The electric fence kit that I ordered arrived a few days ago, and over the weekend I finally got around to setting it up. As with most electrical things, the net was pretty easy to install and connect, but running the cables was a pain. I have the net at the bottom of the garden, and decided to put the earth stake as far away from the house as possible so this meant I had to run quite a lot of cable.
Electric Fence
The net isn’t really in the correct place yet – I need to trim some branches off of the conifers at the back of the garden before I can move it into place. Also, the wiring isn’t very neat and I need to do something to hide the cables.
When I got it running, I put my hand on it a few times to see how much it hurts and I was pretty disappointed – I could hardly feel it. Then I touched it whilst I was kneeling on the ground and that really hurt! I guess it will work well with the chickens as they are not wearing shoes.
The horrible thing about this is how the chickens have reacted to it. They have all had a shock off it, and as expected this does not make them happy. Even when I turned it off and went back into the coop to spray more poultry shield (the mites still haven’t gone away), they got really scared when I flicked a bit of newspaper. I think this whole thing has been really stressful for them. I must admit I feel pretty cruel at the moment – it’s a pity I can’t explain to them that I am only doing this to give them more space!