Collateral damage on bear fences?

[Josh Carmack]

Hi gjd, I would like to weigh in with my experience. I grew up around electric fences, we ran over 600 acres of electric fenced pasture with anywhere from 3 to 8 boxes running at any given time in separate locations, we ran 5 mile fences, 10 miles fences, and even special ordered a 25 mile fence designed to burn through weeds as they touched the fence. All of them would tend to burn through plants growing up to them and touching, but keep in mind it took days of contact for that to happen. In all my life of running electric fences, I have two running now, I have only seen them kill ONE animal in my 30 something years of life. A small bird of what breed I forget. I to this day can't figure out how it happened. An electric fence emits a pulse every second or so that is only milliseconds long, it gives plenty of time to remove oneself from it during the off period. Thats the way they are designed. I seriously doubt there are many people that can say that they have seen a properly designed fence kill much more than very small animals such as the small bird I remember as a kid, and perhaps mice. The bird I saw back when I was a young teen landed on a hot wire, with one foot, and the other landed on a grounded wire. Maybe it didn't have the sense to get off and sat there long enough for the pulses to do it in, I again still don't know how it happened. I think you'll find they are very handy for animals that ignore typical fences, or for places where typical fences are not feasible.

[alpha6]

Here is a link to my flicker picks with pics of a constructed fence as well as a diagram and supply list. It should help in getting what you need and how to properly install a fence.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2695954...7620927612220/

I live in the mountains of Colorado. Needless to say, a fence is a must and the DOW requires it for commercial yards if you want to file a loss claim. A couple of things, these fences run on impulse chargers, so unlike the movies where someone grabs a fence and stands there getting shocked, these pulse so that you can release the fence if you grab it. I have never seen any kind of animal killed by this type of fence but they do work and keep the bears out. Second, I read about volts, amps, etc. With fences it's the joules that determine how much of a kick it is going to have. Additionally, the length of the fence from the charger and your ground will also affect it's effectiveness.

I like this charger with the solar panel included. http://www.amazon.com/Parmak-Impedan.../dp/B00099FAJI

If you are close to a house a 110 charger is cheaper.

Hope that helps.

[gjd]

Thanks all, this was useful. March 1, I've got over a foot of snow with single-digit temps forecast, so I've still got a few days to figure out what to do. And I couldn't get a stake in the ground if I wanted to, anyway.