Hi everyone! I've been away FOREVER, but I have an early morning part time job now, and the rest of the day is crazy busy with our new animals!
In addition to our darling flock of chickens, ducks and guineas, we've added 4 Jersey steer and two pot-bellied pigs.
We're still having trouble with my FIL's dogs, and now, the Heeler is running the cattle ragged and the Shepherd mix is hell-bent on killing the pigs (and of course the chickens - we now have one denuded rooster living in our angel fish aquarium room in a dog kennel since it's too cold for a feather-challenged bird to be outside - freaking dog).
Anyway, we've decided to install an electric fence on our top paddock (to start -we'll need to do the other two as well). We purchased a solar energizer and poly wire. Problem is, almost all of the insulators I can find are for T-posts, rebar or wooden posts. We have round metal posts strung with high tension metal cables. My FIL seems to think there is such a thing as an insulator that clips to two cables to hold the live wire away from the metal fence. I have been searching like mad for such an insulator (or anything else that would work) and I've had no luck. I really can't afford to put t-posts just inside the fence for the electric fence. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!
Electric Fence Conundrum
The only other type of insulator I've seen is for cyclone type fences and it does clip to two wires. Its maximum span is only about 4" however. You could maybe run the hot wire through a short piece of insulation (I use old hose) and zip tie it to your posts.
A good suggestion from porkpal. I think the old hose would work very well!
I might add that step posts are handy to have, especially if you plant to eventurally rotational graze. We found them cheap on sale at TS. Also, as someone who has finally managed to repell the neighbor's Great Danes, as many strands of wire as you can afford is well worth the investment! Also, a dog experience donkey is well worth the extra grazing, hay, or feed! Now I have a new neighbor (I still have the Great Danes--but they have now seemed to learn their place). The new neighbors have Sharpeis (sp!). We just had to run the male off this morning as he figured out the hot wire and just came up our front lane. Bold a brass!
I think I might need a bb gun! Or a paint ball gun might work better. Then then neighbor could not deny that was her dog AND she would have to clean the dogs up! She shows them....Mwahahahaha!
Don't you love it when people deny that it was their dog? I like the idea of the paint ball gun! DH was taking our dog for their usual morning walk to get the paper and our neighbor's dogs, who aren't supposed to be loose, came running down their long driveway onto the lane and almost attacked our dog. If DH hadn't had a stick one of them would have. Last spring the smaller of their two, who is dangerous and quite territorial even if it's not her territory, attacked our dog on a similar walk and drew blood. We told them about it when it happened, and this time DH called the neighbor and told her about the latest incident. She was convinced that it couldn't have been her dogs because they were home with her - like we don't recognize them and like there are any others running around our very rural neighborhood! When she finally acknowledged that it had been her dogs she also admitted that others had told her that the smaller dog was dangerous and she wondered if she should put it down....
Years ago we had another neighbor with a wandering dog who swore it wasn't his. When DH responded that he wouldn't mind if he shot it, then, suddenly the dog stayed home.
We do have two un-neutered dogs that come on our property all the time. FIL won't let me call the owners because he says it's "un-neighborly". What??? Like letting your stupid dogs piss all over my potted plants isn't "un-neighborly". I think with some diplomacy, I could maintain the neighbor's relationship (he lets us harvest wood for our fireplace from his trees behind our property). It's OUR dogs (FIL's actually - we live on the property in a separate house) that are killing/terrorizing MY livestock. I think the hose thing is a good idea - would I basically make the shape of a breast cancer awareness ribbon AROUND the posts to keep them from slipping? We have hoses coming out our ears, so that would be a great solution. Thanks again for the help AND your commiseration of our situation!
What I have done is to thread the wire through a short length of hose and then use big zip-ties to secure it to the post. If the wire is already in place I slit the hose lengthwise so I can add it (sort of a pain).
I could really get started about the dog killing thing.. but I won't.. I will just say that the paintball gun is an excellent idea! I've lost over 20 chickens to a neighbor's dog.. sore subject for sure.
What diameter are your metal posts?
I think a couple of inches. Like the diameter of an orange.
Oh OK. I was thinking of those small diameter metal posts which they do make insulators to fit - they are two pieces that screw together with the post sandwiched in between. But I think I'd just go with the rubber hose pieces - sounds cheap and easy to do!
That's the plan. I probably won't get to it until after Christmas, but we'll have family in town, so hopefully I can get them to help me string the fence. Thanks again for the great advice everyone!