Electric Fence Controller

[Michael Palmer]

With all respect I do not believe a D cell will provide enough power or "juice" to shock a bear.

You would be surprised. I know I have wimpy eastern Black bears, but with 11 yards with these fencers, I can say that D cell batteries will stop my bears. Only thing I don't like is that they only last 3-5 weeks. The chargers also accept 12v batteries with last longer. With the $35 solar panel, they last all season.

[Adrian Quiney WI]

I am following this thread because I am contemplating an outyard - my home yard has a Fleet Farm fencer that runs from my shed. How do Wisconsin/Mn beeks deal with their outyard fencer system overwinter? Is it mandatory to have a solar panel I know the cold is pretty hard on batteries? Or do you rely on hibernation?

[Beeslave]

Bears hibernate........

WI BEEK- Circuit boards http://www.zarebasystems.com/store/e...parts/cblis10r

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Shannon, so do you pull the batteries away from the yards at a certain time and take them home for charging, or leave them there?

[beedave]

Late in the game here but we use Parmak Mag 12 with deep cycle batteries and a small solar panel courtesy of the DOW for bear fence. 3 ground rods at least 6' apart grounded together with #10 solid copper. The fence is high tensile woven wire tied to pvc pipe over t-posts, whole grid is hot. One barbed wire on the bottom and 2 on top all grounded to the ground grid that the charger is grounded to.Once the bears are trained they never touch the fence unless you leave the gate open.

[riverbee1]

i would use solar, and do now. i have used the zareba sp 10 for the last 6 years to keep the bears out, and use year round. also keeps other critters away as well. i purchased the zareba on the advice of an agent with the usda aphis wildlife services who works with commercial beekeepers on wildlife damage. at the time, he recommended either a red snapper or the zareba. to keep bears out, he advised I use maximum, .15 joules or about 7,000 volts. the sp-10 i use now can run anywhere between 7300 and 8500 volts, but i also check the fence and water the ground rods when it is very dry, when i see the voltage drop. i have been through 2 or 3 of these units, two under warranty, and when this one dies i will be in the market for another good solar fencer.

i would agree with those who say zareba's are junk, heres why; i discovered that this particular zareba fencer (and maybe others) has a design flaw with an under designed seal allowing water to leak into the housing, which fries the unit. anyone send their units into zareba to have a technician say it was wet inside or that the unit got wet from improper mounting?

using a combination of some silicone sealant and clear contact paper covering the solar panel has increased the life of the unit for me for the past couple years, but would also appreciate what others are using for solar fencers. i would continue to use zareba's units, if they fixed this problem. might have to check out the parmaks.

bears hibernate? they do, but don’t count on it…..occasionally they like a winter snack too.

[nursebee]

Here at home I use a large unit from the local Agri-Supply. If you are near one of them the nice thing is how easy it is to get parts and/or the no hassle returns of anything you buy there. When I was running many outyards, I loved the PARMAK that ran on 12Volt deep cycle marine batteries. It seemed that if I changed the batteries out once a month and recharged them at home they worked well. If a battery went dead, walmart would credit or prorate some of the replacement based upon purchase date if I had a receipt or based upon the date of manufacture otherwise.

The solar units cost more upfront. I had a unit stolen, if this had been solar I would have been hurt more.

I recall the Parmak unit I used was about $100. The company provides excellent service. I have several of them around here, need to list them for sale...

[chillardbee]

I use the 6 volt solar parmak, It keeps a good charge and keeps a good charge longer.
We take our bees to the mountians for the fireweed so having a good portable set up is necessary. We use a flexi-net for our fence and chicken wire for the ground around the perimeter.

[WI-beek]

By deer season (gun) bears should be in there deep sleep. You are supposed to take battery off and store it charged. All in one units can be taken home, let charge and store in home. From what I read warm storage is the best.

I will be wrapping my hives the week before gun season and as long as its cold like it should be Ill be taking batteries home and covering solar panel with a old blanket or something. Come March ill hook it back up. I usually need to unhook hot wire from the bottom wire cause its buried in snow.

[Dancing Bee Apiary]

My mentor who has a million stories about trouble bears swears by this;

Instead of running ground wires between live wires run a a single ground wire about 1' 1/2 out from the live wires and about a foot above the ground. The bear will always contact this wire just before he touches the live ones.

[ga.beeman]

I use the parmak from Jeffers in Dothan Alabama(they have web site). I have used these solar chargers for 10 years and they are still going strong .I think they have two models the one i use is black and red. you can buy a replacement battery for them if needed so far I havent had to replace one. well worth the money if you are going to sourwood

[Makin' Honey]

I have used the Parmak Mag 12 for years with good service in Florida and North Carolina. In Florida I used it with a 12v battery and hid it inside one of the hives because the two legged 'bears' would steal the solar ones!! You can find the Parmak for sale at Amazon.com with free shipping.

[Solomon Parker]

The key in fence chargers in my experience is not voltage, it's Joules. The bigger the Joules, the better, but not all fence chargers are labelled with Joules.

I have a solar panel that charges a deep cycle battery which provides power for a light to keep chickens producing eggs, and the fence charger which is a Stafix X1, a 1 Joule dual power fence charger. I've had the chickens for exactly four months and I have not locked them in the coop once. The fence has performed flawlessly. There's little more satisfying than hearing the neighbor's dog go yip yip yipping across the yard never to return. The fence was taken down once by what I assume was the other neighbor's English Mastiff but it still was not able to get to the chickens and has not come back. I'm guessing he got stuck in the fence for a few seconds and had a real bad day.

[beehonest]

You will find many opinions on this especialy from those who have them to keep animals in which is a different ballgame. I went through this I finaly found guidelines for an apiary fence from the state of Virginia that has done extensive research on bear fences for apiaries. There are a lot of solar powered or D Battery powered portable deals sold by bee companies that will make a bear laugh for a minute. First you want a low impedence charger this is key, of at least one joule prefererably more. Aluminum 14 guage wire, with six strades spaced at I think it was six inches, don't hold me to that. You want to alternate hot and cold, start with hot on the bottom strand. I have either a patriot or enforcer I forgot, It is two joules and will operate off 110 or a 12v car or marine battery. Let me tell you it packs a punch it got me through goatskin bee gloves and I never even touched the wire my hand was about two inches away!

[EastSideBuzz]

So that harbor freight one. Any experiences with it? It is 1/2 of what everyone else wants.

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-fencer-47454.html So after shipping and tax it is 74 bucks.

Or 134 for I can get the Zabara one delivered to the house. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Any suggestions? Experiences.?

[brushmouth]

So that harbor freight one. Any experiences with it? It is 1/2 of what everyone else wants.

http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-fencer-47454.html So after shipping and tax it is 74 bucks.

Or 134 for I can get the Zabara one delivered to the house. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Any suggestions? Experiences.?

I was very happy with the price and it had a nice spark, however it failed me B4 the end of summer.
My low end Zabara only lasted one year, which the Harbor Freight Fencer replaced.
For some reason all these new fencers don't last, like the CO-OP and BULLDOG fencers I grew up with.
Now using an old CO-OP fencer I was lucky enough to find at farm auction, works great.

BM

[berkshire bee]

I've run Zareba solar chargers in three locations for the last 6 years and have never had one fail. A buddy of mine had a Zareba charger that wasn't working, given to him. He brought it to Tractor Supply to see if you could get parts for it and they gave him a free replacement.

[EastSideBuzz]

Tractor Supply to see if you could get parts for it and they gave him a free replacement.

That says a lot. Not sure if the HF one has a replacement warranty I will ask my local guy if they do since I cant choose one online. That might change the deal.