We are still fencing away and need help deciding on a charger, the closest the fence comes near any electric is at least 300' - 500' . We thought we would just use battery operated, but will this be adequate to keep in livestock such as sheep/goats, and keep out coyotes?? Any Experience with battery operated units?? Or should we run a trench wire to the fence.
I would prefer a charger that you could plug in to electricity.. It would only take a single light wire to run the hot wire out to the fence.. One steel post every 50 feet would support it.. You would need two batteries so one could be on charge while the other is in use.. That's a regular chore to tend to.. When the battery gets low, the fence don't carry the whallop it needs to make believers out of livestock and preditors.. Unk
The only outside electric we have is an out side recpticle on the side of our house. It is the side that faces the field. Would that be legal or safe. our front hay field is 20 ' from the house. We could run the hot wire 20 foot out , then couple hundred back along exsiting non used fence to get to new high tensile fence.
That should work just fine. I would run a mile from an outlet before I used batteries. And Unk is right, no need to bury a line unless you just don't want the hot wire close to the house. Just run a single strand to tie into the fence. If you are really worried about having a hot wire that close, like if you have little ones running around or something, you can buy insulated hot wire to make the run to the fence. It is cheaper than trenching but would be more than a regular smooth wire. BTW, I highly recommend aluminum wires, cost a bit more than the other, but it more than makes up for it in ease of use. I am considering doing any additional in the electrotwines that are out there, looks even more simple than the aluminum. If you haven't already, check out Premier fence on the internet. They are great folks and will give you expert answers to any questions, even if you don't use their stuff.
Thank you guys. Yes I do have little ones a two yr old and a five yr old the rest are over 13. I guess I'll plug her in . Run insulatated cable then switch to the wire we are using (HT) till a hit the fence. My goats are very pricey, I don't want predater problems. We are going to have to hunt out the ones we fence in as it is. Then of course all the Large livestock. Like the Mule 8O , her horsey friends and the cows. Wait I mean keep them IN not hunt them.
I think electric is better than any other fence at stopping predators. One of the reasons I like it is that if something does get in and start chasing, if need be your animals can run through the fence without getting all torn up. They can and will run through barbed wired too, but even if the predator doesn't get them, they still won't be in very good shape.
We've used electric fencing for 8 years in an area with a lot of coyotes and never have had one inside the fence. I think it is because they sneak up and bump the fence with their noses and find out what it is. On the other hand we have had dogs inside the fence on two occasions. Both times they saw the sheep and decided they would be fun to chase and ran right through the fence before they were zapped. Luckily I was around both times and chased them out before they scattered the sheep very much. My husband had brutally frank conversations with the owners of the dogs and they never returned. If you have lots of loose dogs around you might want to be wary. We run our wire nearly 500 feet from the barn to the fence and use a combination of buried (under a drive way) and insulated wire along another fence. I have used batteries a few times in the past and a plugged in charger beats them all hollow. If you are in an area with electrical storms be sure to get a good surge protector. A strike on or near the fence can damage your charger (as I learned the hard way!)
The other option would be to run a few extension cords. I bet I've got 200ft out to one of my chargers. Seems to work just fine.
