3 Chicken Tractor Electric Fence Tips
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
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H John, I have not had any predator issues YET! I imagine it's just a matter of time. But I think I will go for this setup when I decide to do it. Thanks for all you do!
Glad I could be of help. The way I am doing it has the initial expense, but I haven't had issues since. You could also try just using the hardware cloth and it may work for you without the electric.
Hi John. I am almost finished with 3 chicken tractors. (I had trouble with your door design. We figured you had a misprint on the cut sheet. Did anyone else have issues with this? We modified, no problem). My real question is , I was wondering if there was a cheaper energizer that might work? That one seems quite expensive for such a small wire.
Thanks for what you do. I am ordering 100 chickens today and setting 10 pigs out on pasture today as well. All going with your plans. I am a restaurant owner/chef in the western Maine mountains. We just bought the land next to the restaurant and I am now a farmer too!
I love that you are a chef turned farmer but still chef but yet a farmer. You have a true understanding on what good food is all about.
We did make an adjustment to the door and put out a revision. You must have gotten a very early book.
There is probably a cheaper energizer out there. Especially if you get away from solar and go to an AC plug in version. I like the solar chargers rather than just a straight battery because car batteries are expensive and have to be swapped out and charged.
Having not done a ton of research in a long time about solar chargers and pricing things out I don't know that I could give you any other good recommendations. Sorry man.
You can do the same thing but Not move fence every time you move birds.
I cut fiberglass fence post in half and attached to the chicken tractor at the bottom corners about 6 inches up and horizontal. I ran 2 strands of wire. Outer wire is about 14" out 12" high, inner wire is about 6" out and 6" high.
Both wires are hot.
Solar charger is mounted on chicken tractor. I used ribbon fence for ground and it's on a reel.
Use jumper wires to connect multiple chicken tractors together. I just use a piece of insulated wire with two alligator clips for my jumper wires.
So now when you move chicken tractors the fence moves with you. All you have to do is adjust the length of the ground wire on the reel.
"Use ribbon fence for ground" ?
Do you mean that the hot and the ground are all in the ribbon fence, or do you still need a ground rod.?
@@ForgivenBob ground rod is in a permanent location I just add more length of wire as needed to make connection to fence charger as chicken tractors move across field. Ribbon fence works better on my spool for reeling in and giving out ground wire length. The hot wire is aluminum.
Hi John, just want to let you know your videos recommending Premier1Supplies for hog polywire netting was what got my wife and I to use it for our pigs this year and we are so grateful. Our pigs are in a wooded area and traditional fencing would have been terrible to put in because of all the trees to go through and because of all the tree roots we would have had to fight. The netting is perfect! Thank you for putting out great quality and informative videos.
That's so good to hear! I'm glad that it helped solve a problem for you and that my videos have been useful. That encourages me to make more! I should get on that, haha.
As you are able, of course. Got to take care of first priorities while the videos come next. That being said, yes! Moar videos! :)
Yes, more videos. I miss the frequency with which you posted content in the past!
Shooting for two this week and then three next week working eventually toward 5 a week. Still have a lot of catch-up to do on farm, but I'll get there.
I love your chicken tractor book. It’s well written and easy to understand With the diagrams.
It's be great if you could do a video on how to keep the premier 1 poly wire fencing from sagging on set up. My fence always seems to sag and ground out on me.
Thank you for this video though.
And where did you get the ground rod?
Where I can get that solar powered electric fence what is that called
HI. Welcome back. I can't wait to see your store now that it's all done. Did you complete and open on schedule? I see you have someone helping you filming now. Awesome! I looked at this film and I heard John Suscovich, I couldn't see him with the shades, beard and baseball cap. All that handsome boyish charm was hidden in this video. I guess change is inevitable. Should have known when I started to see the tatoos. :-D I'm glad you're at least still putting out amazing content. Thanks for sharing as always. I missed you. ~Smile!
Missed you too Ciecie! I was hoping to see you on here now that I'm able to publish again.
That was Scott helping me with the camera for a day. He got more behinds the scenes than usual and was behind the camera. It was a lot of fun.
