Electric fencing poses an ever-present concern for many backyard chicken keepers – can these barriers actually kill your flock? It’s a controversial topic with staunch opinions on both sides. In this article, we’ll dive into the nuances around electric fences and chicken safety to unravel the truth.
How Do Electric Fences Work?
First, let’s cover the basics of how these fences operate so you can better understand the potential risks:
-
An energizer converts power into short electric pulses that run through the wires,
-
When an animal or person touches the fence they complete the circuit and electricity flows through them to the ground. This causes the “zap.”
-
The shock delivers a painful sensation that deters further contact. The psychological effect of remembering the discomfort also discourages return attempts.
-
Energizers don’t deliver constant zaps. The pulses are intermittent.
There are two main types – permanent and temporary fences:
-
Permanent ones use rigid, high-tensile wires on sturdy posts.
-
Temporary fences employ flexible materials like polytape on lightweight posts for portability.
Now that we’ve covered the background, let’s examine the impacts.
What Risks Do Electric Fences Pose to Chickens?
The main health risks electric fences present to chickens are:
-
Heart complications from repeated exposure. The recurring shocks can cause abnormal heart rhythms.
-
Nervous system damage over time. Frequent zaps degrade nerve cells.
-
Increased mortality for smaller breeds. Bantams and such are less resilient against shocks.
However, deaths are uncommon with proper voltages. Specific conditions like sustained contact with very high voltages increase the risks.
You may notice these signs of distress in affected chickens:
-
Excessive flapping from muscle spasms.
-
Decreased feed intake and weight loss.
-
Sudden aggression toward flockmates indicating pain.
So electric fences do pose some risks, but fatalities are rare in typical backyard scenarios. Now let’s examine whether they can directly kill chickens.
Can an Electric Fence Kill a Chicken? Evaluating the Reality
There are some myths floating around regarding electric fence lethality:
-
MYTH: They instantly kill chickens on contact.
-
FACT: Direct mortality is very unlikely at regular backyard voltages.
-
MYTH: Fences continuously zap.
-
FACT: Energizers actually pulse intermittently.
Yet some close calls indicate improper installations can create hazardous situations:
-
One case involved high-voltage fencing intended for large predators used around a coop, nearly killing some birds.
-
Another incident resulted when small breeds became entangled in poorly designed wire with constant shocks.
So while instant death is extremely rare under normal conditions, accidents from faulty setups remain a possibility. Let’s look at prevention strategies.
How to Keep Chickens Safe Around Electric Fences
The following tips can greatly improve chicken safety around electrified barriers:
-
Consider alternate fencing like sturdy poultry netting or wooden privacy fencing with small gaps to deter digging predators.
-
Add supplementary visual deterrents like scarecrows and owl decoys to dissuade predator intrusions.
-
Ensure proper voltage rated for smaller animals, avoiding high-powered options.
-
Check for signs of distress like excessive flapping and reduced feeding.
-
Keep fencing well-maintained and monitor for entanglement risks.
-
Follow all manufacturer guidelines and local laws regulating electric fence use.
Adhering to such precautions minimizes risks while still protecting your flock. But what’s the bigger picture around electric fence usage?
Key Considerations for Chicken Keepers Using Electric Fences
As a chicken owner, you must weigh several key factors regarding electric fences:
-
Risk Assessment: Evaluate voltage levels and watch for distress indicators in your particular flock. This informs you of potential hazards.
-
Alternative Options: Other fencing like hardware cloth and netting may provide safer choices in many cases.
-
Legal Compliance: Check local laws governing fence height, power limitations, and other regulations.
-
Flock Welfare: Never compromise your birds’ wellbeing in the name of security. Prioritize their health.
By keeping these aspects in mind, you can make judicious decisions about electric fence use for your backyard flock.
The Verdict: Weighing the Pros and Cons
Pros
-
Effective deterrent against digging and climbing predators.
-
Customizable levels of security based on voltage and materials.
Cons
-
Poses some risks like shock-induced injuries and entanglement.
-
Requires vigilance and proper precautions to operate safely.
-
Alternate fences may offer comparable protection without risks in some cases.
With adequate risk controls in place, electric fencing remains a viable option for many chicken owners seeking robust protection. But this must be balanced with flock health and safety as the top priority.
The Bottom Line
Electric fences are unlikely to directly kill a chicken barring extreme circumstances. But the risks are genuine, so backyard chicken keepers should emphasize ample precautions if using electrified barriers. Focus on risk assessment, preventative measures and legal compliance while making flock welfare paramount in all decisions. With prudent usage, electric fences present a powerful predator deterrent. Yet alternate solutions may potentially achieve similar protection without the associated hazards. Carefully weigh the tradeoffs when selecting the ideal fencing to secure your chickens while optimizing their health and safety.
