Ethical Carnivores

[JoyfulGoats]

Yea, I'll get the 5' woven 2"x4" fence from homehardware, the one that @greybeard linked to. It's $250/100ft, so $40$ cheaper than the one from TSC. I don't want to have to make the fence again, it's hard enough to do it once . This way, all the possible animals will be kept inside.

 

[greybeard]

Is there a reason you prefer those brands over others?

Performance
Experience.
Availability.
Cost per mile in purchase and maintenance.

Red Brand is a great brand, but no better than Bekaert or Rangemaster.
RedBrand got it's good reputation many years ago, when the competition was of less quality and often made in S. America, while Redbrand touted itself as being American wire. In the last couple of decades, Bekaert (Made in Ky USA)and a couple others have met and exceeded the performance of Redbrand, is much more available and affordable. Like a lot of other things in the world, when you specify Redbrand, part of what you are paying for is just the name.

The original Redbrand woven was 12ga low carbon steel, top and bottom (as well as on the barbed and barbless twisted wire) and a good tensile strength, but it would rust, had a lot of stretch to it, and would get loose after a few years. Bekaert came out with a quality high tensile wire w/high zinc content that didn't have any stretch, wouldn't rust and once pulled tight--stayed tight. Now, Redbrand has come out with it's own high tensile wire to try to regain some of the customer base it lost.
When you buy wire no matter what kind, look close at the specs. Tensile strength.
I can't have a wire that gets loose every time a cow pushes against it or when the river gets out and debris piles up on one side of it.
I put up lots of 12ga Redbrand in the mid 60s and a smaller quantity of 14 ga high tensile- sometimes called 'gaucho wire'. The high tensile is still just as shiny as it was the year I put it up but the 12ga Redbrand is rusty, loose, and sagging. I have to go around and tighten it up every couple of years.
I helped my b-i-l put up Bekaert knotted 2"x4"x6' horsewire fence around his pea and melon field a few years ago, to help keep the critters out of it. Coons rabbits and skunks. A single 12ga HT hot wire at midway up. It worked well. His health has gone downhill since then, and he now keeps hair sheep, chickens and turkeys where his melons used to be.

 

[Bruce]

You will have a hard time finding a chicken that can't fly a 4' fence. At that point the question is "how far from the coop is the fence?". I don't know if my girls are "normal/average" but they pretty much self limit to about 100' from a building. Thus, in theory, if I have a fence a chicken can go through/over but it is much farther than 100' from a building, they won't likely go through/over it. Theory is untested

When people here are talking about an electric fence, they are generally referring to one you string yourself, not the available electric net fences that have integral light weight posts. Same amount of work putting in posts as for woven wire fence but stringing the wire is very easy and it is cheap. Clip on (T-posts) or nail on (wood posts) the appropriate insulators and run the wire/tape through. You can use galvanized wire or poly wire/tape that come on spools. They are considered to be more or less permanent whereas the net fences are used to make portable/reconfigurable pastures that you DO plan to move with some frequency.

With both you need to keep growing plant life off the wires. This is easier with an electric wire fence (where you can use a string trimmer under the wires) than a net fence where the wires are more likely to be closer to the ground and the string is more likely to hit them (not good for the string or the fence). I think it is common for the "new" fence line to be mowed short then the net fence put in. When you want to move them, do it again. If the net fence is to stay in the same general configuration more or less permanently, it is moved away (disconnected from the charger of course!) a few feet, the fence line mowed, then the fence moved back.

 

[NH homesteader]

I have used the net fence with my chickens but not my goats. My goats could hop right over it, but I assume the point is they are afraid to try, lol. There is a goat farm near me that uses it for their alpines and LGD, but they have perimeter fencing too. I do intend to try it with them sometime, just haven't done it yet.

 

[greybeard]

Bruce--your livestock don't keep the vegetation eaten down under and around the fences?
Except on the National Forest side, I never have vegetation growing anywhere on a fenceline.
B-i-l's poultry eat every green sprout shoot and leaf that comes up so he doesn't have that problem either.

 

[JoyfulGoats]

@greybeard I will buy the brand you recommend unless the other one becomes much cheaper through a sale. How do you know the tensile strength though? I don't see it listed...

@Bruce , thank you! I kept hearing "a wire of electric fence" everywhere, but I thought it was a plastic thing specially made, haha.
My chickens can fly over the fence, but they never do. We've had them for almost 2 years, and they will go under or through one if the holes are big enough, but never over. The only time my chickens flew over a fence was when we had a fence in the garage to seperate a "chicken area". My one hen can fly 8' up, but so far hasn't outside . I'm planning to fence 80x120ft. So far I've noticed that as long as they have enough interesting things to find, they don't try to escape. But I will get the 5' just in case.

 

[greybeard]

JoyfulGoats--you usually have to go to the manufacturer's website to find the more detailed information. If you are just going to be using the fence to detain smaller stock, then tensile strength will not be much of an issue. (I sometimes forget where I'm posting at, and that what my requirements are will be overkill for most backyard herds and livestock--I have no stock as pets here, just horses and roughstock cattle, brahma and charolais influnced breeding--the wilder ones tend not to go over fences--they go thru them just from brute force. On the rare occasion that I end up with a jumper, he/she is gone the next sale day--I won't tolerate a jumper)

Buy, what works for you and your livestock's requirements.

 

[Bruce]

Bruce--your livestock don't keep the vegetation eaten down under and around the fences?
Except on the National Forest side, I never have vegetation growing anywhere on a fenceline.
B-i-l's poultry eat every green sprout shoot and leaf that comes up so he doesn't have that problem either.

I'm pretty sure the alpacas wouldn't want to clear the weeds under a hotwire once they hit it the first time. Could be wrong. Plus, since I no longer have the dog to keep critters out (*), I need to put low HW on the OUTSIDE of the field fence so the predators can't dig under. or go through. The boys definitely won't be keeping that clear since they can't get on the outside. My chickens wander all over eating whatever seems best to them at the time. They have way more than enough space so the only area that is denuded is around the lilac by the pool deck. It is one of their favorite afternoon places to hang out and they have made dust baths there.

* I had a low HW in case HE was going to dig, the boys wouldn't likely keep that clear. I will be moving that to the outside.