I'm still that boy at heart. The shades were for the sun, the beard out of laziness, and the baseball cap to hide my disheveled hair. haha
Happy to be "back at it" though FMS and the community here were with me the whole time. I'm happy and excited for the rest of the season this year.
why not put the 2x4 on the side sticking out a few more inches, and mount an insulator on that, instead of having to redo poles every time you move it.. then just replace the ground rod each time and turn it back on .
That’s a good idea Gayle. There are a lot of different upgrades people have made to Suscovich Chicken Tractors over the years. Each person adapts it slightly to their situation.
Glad to see you are back! I imagine spring is keeping you busy. I really appreciate your videos, thank you very much. I ordered your book from Amazon, raising meat chickens will be one of my first goals once i start my homestead. Thank you for the inspiration to get me out of the city, and into the field.
Warms my heart to hear those stories! We need more quality farmers.
If I could ask a favor, could you leave an honest Amazon Review for me on Amazon to help other people find the book and get an idea of how people are (or intend) to use it? I would greatly appreciate that.
I will for sure.
I too just got your book thru Amazon! What issues, if any, would you forsee if the chicken tractor were a foot taller (to better accommodate my 6+' height)?
This way you have to dismantle and set up your electric fence every time you move your tractor. Why not attach 6 inch long posts on each corner of the tractor sticking out at 45 degrees? This way the electric fence becomes a permanent part of your tractor and moves with it.
John, I've watched wireing demo's from fence charger videos, every one tells you not to make a "loop" system like you have.
They all recommend when you come to beginning/end not to tie together but keep separate.
Had a term for it, hmm. Think they said made fence less effective.
Thoughts ?
That may or may not be so. For me it is a situational thing. I have a powerful charger going into not a lot of polywire. Even if the loop makes it a little less effective, the wire is still plenty hot to serve my purposes. Also, the convenience of the loop for me out-weighs the possible slight reduction in effectivity.
John Suscovich thank-you Sir
Good idea! I have a ground squirrel problem.
Thank you John..
(Been watching for years. )
Hi John. Love your videos. Did you make that ground pin or is that store bought?
I think it would be easier to use the 6" wood post insulators mounted directly to the tractor.
I've tried those. They get in the way when I am moving chicken tractors on a trailer across farm and they don't save a lot of time on the day to day. I've gotten so quick at moving posts that I don't miss the mounted insulators at all.
John Suscovich thank for the reply. I guess I could see how they would get in the way.
Did you make you portable grounding spike
What issues, if any, would you forsee if the chicken tractor were a foot taller (to better accommodate my 6+' height)?
None. Maybe a little added weight with materials, but if you're 6'+ then you can probably handle it. Just adjust the size tarp you buy as well to make sure you're giving your birds the protection they need.
did you try nailing insulators to the tractor instead of fiberglass poles .. that way it would move tractor and wire at same time
I have, but then I have problems getting the chicken tractors into my trailer to move them. Also, it saves less time than you think and I like the springy-ness of the poles.
Is there no reason you don't just have the chicken tractor support the solar battery somehow and attach the wire directly to the coop so you dont have to pull them out every time?
No great reason other than I haven't figured that part out yet. Right now they fit perfectly on my trailer so I can move them around farm. If I add anything onto the outside they're not going to fit on the trailer.
great tips John, thanks :)
Hope it helps!
thx for the tip its amazing, now to wire my 10'x4' coop tractor. May i ask how many chickens you recommend for a 10'x4' coop tractor? I have 10 black australorps, there 4 weeks old.
If you are letting your birds out to forage, I'm assuming laying hens here, then assume about 4 square feet per chicken in the coop, so you're right about there with 10 birds in that space. You don't want to cram too many in with laying hens because they will start to beat each other up and it gets mean and nasty in there.
They don’t like getting zapped on the ears either
Thank you John. As always very helpful information. But...no pig updates?
They're coming! Already shot a bunch of that video. Just have to get into editing.
Good day to post a video you must have known it was my birthday today lol. I had some chicks that got taken a couple weeks back by what I have no idea but I got a poultry net and put it around my tractors. I never thought of doing a wire like that it would have been cheaper lol.
Happy Birthday Brian! Glad I could help in some small way on your special day. Glad to be back to posting some stuff.
John Suscovich thanks
Thanks for the tips John
No problem
No longer doing Cornish cross?
Doing both to compare and contrast. Always trying to improve myself and my farm.