Fence - WWYD

[Jessey]

In my driest paddock I need to sort out the leylandii

but chopping the lower branches off will expose my guys to the neighbours mares, Jess is a kicker and their fence is crappy saggy barbed wire. Their horses have broken through down the other end a few times and I had to sort the area because they won’t fix it, and their horses are leaning on this bit already.

Their fence is about 2-3ft behind the line of leylandii. I can’t decide the best course of action, I think I’ve got 3 options;
I’ll use the branches I cut to kind of weave in between the trunks and the fence plus;
1) Run electric fence along the top of the barbed wire
2) run electric fence on my side of the trunks
3) run electric fence a few feet to my side of the trunks
My guys are not fearful of electric fence but I do want them to be able to get under the trees for shelter so although 3 would be the safest option with kicky Jess I don’t particularly want to loose the space, perhaps I should do 1 & 2?

 

[chunky monkey]

You cant attach electric fence to the barb wire one jessey its illegal as far as im aware. For safety reason.
Is there enough room between the back of the tree trunks and there crap fence to run a wire. It must be far enough away so the barb wire cant induce current. It looks like enough in the picture. Id put some screw in insulators into the conifers at the back and put the wire on them.

 

[Jessey]

Yep you can’t electrify barbed wire, but I can run a strand along the top separate to the barbed wire I think (if I can’t another of my fences is illegal ? that’s alternating barbed and electric 3 of each)

There is space to put electric between but Jess will kick it at some point (she’s a madam for it) so I need to put the cut branches between to protect her from getting a leg into the barbed wire. Electric fence won’t stop that if it’s right next to the barbed wire because she’ll have her leg through before it zaps her.

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

In my driest paddock I need to sort out the leylandii
View attachment 104864
but chopping the lower branches off will expose my guys to the neighbours mares, Jess is a kicker and their fence is crappy saggy barbed wire. Their horses have broken through down the other end a few times and I had to sort the area because they won’t fix it, and their horses are leaning on this bit already.
View attachment 104863
Their fence is about 2-3ft behind the line of leylandii. I can’t decide the best course of action, I think I’ve got 3 options;
I’ll use the branches I cut to kind of weave in between the trunks and the fence plus;
1) Run electric fence along the top of the barbed wire
2) run electric fence on my side of the trunks
3) run electric fence a few feet to my side of the trunks
My guys are not fearful of electric fence but I do want them to be able to get under the trees for shelter so although 3 would be the safest option with kicky Jess I don’t particularly want to loose the space, perhaps I should do 1 & 2?

3 and then you could put in a natural mixed hedge to fill the gap i.e. willow, rosehips etc once it grows up

 

[chunky monkey]

Alternates is what we had for years try too, barbed and spun wire. We were advised it was illegal if its on the same posts. You can run it parellel but Im sure theres a minimum distance it has to be from the barbed wire to stop current jumping.
We also had problems with the deer jumping the fence landing on the top electric strand and then squashed down onto the barded wire to short. Thats why its considered a hazard. We replaced all ours with 6 strand high tensile anyway, so no longer an issue.
If its on an internal fence that no body can see you might get away with it if its only your animals. But if its between you and a neighbour that can see it then they could shop you.

 

[horseandgoatmom]

I think barbed wire period is illegal here.

 

[carthorse]

I'm afraid I'd make do with less shelter from the trees and run fencing on my side, safety first for me.

 

[Jessey]

3 and then you could put in a natural mixed hedge to fill the gap i.e. willow, rosehips etc once it grows up

Unfortunately I don’t think anything else will grow under these monsters (2 storey farmhouse for size comparison)

 

[Jessey]

I didn’t end up taking the branches off the bottom of all the trees, I got about half way and the lower branches got so low and dense that attacking with the chainsaw was getting difficult, so I just took those ones back and continued the fence around them.

But the half I did take back gives an awesome shelter and I used all the cut branches to make a ‘hedge’ behind the trees so there’s no way kicky Annie can get to the barbed wire


I might do the rest another day, but I feel happy I’ve done enough for now. I had 5 hours to work on it today and I used every single minute of it.

 

[Jessey]

We were advised it was illegal if its on the same posts. You can run it parellel but Im sure theres a minimum distance it has to be from the barbed wire to stop current jumping.
We also had problems with the deer jumping the fence landing on the top electric strand and then squashed down onto the barded wire to short. Thats why its considered a hazard.

I had to look this up;

"It is currently illegal to apply an electrical current to a fence constructed with a barbed construction throughout Europe. EU regulation IEC 60335-2-76, Annex BB. 2002. The principal reason being that the animal (including people) must be able to escape the electrical current IMMEDIATELY.

The law currently applies to the electrification of the barbed wire itself, it is still legal to off-set a plain wire electric fence from a barbed wire fence as long as the barbed wire itself is not electrified. Whilst this arrangement may be legal, It is not considered good practice for the reasons that an animal could still get caught on the barbed wire portion of the fence and be subjected to repeated shocks. "

I am going to have a think about my alternating wire fence, the landlord put in the barbed wire and I added the electric later when people kept climbing through it to get in with the horses ( obviously it's only there to keep the animals in really). I think the LL would be upset if I removed his, but without the electric I had a lot of issues still. That fence is separated from any public ROW by 3 other fences (my place is like bloody fort knox!) and my animals don't have direct access to it, but a deer could potentially get caught.

 

[Trewsers]

Wow you did work hard there! Well done!

 

[chunky monkey]

Yep i agree. Ive had a look and cant find anything either. It says it was still legal as of 2016. We were told before then.

Maybe it was a law they were trying to bring in, but never actually happened.

We only have 100 metres of barb wire left in the woods to rip out. Eventually when we tidy that bit of woodland it will go. Good riddance to the stuff.

 

[MrA]

I didn’t end up taking the branches off the bottom of all the trees, I got about half way and the lower branches got so low and dense that attacking with the chainsaw was getting difficult, so I just took those ones back and continued the fence around them.
View attachment 104888
But the half I did take back gives an awesome shelter and I used all the cut branches to make a ‘hedge’ behind the trees so there’s no way kicky Annie can get to the barbed wire
View attachment 104889View attachment 104892
View attachment 104890View attachment 104891
I might do the rest another day, but I feel happy I’ve done enough for now. I had 5 hours to work on it today and I used every single minute of it.

This looks great, lucky ponies!