All our chickens were killed a few years back one night by something that climbed the 6 ft chain link fence. Have now built an 8 ft chain link fence with an eye to getting more birds and putting a chicken run inside the perimeter next year when my wife retires. In the meantime my wife has quite a garden growing in there.
But for my wife's gardening obsession I have built a 100 ft x 50 ft chain link fence 8 ft tall using recycled commercial chain link fence components with steel posts set in concrete at least 3 feet into the ground (cold northern climate, rural area, dry sandy soil). We have many deer, bears, rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, opposums, squirrels, groundhogs, moles and other pests that have relentlessly wreaked havoc on our and neighbors unfenced gardens. The deer are the most problematic though and the chain link all by itself seems to have stopped them.
However, that would not stop all the other critters. So we also installed one half inch galvanized steel mesh all the way around the base which goes 2 feet up and is attached to the chain link by hog rings. Since the mesh used at the fence base was 4 ft tall, it was bent in half and the lower 2 ft is staked into the ground horizontally with many hundreds of landscaping staples. This seems to have stopped the rabbits or anything trying to get under the fence and I am able to mow right over it just raising the mower deck a bit.
Now I am installing an electric fence on the outside of the chain link fence to foil raccoons and other climbing critters. This will only be powered during gardening months of June thru October. So I have some questions:
1. Although I have three 8 ft galvanized grounding rods and intend to use them, I am curious as to whether the existing fence with its 32 steel posts in concrete either could or should be used as additional grounding? The better the grounding, the better functioning of the electric fence I have read everywhere. And if the chain link fabric is part of the grounding system then would not anything attempting to climb the fabric be grounded by the chain link fabric and shocked crossing one of the hot wires?
2. I have purchased these cheap stand-off perch style insulators that attach to the chain link fabric and am not impressed, but gonna try to use them anyway. I have single strand heavier gauge electric fencing wire that I hope is not too heavy for the flimsy insulators. Any problem with wrapping the wire around insulators at each post (10 ft spacing on posts) with just a moderate amount of tension to keep them from sagging?
3. Since the lower 2 ft of the chain link is already protected by galvanized steel mesh, I see no need to put a hot wire at the bottom or any lower than the 2 ft height of the top of the mesh. I just see it as encouraging shorting the fence faster with grass growth... Am I wrong about that? Given my fence structure presently, at what height would you install three hot wires and why?
4. When I string hot wires around the corners, is a short section of pvc or scrap garden hose sufficient to insulate the hot wires from the metal corner posts that they will be near? I know they make corner insulators, but I would have to drill a lot of holes in heavy steel posts and possibly tap threads to mount them so would really rather not go that route.
5. On the single gate... I have seen a few depictions of an insulated galvanized wire buried underground and being used to jump the hot wires from one side to the other of the gate. Is this really necessary since I have the insulated gate kits with spring tensioners to do that anyway? Or is that buried jumper cable method only needed where you might not have a continuous electrical path which it seems to me would already be present on both sides of a gate for rectangular or circular fences?
Thank you for your input.
But for my wife's gardening obsession I have built a 100 ft x 50 ft chain link fence 8 ft tall using recycled commercial chain link fence components with steel posts set in concrete at least 3 feet into the ground (cold northern climate, rural area, dry sandy soil). We have many deer, bears, rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, opposums, squirrels, groundhogs, moles and other pests that have relentlessly wreaked havoc on our and neighbors unfenced gardens. The deer are the most problematic though and the chain link all by itself seems to have stopped them.
However, that would not stop all the other critters. So we also installed one half inch galvanized steel mesh all the way around the base which goes 2 feet up and is attached to the chain link by hog rings. Since the mesh used at the fence base was 4 ft tall, it was bent in half and the lower 2 ft is staked into the ground horizontally with many hundreds of landscaping staples. This seems to have stopped the rabbits or anything trying to get under the fence and I am able to mow right over it just raising the mower deck a bit.
Now I am installing an electric fence on the outside of the chain link fence to foil raccoons and other climbing critters. This will only be powered during gardening months of June thru October. So I have some questions:
1. Although I have three 8 ft galvanized grounding rods and intend to use them, I am curious as to whether the existing fence with its 32 steel posts in concrete either could or should be used as additional grounding? The better the grounding, the better functioning of the electric fence I have read everywhere. And if the chain link fabric is part of the grounding system then would not anything attempting to climb the fabric be grounded by the chain link fabric and shocked crossing one of the hot wires?
2. I have purchased these cheap stand-off perch style insulators that attach to the chain link fabric and am not impressed, but gonna try to use them anyway. I have single strand heavier gauge electric fencing wire that I hope is not too heavy for the flimsy insulators. Any problem with wrapping the wire around insulators at each post (10 ft spacing on posts) with just a moderate amount of tension to keep them from sagging?
3. Since the lower 2 ft of the chain link is already protected by galvanized steel mesh, I see no need to put a hot wire at the bottom or any lower than the 2 ft height of the top of the mesh. I just see it as encouraging shorting the fence faster with grass growth... Am I wrong about that? Given my fence structure presently, at what height would you install three hot wires and why?
4. When I string hot wires around the corners, is a short section of pvc or scrap garden hose sufficient to insulate the hot wires from the metal corner posts that they will be near? I know they make corner insulators, but I would have to drill a lot of holes in heavy steel posts and possibly tap threads to mount them so would really rather not go that route.
5. On the single gate... I have seen a few depictions of an insulated galvanized wire buried underground and being used to jump the hot wires from one side to the other of the gate. Is this really necessary since I have the insulated gate kits with spring tensioners to do that anyway? Or is that buried jumper cable method only needed where you might not have a continuous electrical path which it seems to me would already be present on both sides of a gate for rectangular or circular fences?
Thank you for your input.
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