each other in five 150m2 runs (50m net) with an arc in each. The arc was left open so the birds could move at will. The pens were sited in line 5m away from the hedge row and 3m between runs.

Run One.
Control using plain chicken wire 1m tall, no electric fencing.

Run Two.
5 line standard fencing 1m tall and energised, no netting. Bait was used.

Run Three.
Standard Poultry netting 105cm tall with builders’ damp-course below the bottom line. Bait was used.

Run Four.
Livestok Sheep netting 105cm tall with builders’ damp-course below the bottom line. Bait was used.

Run Five.
Wolf netting 120cm tall with builders’ damp-course below the bottom line. Bait was used.

Runs two to five were linked to a 12v hotShock A15 energiser and registered 8000v when running. The bait stations were treated with a proprietary gravy mix twice weekly for three weeks and then left untreated on the fence thereafter. The ground between the runs was cleared by a harrow so that incoming spoor and reactions could be assessed.

The chickens and trials were inspected on a daily basis. The birds were fed and watered daily.

The first fox inspection occurred on night 3 when he tested a bait station on the Wolf net. His tracks indicated he got a shock and departed.

On night 5 a fox visited and walked around without attempting entry.

On night 6, all hens in the control were killed. There were signs that the fence was climbed over to gain entry.

On night 7, the Livestok Net and poultry net were tested in turn by the same fox. He was shocked by both and departed. No attempt was made to jump or climb over the nets despite being low enough for a fox to do so.

Visits from foxes were noted on several nights over the next 11 weeks but neither the nets nor fence was penetrated. Only twice were any of the fences tested again with the fox simply walking around the area. At no stage did the foxes try to jump over, nor to dig under despite they were quite capable of doing so.

The test was closed down 12 weeks after the inception.

This un-replicated and observation test suggests that Electric fencing is very effective in combating the threat of Foxes to free-range poultry. In my opinion the cheaper Sheep netting is as effective as the more expensive marketed poultry netting. That foxes do not jump over or dig under simply reinforces what is already known about animal behaviour regarding the electric field. They are unable to percieve its limits and extent, so do not try to go under or over the known field.

Electric Fencing for Snails

In November a query came in for an environmental solution to prevent slugs and snails from feeding on valuable plants. The object was to exclude them from raised beds without the use of poisons or chemicals.
After some thought I suggested using two lengths of the insulated cabling used in pigeon systems glued onto the brick risers. One cable used as the live wire and the other the earth. These were glued about 3 cm from the top of the boards. They were to be glued adjacent to each other so the wires were 1 cm apart. This meant the slugs would not be able to climb up the perimeter walling without touching both wires. A small 9v Electric Fence energiser was attached to the wires.
After installation a physical search for slugs already inside the bed was carried out and the unit switched on. A slug was seen to attempt entry and retreated from the wire without visible injury or side-effects.

The customer has reported that the level of slug damage this year was negligible and the cash return has been greatly increased due to the lower number of discarded blooms due to slug damage.

Electric Fencing was once snubbed in equestrian circles, everyone who owned livestock knew the basic rules: cattle and sheep needed to be enclosed with electric wire, but horses were best off behind wood planks, poles or hedges.

With the advancements and improvement in fencing technology in the last ten years that has outstripped the advances made in the previous sixty years and electric fences now come in forms well suited for horse properties. Modern electric fencing is the choice of a growing number of horse owners, who find that many of the old opinions that electric fencing is painful, unsafe, expensive, unreliable and difficult to maintain no longer hold true.

Safety is, of course, the foremost concern in any fencing decision. But what exactly constitutes a safe fence can become a complicated question. In some ways, horses are among the easiest animals to keep secure: They are domesticated and if they have all the food, water, shelter and friends they want, most horses aren't likely to try to leave their familiar surroundings. On the other hand, horses do pose a special challenge if it is determined to escape. Short of a 3 metre concrete wall, not much will hold in a 500 kilogram animal. You are after all simply fencing in the desire, the stronger the desire to escape - the more robust the fence needs to be.

Electric fences offer a barrier that horses respect, and the newer materials and erecting techniques that are lighter in construction and designed to flex and have a "rubber band" effect. This ability to yield under pressure is less likely to injure a kamikaze pilot or aspiring Houdini.
Touch an electric fence once and you'll know why it works; it's not very painful -- about the equivalent of a sharp slap -- but you'll remember the sensation, and you won't want to repeat it anytime soon. Horses, too, learn quickly that they don't want to bump, push through, rub against or chew on electric fences.

The energizer is designed to send out a high voltage (about 6000volts), low amperage (about 100 milliamps) electrical charge for a very limited time (about 1/300th. of a second.) every second. Compare this with two other scenarios.

1. Static Electricity when you touch a door, about 20000 volts at 5 milliamps for 1/1000th. of a second, unpleasant but not lasting.
2. Mains Electricity. 220volts at 13 Amps and constant, unpleasant and regularly causes death.

This sting (similar to a "thwack" from a riding crop) is what creates a psychological barrier within the horses' brain and it is this that fences him in. A fence with a voltage as low as 2000v is able to create an impression with a horse but this low voltage has other problems. Horses' hooves and hair are insulators so 2000v will be insufficient to bridge the insulated gap (particularly if they are on dry ground). A more viable fence should run at 6000 volts to be effective. Never a truer word may be spoken than "A wimpy energizer gives you a wimpy fence. " This higher voltage will also help when the horse has a blanket (a very good insulator) but a second line aimed at the horse's knees will be as effective. Utilizing bait on the line will also work.

Animals are the intended targets of electric fences, but anything else that comes in contact with both fence and ground will also complete the circuit. Very small items, such as blades of grass, allow a small amount of power to travel from the fence to the ground rods, but not enough to drain the entire system. (It's like a series of small holes in the fire hose, allowing some of the water to dribble away, weakening the pressure in the hose.) A short circuit occurs when an object, such as wire wrapped around a tree, reroutes all of the power from the fence to the ground system. Beyond the tree limb, the charge left in the fence is reduced to zero.

There are a wide range of conductors available in the form of standard wire, poly twine, tape or rope. The first consideration should always be the conductivity. This is quoted in Ohms/meter (or Ω/m). The lower this figure is the better and should be linked to the price of the material.

To illustrate this; an energiser capable of charging a fence 9 klm long with a conductor of 0.15 Ohms/meter will only be able to charge a fence 1.5klm long when using a 10 Ohm/meter conductor.

The physical format of the conductor you select is up to personal preference. There is a lot of research results available showing that horses see different materials just as well as if not better than humans. In my experience they are fenced in by plain wire just as well as tape and although there are reports of horses getting torn to shreds by wire these are more likely to be with barbed wire. (Barbed wire should not be used with electricity.)

First Day.

As my first post I'll simply introduce myself and leave it at that.

Spent most of my life in Zimbabwe until Mugabe made an absolute arse of himself and ruined a great country. Emigrated to the UK and I'm now a citizen of Mud Island.

I run an Electric Fencing company that is expanding reasonably rapidly. I will be mainly concentrating on that angle of my expertise.