Jay Halbin

Same for me. My teenage girls will just charge the premier 1 and go right through. I’m currently working on a moveable chicken wire are the will remain inside the premier 1 fence for physical containment of the birds.

The vinyl chicken fencing works good for this but costs more than straight chicken wire.  Straight chicken wire works but it’s more of a hassle to reuse and move.

Well, I got everything all rigged up. Works fine. Fence measures 5.7. -6.4

I let my chickies out inside the fence and it didn’t take them but 5 minutes to simply charge the fence and got right through it. All of them.

They clucked a lot, but they made it.

Also, I hear some “popping”, 1 every second with the pulse here and there. And I have to wonder, what’s popping and why?

I decided to build this myself.

Here's the run down

20 Watt Amazon Solar Kit = $37
Battery Box = $14
2 x Batteries, same spec = $53 (for both)

Premier 1 IntelliShock 10 (Battery) Energizer Kit $162.00

Plus a little tax.  

The only think I need to add is some sort of water proof cut off switch, and I'll need a piggy back blade for the batteries.

All in with tax, about $280.  And I'll need to craft a bracket for the solar panel, and a stand for the energizer.  I have plenty of spare wood on hand for that.  I'll post some update photos as I go.  I might even make a YouTube video to go with.

I suppose we compare the IShock 120 with the 10 watt panel at $369 then that's one thing.

If we move to the 20watt panel, and the fence tester it is $427

And while I'm very frugal, and I love DIY stuff, the price difference isn't that great really.  I sort of AM looking for an excuse to play with some solar stuff, but I'm on a time crunch right now.

Someone correct me if I am wrong here...

Couldn't I not simply use a 20 watt solar kit such as this

https://www.amazon.com/TP-solar-Monocrystalline-Controller-Extension-Terminal/dp/B07RZBVTGR/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ASC-30W-12V&qid=1685548788&sr=8-4&th=1

2 x 12v 12 ah batteries like this

https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Sealed-DEEP-Cycle-Rechargeable-Battery/dp/B07M7L2HZN/ref=sr_1_13?crid=JUH48ABJWRH9&keywords=12volt+12+ah+batteries&qid=1685549548&sprefix=1%2Caps%2C3264&sr=8-13&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

plus a battery box like this

https://www.amazon.com/attwood-9067-1-Power-Vented-Battery/dp/B001O0D6QK/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=marine+battery+box&qid=1685549601&sr=8-5

and a DC operated energizer like this

https://patriotelectricfencing.com/products/tt-818351

plus a grounding rod...

that all adds up to just over $200.

I was lucky to use a lot of reclaimed material.  Almost all of the wood framing came from old projects or neighbor throwaways.  A lot of the hardware cloth came from an old dismantled chicken coop a family member just wanted to get rid of - so I was happy to tear it down and haul it off.  The metal roof bits came out of a neighbors yard for free.  The only items purchased were the cattle panels (which I already had because we use them often in our gardening) and the chicken wire.  two new rolls of hardware cloth, and of course the new tarp.  Just working on it as I had time.

Will Wit wrote:Sounds pretty good, set a game cam up to see if you have anything questioning your preparedness.

Goodjob

I considered both a camera and also placing some really tasty food inside for a night or two… like a whole fresh bag of trash in an open trash can or something… and see if anything could make it in. I need to move these chicks soon, they are 6 weeks now and really outgrowing my makeshift brooder in my outbuilding.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Apparently they keep the battery on a different shelf. This is a quote from the description.

Can be used with external 12V battery (sold separately). Ground & Fence Leadset required (sold separately)

I read that too, and then I read the customer questions (briefly) and someone asked about this.

The answer giver indicated that what they meant was that an additional 12v battery could be used to charge the internal battery, but that the solar panel would not charge that additional 12 volt battery. That made no sense to me and I had to live on to another task. The company has no website either, so this must be a straight from China thing.

Metal roofing material marked in red in this photo

Yes.

The hoop coop is built like Fort Coop.

Cattle panels, wired together, then covered in chicken wire and the covered yet again in hardware cloth. Using bailing wire as ties at every point of every seam like safety wire.

Ground cloth extends 3 feet on all side, the rear is fenced like a standard wooden fence and wrapped in chicken wire and hardware cloth,

The lower half of each side is lined with metal roofing sheets wired to the cattle panels and stuffed with steel wool,

And then the entire bottom circumference is wrapped in bird netting, twice … and it’s already snagged one unlucky snake… 🐍

All hardware cloth is double held down by screwed wood behind.

The whole coop will be surrounded by electric netting, and I could encompass the base of the tree… but any squirrels that live in that tree would be trapped until they figure out to jump to a nearby tree. We have a heavy squirrel population that I need to cut down a tad anyway.

I think it’s a tank, but I also don’t think like a raccoon with no place to go and all night.