History of One-Wire Poultry Fences
I first learned about this type of fence in a 1960 article describing Arbor Acres’ use of a single-wire fence to protect pullets raised on free range. Before the single-wire fence, they had employees spending hours every day opening doors on range houses in the morning and closing them at night. The simplicity of the fence was important to them because their pullet flocks occupied many acres, making permanent fencing prohibitive.
I later came across references to the same technique from the 1950’s, where similar fences were used as an anti-fox measure for British free-range breeding flocks.
Like many excellent techniques, these fences was forgotten after the industry shifted to confinement.
Electric Fence Chargers: Bigger is Better
To energize the electric fence you need a fence charger. I prefer very powerful AC-powered energizers. The bottom wires of these chicken fences are close to the ground. They’re quickly shorted out by grass, weeds, or molehills. It takes a powerful fence charger to keep adequate voltage on the fence in the face of these everyday challenges. My favorite fence charger is the Parmak Super Energizer 5.
I think it’s better to string thousands of feet of wire along the farm than to use battery-powered chargers, which just aren’t powerful enough. I’ve used 2×4’s up on end to get the wire ten or twelve feet up in the air when it crosses gates, or insulated wire buried a few inches underground across the gateway. Otherwise, I just run the wires along the top of the posts of my farm’s perimeter fence.
I prefer energizers with built-in voltmeters, so I can see at a glance if the voltage has fallen into the red zone. In general, this means I buy Parmak units, because most of the others don’t have meters. My favorite model is their “Super Energizer,” which is very powerful indeed. That’s what I use on the front pasture to protect the laying hens. The “Maxi-Power” line is also good, though less powerful.
If you insist on buying a battery-powered or solar charger, get a 12V unit. The 6V units have minimum zap, which means they can be shorted out by a few blades of grass. I was pretty happy with Parmak’s most powerful 12V charger. This “weatherpoof” unit only lasted about five years when exposed to the elements, so putting a a roof or a five-gallon bucket over it might be a good idea.
Premier also makes excellent chargers. Karen likes them better than Parmak, and that’s what she’s using on the back forty to protect the broilers (my super-long wire from the barn to the back forty has been mothballed). She uses a Premier Intellishock 50, which is a 12V battery-powered unit.
I doubt that solar chargers are worth the extra cost, but then I’m in Western Oregon, which has a lot of cloud cover. The convenience of not having to monitor and lug around batteries is worth paying money for, but you get even more convenience by putting an AC-powered charger in the barn and stringing a wire all the way to the back forty.
The hardest part of installation is getting a good ground connection. I prefer pounding in ground rods along the drip line of my barn’s roof.
It really helps to have the units placed so you can see the meters easily when you wander in and out of the barn.
When a clever predator learns how to get past my fences (of whatever kind), I turn to trapping. I find snares effective and relatively simple. I found Hal Sullivan’s book, Snaring 2000, to be very useful.
I find that predators are OCD, especially bobcats, following exactly the same path night after night, and by the time you’ve lost a few chickens they’ve created an obvious game trail. This means that you can set snares to target an individual, chicken-eating predator, without declaring war on the entire animal kingdom.
I’ve shot predators from time to time, but only for coyotes that are dumb enough to present themselves during the day. At night, I want my beauty sleep.
I’ve found live traps to be far less effective than snares, and I’m baffled by leg-hold traps.
Final tip: if you can use snares inside your perimeter fence, your results will be less random.
This Possum is NO Vegan | Testing New Electric Fence with Chickens | Trail Cam
FAQ
Is an electric fence safe for chickens?
Electric fencing won’t harm the chickens either, and they are so well-insulated by their feathers that it actually has to be powerful enough to contain them. Children and household pets quickly learn not to touch the fence, but small creatures can sometimes be at risk if they become entangled in the electrified net.
What happens if a chicken touches an electric fence?
At first, the chickens won’t respect the fence, since it just looks like a random obstacle to them. Also, their feathers are good insulators, so they get zapped mostly when they touch the fence with their feet or combs. This means they won’t get zapped every time.
Why don’t chickens get shocked by an electric fence?
Since chickens are much smaller with smaller feet, they don’t make as much contact with the ground, giving them a lesser shock that’s appropriately strong for them. They also have something called “Shock or Not” fencing to protect your baby chicks from getting even a small shock.
Can an electric fence kill animals?
Yes, electric fences can kill animals, although they are typically designed to deter rather than cause serious harm. The shock is meant to be unpleasant but not lethal, acting as a deterrent to keep animals away.