Electric movable fencing

I'm looking for dependable and affordable fencing systems to manage 3 or 4 distinct 300' perimeters. I've seen a friend power his system off the house, another off a car battery, but i'd like to a solar energizer provided it will do the job.

driving a ground rod will be difficult as much of the soil isn't more than a few feet deep. Any advice or revelations you have to share as a result of your experience/research would be appreciated. I'm not an electricity person but I'm learning.

Thanks!

frank

I have two solar and one 12 volt with a deep cycle battery. The 12 volt is much better. Chargers don't keep the fence 'hot' all the time but pulse. The time between pulses is too long with the solar units and it confuses the animals. The 12 volt only gets charged every 6 weeks or so, pulses quicker and is stronger.

While it may be best to drive a ground stake straight down, they can be put in on an angle. There is a sheep rancher I know who puts a 5 gallon bucket with a tiny hole near the bottom if the ground is dry.

I use 12 gauge aluminum wire. 6 strands around the perimeter and 5 for inside fences. While I can find most things locally, aluminum wire is not one of them, so I search the web.

It's great news to hear the ground rod doesn't have to be driven straight in, that's a relief.

Regarding the 12 volt system (must have been what I saw at my friends!), I began looking into them and the pricing seems a lot more affordable. The stubbornness in me wants to explore the solar options a bit further. Do you think there are systems that perform better than the one you have?

Fencing with aluminum wire is a fantastic idea, but is this mobile enough or better suited to a static system? We want to close off beds and I can see this work well.

Thanks Doug!

we use electric netting from Premier1. It was affordable and easy to use. I can move the whole thing -break down and set up- in about 30 minutes by myself. I would recommend getting stronger poles for the corners of the paddocks. It'll keep the fence tighter. We use a charger that plugs in to an outlet. It pulses over 3000 volts every second. It's enough to make you check twice before touching it again.

after calling kencove and premier i've gotten a little more of a grasp on how electric systems work and both seem like great companies.

so my next couple questions i've arrived at:

how does someone set up an energizer and battery system in the field with the animals? the naive part of me suggested to mount it to one of the coops and took me a second to register the obvious problem with this. much of this work will be far from the house so long cables aren't feasible or desirable.

it seems i could buy a 10W solar panel and mount it atop this system. i need a charge controller i'm told, but are there other items i'd needed to construct a solar field device?

The Premier 1 fencing is a slightly better quality.

I bought a small solar fence charger last year for fencing deer out of the garden. I needed the charger, fence posts, insulators, ground rods, some connectors, and the wire. In my opinion, if you're going to go the solar route, you might as well just get a solar fence charger unit just for the simplicity of setup.

I saw a friend's setup who had movable mesh-type fencing for goats. She had the charger/battery sitting on the ground outside the fence and a couple of connector/clamps to connect the charger to the fence.

Everybody I know who has used the solar powered fences say that they don't put out enough juice consistently.

The simpler/cheaper solution is to use a car battery for power. It needs to be swapped out every 4-8 weeks with a fresh one, unless you put a small solar trickle charger on it. Harbor freight has a $12 solar charger for cars/trucks. People I know who have used them say that they will keep the battery at full charge forever. In long, sunny spells, you may need to disconnect the charger (or just put it a feed sack over it to block the sun) to keep from overcharging the battery.

I'd rather check the battery every few days than lug around spares every month. One guy I know has 2 charged paddocks going at a time. Each has its own battery, but he just swaps the solar panel between them about once a week.

John Polk wrote: One guy I know has 2 charged paddocks going at a time. Each has its own battery, but he just swaps the solar panel between them about once a week.

That just may be the solution I was looking for. I'm expanding my chicken flock as well as adding pigs this year so I was in need of a cheap solution to the electric fencing issues. This seems like it's just what I was looking for.

Thanks for the tip.

Doug Mac wrote:I have two solar and one 12 volt with a deep cycle battery. The 12 volt is much better. Chargers don't keep the fence 'hot' all the time but pulse. The time between pulses is too long with the solar units and it confuses the animals. The 12 volt only gets charged every 6 weeks or so, pulses quicker and is stronger.

While it may be best to drive a ground stake straight down, they can be put in on an angle. There is a sheep rancher I know who puts a 5 gallon bucket with a tiny hole near the bottom if the ground is dry.

I use 12 gauge aluminum wire. 6 strands around the perimeter and 5 for inside fences. While I can find most things locally, aluminum wire is not one of them, so I search the web.

Hey Doug, I know this is an older thread, but was just searching around for info on getting started. Can you elaborate on the 5 gallon bucket? does the ground stake go through the bucket and into the ground? i'm not sure I understand the purpose of the 5 gallon bucket. I'll definitely be dealing with the dry ground tho. Any info you can provide is appreciated. This link is gold!

I suspect that the bucket is full of water and the hole lets it slowly leak out and moisten the ground around the stake. Earth contact would be much improved in damp soil compared to dry.

If you are struggling to drive your earthing rod it you could also try putting in two shorter ones a few meters apart.

The bucket of water would dampen the ground around the ground rod, making it more effective in a dry climate. I have a 110 charger and a small solar charger, and love the ease of use and flexibility of electric fence. The 110 charger is from Premier, and it kept the neighbor's rodeo bulls away from my dairy cows! The solar charger is ok for the horses, but it's too mild to take much pressure. Solar chargers just refer to the fact that there is a solar panel to charge the battery that actually powers the charger, and mine is only a six volt battery that has needed replacement every couple years because it won't hold a charge through a couple cloudy days. Pay attention to enough grounding and use good conducting wire. I've had very good service and products from Premier. Not had good luck with either goats or chickens respecting net fence, again, it depends how much pressure gets put on it.

I also have the system from premier. The energizer will take either 12V-DC or 120V-AC. When the fence is near the house for the winter I run it off of AC because I also am running a birdbath de-icer to keep the birds water liquid. When they start moving around the property in spring I use a deep cycle battery that will last something like 2 months. For my corners I just use a cement block and about 3 foot of twine. I just tie a loop in the end of the twine and the other end to the block, I then drop the loop over the top of the corner post and pull the block back until the post is vertical.