jdarling Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 I've got tons of wire panels in my pasture, making up my round pen, my square pens, chutes, lambing pens, etc. For the joints that will stay together, I have just been using baling wire and wire wrapping them together. For the joints that will act as gates (and their corresponding hinges), I've been using caribiners. Caribiners are great ... if you're never ever ever in a hurry or too impatient to open a gate. Well, today I found a "wire panel hinge" on the internet and was wondering if anyone has tried them, and more importantly, if they work well. For you wire panel people out there -- what do you use for the many needed gates (latch side and hinge side) at your place? Thanks! Jodi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kajarrel Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 When the panel abuts a wall or supporting beam, I use eye bolts screwed in the wall near the top and bottom edge of the panel (where you position them depends upon whether you want to be able to move the panels up for one reason or another - e.g., if you build a manure pack). I then slip a metal rod through the eye bolts, on the outside of the panel (so that the panel is secured between the rod and the wall). Otherwise, I use caribiners and baling twine, as you do. I'll try to get a picture for you. Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Those wire hinges get bent and end up being very dangerous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Zip ties if you are setting up something that will not get a lot of pressure and will not be opened and shut (stationary panels for jugs in a barn). Zip ties also work well for a hay feeder - if smething gets caught, they'll give way. My sheep don't make a habit of getting caught in stuff, don't have horns, etc, so believe it or not these things work pretty well for us. You can keep a zillion in your pocket and have them ready, and they are not particularly dangerous if they end up on the ground. And they pop right off with your pocket knife. Let's see. We use "quick links" to hold together panels where they will get more pressure - We use about one per 24" and the wire itself will fail before the quick link does. Very bad though in a barn - they corrode VERY quickly and get rusted closeed. Major WD-40 project to get them open again when that happens. I use snap bolts, large ones with the flappy snap rather than the slidey snap, for the lock side of gates. I've decided, however, that it's best to use gates as gates if you are pushing sheep in and out of an opening, a lot. And wire panels are most useful backed up with wood posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdarling Posted March 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Thanks Bill. That's what I was afraid of. I've decided, however, that it's best to use gates as gates... Becca, I think you're right. While my own snap hooks work great for tie outs while working dogs, they are driving me nuts on the gates. I might just have to try the zip tie / snap bolt ideas until I can afford some nice gates. Thanks! Jodi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 We have a need to temporarily fence off a stretch of 150 feet and were thinking about wire panels and t-posts. We will need to be able to remove the panels and most of the posts for haying, so wood posts wouldn't be practical. I thought the panels would be easier to move and store than a roll of wire(so heavy and we don't have a tractor). I have built my lamb pens out of panels and zip ties. I used "U" shaped nails to attachs the doors of the pens to the wall of the barn stall. I use the cheap carabiners(key chains I think) to close the pens. After buying six panels and having them delivered(no trailer either) I realized how big the holes inthem were. I would get hog panels if I ever need to replace them. I ended up making the second group of pens shorter when I was cutting the lengths. It's so much easier to fill pails and retrieve food pans over the shorter pens!!!! I covered every sharp edge/point with a double layer of duct tape. Oh, yeah, to keep those little ones from getting through the big holes I used strategicly placed panels from dog crates and woven kitchen rugs. All attached with zip ties. We've had no escapes. Hope all you experienced shepherds get a kick out of this. Patty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurie etc Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Hope all you experienced shepherds get a kick out of this. Patty I've always believed that you could construct or fix just about anything with baling twine, duct tape, double end snaps, and WD-40. Patty, your story reminds me of what my kids went through to get their rally stalls ready for a pony club inspection. Every sharp edge had to be removed, pounded or covered with a duct tape "band-aid". I always thought I'd rather take my chances with a sharp edge than risk a curious horse ingesting all those little pieces of duct tape. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdarling Posted March 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Yeah, when I put up the lambing pens using just panels, I realized very quickly that the cute little trouble makers could fit right through the holes. Not only that, the other sheep decided they didn't have enough food and started sticking their heads in the lambing pens and chomping away in there. So I took another panel and offset it over the existing one and tacked it down with baling wire. I wish I wasn't renting this house or I'd figure out a more permanent fix that, I'm sure, would be far less annoying to work with. Jodi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 We have a need to temporarily fence off a stretch of 150 feet and were thinking about wire panels and t-posts. We will need to be able to remove the panels and most of the posts for haying, so wood posts wouldn't be practical. I thought the panels would be easier to move and store than a roll of wire(so heavy and we don't have a tractor). Do you have electric anywhere (ie, a box?). I think even if you had to buy the energizer it would be cheaper to fence off 150 feet with electronet, than doing it with panels. Posts are SO expensive right now and you'd need one ever fifteen feet or more, and then the panels are expensive too. Premier has the netting for $99 fr 164 feet right now, free shipping, and then you'd just need the box (our box is $99 at Tractor Supply) and a way to get power out to whereever it is (we usually just install a wire on whatever fence is going to wherever it is). My math could be wrong, but then there's the ease of moving it around, and you'd have the fencing for other reasons too. I'm addicted to electronet now - we figured out we only need to do five more lines of permanent fencing, purchase a couple more rolls of electronet, and we'll be able to graze safely anywhere on this sixty acres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Can you run just one stretch of electronet? This length would be going from the garage(good thing!) to a corner post of a fenceline. I hadn't given much thought to elec...thinking it would have to connect with itself...am I mistaken? Patty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Yup. The stuff even stands by itself without an end post if you need it, though it's not as stable that way - it has step in posts all the way through it. My rotten fence breakers even respect it - though I've got one hair sheep who has figured out she can clear it. She can clear 48" field fence too though, so the other sheep just look at her and go, "there she goes again . . . ." