Electric fence guard question

[M.Stephens]

I have seven of my poles with this type of setup. Can my martins be killed if they were to go to the ground and come in contact with the ground and hotwire?
I have this picture of my 20 mile charger and the electric guard hookup. It puts out around 8000 volts at 1 second intervals.

[Steve Martin]

I could not get an idea on how your system was set up. I need you to label which wires are ground wires and which wires are fence wires. Also please take the picture from further away so I can get a better prospective. Also, is the pole your houses are on conductive, (ie. Aluminum, steal, metal).

[M.Stephens]

All wires you see are hot. The wire running to the hardware cloth on the pvc pipe makes that hot. The ground itself is the ground.

I placed the other piece hardware cloth on the ground over the concrete because the concrete was acting as an insulator. I staked it down with tent stake pegs. If a critter was to get on that mesh on the concrete and touch the mesh on the pvc pipe then it completes the circuit.

The pvc pipe is an insulator surrounding the pole.

The hot wire runs to all of my poles in this same fashion using underground fence charger wire.

[Kevin-GA]

Hey Malcolm, I've had a similar setup for 4 years with hardware cloth and my hot wire is only 1 1/2 inches above the ground. I have had Martins on the ground around the cages and have never lost a bird, but it is possible. I have seen Red winged blackbirds around cow pastures killed while perching on the wire and making contact with a weed or fence adjacent to the hot wire.

For piece of mind, you could raise the hot side to 5 or 6 inches to prevent a Martin from making contact with both hot and ground, it would still be just as affective for snakes, racoons or any other predator for that matter.

[M.Stephens]

Kevin I remember your setup. I'm not going to worry about it too much then. I'll be more concerned when nest building begins. I will probably rake the area around the poles in case they look there for any nest building material.

[sully]

The answer is yes. My stepfather use to put electric fence around his sweet corn patch to keep the racoons out and he found dead doves once in a while.

[chickadee]

I would think of all are native birds. And not use this. Just get a regular guard.

[M.Stephens]

Update: I raised the hardware cloth up about 8" on all of the PVC guards on every pole and covered the bare connections with electrical tape. This should work fine without hurting any birds at all. I feel a lot better about it.

Ground predators LOOK OUT!!!

[DebA]

Looks good, Malcolm. I'll not forget your snake saga and seeing the pics with the stove pipe guards on each pole. This'll get 'em. Good job.
Deb

[chickadee]

Guess I never thought about snakes since I don't have that problem here.

[Steve Martin]

I'm putting together a primer for building an electric predator pole guard EPPG using an electric fence charger. It may take me a few days to finish it, I'm a slow writer. I need to write the primer so that I can talk in a language that can be understood. I don't want to use terms that people here do not understand. I also don't want to explain every term every time I answer a question. If you are interested in the subject please read ... this page I found. It has many concepts I will use in my primer. Be sure to concentrate on the part past where it says

This alternate design carries both live wires & earth wire(s) (alternating live-earth-live etc). The live terminal of the energizer is connected to all of the "live" fence wires. The earth terminal of the energizer is connected to both the earth electrode and the earth wire(s) on the fence
This alternate design carries both live wires & earth wire

The EPPG is basically a "alternate design" fence wrapped around the pole with the pole itself acting as ground. This design does not rely on soil moisture. Don't worry, if you didn't understand that, I will explain in my primer.