ok I need help. electric fence for the blasted coons
15 years ago
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- 15 years ago
- 15 years ago
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Terrific Success with the Electric Fence on Corn
Comments (8)The big thing with the fencing is keeping all vegetation cleared around it. It's at least a weekly job for me, but so worth it. Get your periphery measurements, figure out how closely the poles need to be spaced, and it should be easy to calculate your costs above the initial price of the unit. I went directly to my farm supply center since I'm rural. I don't know what and if restrictions would apply to a non-rural situation, but it takes a pretty good pow to keep a deer out and they can and do sometimes just go through them anyway. No, it doesn't work well for groundhogs, or didn't for me and I had wire spacing similar to the poster. They just ponied up and slid under it anyway. I think some animals ground themselves better than others and the 'tingle' didn't seem to phase the g'hogs who decimated my sweet potato plantings last year. LOL. I have to laugh, or I'd cry. I also found other ground digging rodents re-directed their tunnels to come up into the safely of my melon patch out of sight of human eyes where they could dine in peace....See Moreelectric Fence Recommendations/Reviews
Comments (11)I'm repeating what I posted on another forum in reply to Roorezzi's question, if only to inform others to the best of my ability. Again, it's Roo's choice and sometimes it is the best option for some situations... If it is your only choice for such a large and rough-terrained area then I say go for it. Otherwise, I am not a fan. I managed a shelter for many years and I've had my share of experience with both large and small dogs. We got lots of 'escapees'. My biggest complaint is that they do not protect your animal from other predators, but leave your animal trapped. Obviously, this may be more of an issue for animals in a more residential type of neighborhood (taunting children, dog-theft, etc.). The wild predators are really more of an issue in rural areas. However, roaming "packs" of feral or discarded dogs can be a big threat to pets in either rural or residential areas. Additionally, some animals just find that the "zap" is worth it or if not -- they've blasted through it so fast that "worth it" wasn't a consideration -- they were moving too fast to stop or think. In our area, a local talk-radio host advertises one of the products mentioned above. However, he neglects to mention that his **previous** pet (last year) was attacked by cayotes in his own yard. His Jack Russell was trapped in their half-acre back yard during the attack. Bear in mind your own location. If someone else is letting their undisciplined dog roam, that can spell trouble for your dog in such a situation. Nothing beats a really good fence....See MoreElectric deer fence
Comments (7)Johnny, I believe Plan B is likely to work. For a few years, we kept the deer mostly out of the garden by having two fences, the outer one three feet tall and the inner one four feet tall. The inner fence was spaced either 3 or 4' from the outer fence, leaving an area between the two fences that was just wide enough to deter the deer. This were based on the knowledge that deer can jump high, deer can jump wide, but deer cannot jump high and wide at the same time. Being a gardener, though, I couldn't leave an empty "moat" of bare soil (or weeds) between the two fences, so I planted flowers there. Of course, the deer often reached over the 3' fence and ate the flowers, but they couldn't or at least wouldn't eat the veggies that were growing safely behind the second fence. It was similar to the last fence design you linked, only we just had woven wire fencing instead of electric fencing. We built the garden in 1999. For the first couple of years, it only had a 3' tall fence but the deer didn't bother it that much. Once they started reaching over the fence and eating, we put up the inner fence. That worked until maybe 2007 or 2008. Some smart deer figured out it could jump the outer fence in a sort of sideways hop and land within the "moat" of flowers growing between the two fences. Then, one more sideways hop and it was in the big garden with the veggies. So, I put up the string to trick the deer into thinking the fence was taller, and I tied white grocery store type plastic bags at about eye level to one strand of the string "fence". I was hoping the white bags moving in the wind would look like a white deer tail signaling danger. It seemed to work okay during the day but not so much at night. So, eventually, we raised the height of the fence. Since raising the fence height to 8', we have only had deer in the garden if some forgetful person failed to close and latch the gate. I have seen fence designs similar to your plan B fence, including in a Texas Landscaping book that I had. I showed that one to our neighbor who lives west of our back property line. His place is the only house between us and the Red River and he has both deer and copperhead snakes in such huge numbers that it is mind-boggling. Our deer and snake problems are small compared to his. I have observed over the years that the deer don't bother my garden plants so much in the good times when natural food is available, but in the drought years they will go to extremes to reach whatever they can find. In 2011, a friend of a friend of ours had two starving deer climb into a box trap used to trap feral hogs. It is hard to imagine one deer climbing into that confined space, much less two, but whatever he had in that trap to lure in the hogs also lured in those hungry deer. Because I am stubborn and pig-headed and want to get the most production possible from my garden space, I grow climbing plants on my 8' tall fence---everything from southern peas like Red Ripper to all kinds of pole beans, vining cucumbers, and winter squash. Inevitably, the deer chew on everything that is on the deer side of the fence, but on the inside of the fence, I still get plenty of harvest. They mostly only nibble foliage and not so much the stems or flowers. I often mix in morning glories randomly here and there because the deer avoid them most of the time, and often don't eat the plants interplanted with the morning glories on the fence. I still have trouble with coons climbing the fence and getting into the corn, but have mostly put a halt to that by growing a wide border (not so wide I cannot step over it) of milk thistle around the corn. There's not much that seems to deter the coons, but milk thistle's prickly leaves do. I start the milk thistle plants inside and transplant them into the ground to get them a head start so that they'll be big enough to keep the coons out by the time we have ripening ears of corn. The only drawback to milk thistle is that it much have very well drained soil and lower rainfall. In a year with heavier rainfall, the plants rot off right at the soil surface. Keep us posted on how the fence works for you. Dawn...See Morecouple electric fence questions
Comments (17)I know you're using 4x6 mesh wire along with chicken wire, but I'm not sure of exactly how you're using it together. The reason I ask is that a coon can *easily* go through a 4x6 inch opening, so if you have the chicken wire going up only 18" or so and the rest of the 48" tall 4x6 mesh fence is open, then the coon will be through the fence well before it reaches the top of the fence...why should it worry about climbing when it can simply go through the fence? Also, a coon can tear through chicken wire, though to get into a vegetable garden I'm not sure they would do that...to get into a chicken yard or coop they will. Think about how a coon will approach and begin to climb your fence...they approach from the ground, raise up, lean slightly towards the fence, grab the fence with their paws, and begin to climb until they go through a hole or over the top. Seems it would be best to stop them as they approach and begin their entry. Just thinking...a wire at about 12" to 16" high running through 4" stand-off insulators and another wire on regular insulators on the posts positioned about six inches above that would be difficult for the coon to get by. Coons are one of the best burglars around, they will test a fence in many places, night after night, and all they need is a space big enough to get their head through and...they're in. As for your electric fence charger... Get a 12v one...more ZAP!!! I use the battery-powered Parmak UO12 (no solar). Parmak builds very good chargers, I've been very satisfied with mine. I power it with a 12-volt deep-cycle marine battery and get a month's use out of it before I need to recharge. I installed it to prevent deer from getting into my garden. Deer have hollow hair which requires a strong charger to shock through it....the UO12 apparently has done a good job as no deer have ventured into the garden. Bird deaths by electric fence are rare...it's just not something that easily happens and I wouldn't be overly worried about it. if it happens it is just a fluke. In 3-4 days you'll have your fence up and running...you can't grow anything in that length of time to deter the coons with so I wouldn't worry with it. It might actually encourage more coons to come dine...and when their buffet runs out, well, they'll return to yours...if they can. Best wishes, Ed...See More- 15 years ago
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