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Sounds like I could move it around myself too...I'm all for that. I will need lots of heavy duty extention cords if I use it anywhere else...I would like to keep the sheep off the good hay ground so it gets a start! Last year a farmer got 70-75 round bales off our place...he only had to bring me back two. We were glad to have the chest high fields cut. This year we will work out something... We have plenty rocky areas that can't be hayed, we got the sheep partly to help keep that under control. So Premier is where you get the most economical elec net? Thanks. Patty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Electronet is available directly from Premier and also from dealers around the country. If you plan to use it in places where you would need to run extension cords, it's probably better consider getting a battery-operated energizer. Most plug-in energizers are not designed to be used outdoors. The other option would be to run a lead-out wire from the energizer in the garage to wherever you're installing the net. I got the sense that Patty might be confused about how electric fence works. It's an open circuit between the fence and the ground. When an animal standing on the ground contacts the fence, it closes the circuit and a high-voltage but low power current flows through the animal. That means that wherever you want to set up electronet, you also need to be able to set up a ground field (unless you opt for the fixed energizer with fence line lead-outs, in which case you need to build just one ground field that will work for any fences on your place). If you're just using one or two nets, you can probably get away with a three-foot ground rod. For larger enclosures, you'll need a few ground rods connected together. Most electric fence failures are due to inadequate grounding. The next most common reason for electric fence to fail is that too much vegetation is contacting the fence and grounding it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 At our old place we started with a three acres field fenced with seven strands of HT wire. We just had two six-foot ground posts tapped into a moist spot near the box itself. That worked extremely well - the fence would throw you a few feet if you touched it and we were able to use that HT for perimeter fencing for years. When we doubled our pasture and started subdividing also, we started to get into trouble (and our sheep started to learn to challenge fence). We ended up setting up a field as Bill describes - but it wasn't hard. Just be sure to get some expert advice on how to do it right. I"m sure Premier would be glad to give you some help, or you can pick the brains of people online. There's some "just sheep" people on Bill's Sheep Production Forum who are very friendly and helpful to novices like me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Thanks for the advice. I took a pic of the area in question. The ground slopes and there are several ridges of rocks running through the area too. I'll check out Bill's page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 That's a perfect application for Electronet. One of the nice things about it is you can follow the terrain, or curve the net around obstacles, without compromising its ability to contain the stock. Right now I've got about two acres fenced by enclosing a corner of existing fencing. The box is in a special enclosure about a hundred yards away, and power goes underground to the permanent fence. The permanent fence has an "offset" hotwire on the top and bottom (the bottom is disconnected at present). This is where we switch the power on and off so we can handle the electronet. Then the electronet is connected to the hotwire on the permanent fencing via alligator clips which Premier sells, which are The Bomb for quickly hooking up power to electric fencing. If I want to open the net, or move it, I just unclip it, fold it up (or back), and away we go. The posts are attached - you just unfold it, then set it upright and push the posts in. I can set it all up myself - I can set one strand in less than ten minutes if the wind's not blowing hard, and if I don't get the sides mixed up and put it out backwards. Gosh, I sound like an Infomercial. OK, so to balance all the love - this stuff isn't great if you have sheep that like to take running headers at fences, and of course any animal with horns, and you MUST keep it fully powered at all times or you will get animals tangled in it. I'm not sure it's that great if you have a lot of high wind all the time, either - I've noticed ours bends a lot when the wind starts blowing above 15 mph. And if your dogs are in the habit of running sheep into fences I wouldn't recommend it either for obvious reasons. Although if your dog follows the sheep into the fence it might cure him or her of the habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccnnc Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 I'm a bit late to this thread, but here's something I used to make a hay rack out of cattle and hog panels... At Lowes I found some small u-bolts in the electrical section -- think they're called wire clamps -- used them with a lock washer to attach the hog panel to the cattle panel... if you pick the right size there's only a small bit of the bolt sticking out... if you're still working on this, let me know and I'll take a picture of the setup.... Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patty Abel Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 I'm a bit late to this thread, but here's something I used to make a hay rack out of cattle and hog panels... At Lowes I found some small u-bolts in the electrical section -- think they're called wire clamps -- used them with a lock washer to attach the hog panel to the cattle panel... if you pick the right size there's only a small bit of the bolt sticking out... if you're still working on this, let me know and I'll take a picture of the setup.... Colin That would be helpful, I can't picture it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccnnc Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Hey Patty, Took the pictures this evening... I'm sure they are spectacular, but I re-"organized" things on the computer a day or so ago and it's not seeing the card... I'll try to get the photos up tomorrow.... and, FWIW, I couldn't picture it either, just had the idea about making a feeder out of the panels, went to Lowes and wandered around, not looking for anything specific, just kinda zoomed out hoping something would whisper "I can do it" to me... and there they were!!! Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccnnc Posted March 21, 2007 Report Share Posted March 21, 2007 Finally figured out the way to upload photos.... the sheep at the hay rack.... a cattle panel and a hog panel bolted together and one of the u-bolts that holds the rack together.... I found these small bolts in the electrical department at Lowes... if you move the panels from time to time, it might be easier to use wing nuts... let me know if you need any more info... Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abfromneys Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 We use the hog panels as well as the combo cattle/hog panel (taller version of the hog). We mostly use clips similar to the carabiners for spots we open frequently and chain repair links(?) in places we don't want to worry about or don't move often. The links are oval steel with a nut that you unscrew to open the link. To attach them to U shaped fence posts we use J shaped bolts from the hardware store and a washer if needed. We pick the pre stamped holes in the posts that line up wth a "rail" of the panel to hold the panel to the posts. Usually we can catch 3. The J is pulled in to the vacant U part of the post. Not sure if I'm explaining myself well but hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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