Check Your Chickens And Their Netting Enclosure
We are at that time of year where the fox cubs come out to play and learn to hunt, unfortunately this means your hens might be at risk.
Here are some tips on what to check to make sure your netting is running at full capacity:
Use your KV10 LED fence tester for this as not only does it let you know the fence has power but it tells you how much power.
The netting is up and has been in place for some time:
- Is the battery fully charged? Is it connected to the fence in the correct way (from the energiser to the fence red clip to netting connection and green clip to the earth stake and from the energiser to the battery red to red and black to black) Or if mains power are the connections nice and tight? Is the lead out cable attached properly? It is essential to ensure you have the right energiser for the number of nets required. It is also good practice to have spare capacity as the smaller the energiser the more effect vegetation earthing will have on your system. So if over the years you have added to the length of the netting just check the spec of your energiser to make sure it can cope.
- Does the energiser have a pulse indicator? If so is it showing the correct colour and pulsing?
If all the connections look good and you have power then it’s onto the netting:
- Has any vegetation grown up around the base of the netting? As the bottom line (the black one) is not live the grass can touch this one but 5cm up the next line is live if there is vegetation touching this then get the lawnmower out (please be careful as lawnmower related netting incidents are high). Your other option is to use DPC around the bottom see the picture (birds not included!!) The DPC is held in place by the posts and the pegs. Also check that there is nothing hanging onto the netting e.g branches, if so remove.
- If this is all right then make sure the netting itself is nice an tight not sagging onto the ground, starting at the gate (or anywhere you like really) make sure every post is nice an tight at the bottom, you may need to remove them from the soil and use your foot to pull the bottom line nice and tight once you have checked the whole lot look at your guy ropes and pegs they may need some attention and moving around to get the positioning right.
- So the fence has power nothing touching it and is nice and tight but still you only have 2,000 volts what else could be the problem? Do one more walk around to make sure no netting has slipped down and is touching the metal on the netting spikes.
Then it is onto the earth stake:
- Place your fence tester onto the earth stake (you need they system to be live to check this) if you get a high voltage on your ground stake it is because your netting is shorting somewhere. The deeper into the ground the more efficient your earth stake will collect the pulse as it returns through the earth. If you get a shock from your earth stake, or your tester shows voltage when touched to the earth stake, you can improve your whole system by changing the position of the earth stake, adding a wee bit of water to the area around the earth stake if it is a very dry area and lastly by adding further ground stakes. Link additional ground stakes with wire, spacing them about a metre apart (if your earth stake is 1m long - if 1.5m long then place earth stakes 1.5m apart).
Once you have checked all this and you have the correct Volts (over 3,000 Volts) then you are good to go. You have done everything in your power to protect your brood!
If you have any other questions for us then either:
Give us a call on 01620 860058
Drop us an email on: [email protected]
Be the first to get offers and discounts – join us on Facebook and Twitter
