Thanks guys. I need to see if there is such a thing as black galvanized wire without a vinyl coating so it could serve as a large ground. That would be ideal.
We never had to bait our fence to keep the deer out. The problem we have is with wild hogs. They will gather outside the fence and seem to take a vote. Then one will charge the fence and break the wire with the others going in after it breaks the wire. They seem to take turns breaking the wire. It seems like they say it is your turn to get shocked. You will hear them squeal when they go through but if there is something they really want the electric fence will not stop them. We finally had to install a 6ā game proof fence to keep them out.
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@hambone did you end up putting up the electric fence? Is it working? How many joules on the energizer that you went with? How far apart did you run the wires?
Iām looking into putting up an electric fence around my veggie garden areaā¦thatās why all these questions 
I have a lower wire about 3-4 inches off the ground to try to deter the smaller critters. I had trouble with small branches and debris falling against it and it would touch the ground. I was given several packages of plastic tent stakes, I threaded them onto the bottom wire through the hole in each stake. That works very well. I also use them on my woven wire fence to hold it to the ground (the lowest wire is not electrified on that). There is a hook on each stake that I use to hold it down in that case, since there is no way to thread a woven fence through a hole.
I got a Gallagher S-100 one joule charger. Wires are about three inches apart: hot, ground in middle and another hot on top. Wonāt know if it works until fruit appears on the trees in fall. So far no deer or squirrels inside the penitentiary.
So ground wire is three inches above bottom hot and top hot is three inches above the ground wire. All horizontal.
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Another item I would highly recommend is a flashing warning light. You can order them from Walmart or other places. They hang on the wire and if the current goes off, they will flash a bright red blinking light that can be seen from a distance to tell you the fence is down or shorting.
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Old thread but there was a couple of mentions of something I hadnāt seen done before. A ground āwireā ran around the perimeter similar to the āhotā wire(s). At least that seems like what was being described hereā¦ All the electric fence energizers I had seen have 1+ hot wires, and ground is literally āthe groundā. Multiple ground rods driven in and connected to the - terminal. Indeed the S-100 mentioned has diagrams of it being installed that way: https://www.gallagher.eu/en_nl/downloads/dl/file/id/161/product/0/
And FWIW, I put 3 strands around my orchard, baited them with peanut butter, havenāt seen any deer damage in over a year. Fingers crossedā¦ Will probably re-bait it to ātrainā new deer a bit later.
@northwoodswis4 thatās an excellent idea, gotta get me one of those.
I had misread your letter and couldnāt figure out what would attract wild DOGS to a garden. We donāt have wild hogs here, thankfully.
Agree- I have one of those blinkers.
Hi Wendell, The ground wire is for critters who climb the fence such as raccoons. When they get off the ground they will hopefully touch the grounded wire and the hot wire and get a good jolt. In our case our regular fence is grounded so we just run two hot wires. Sue
The running of a ground wire in parallel to the hot wire(s) is often done in the SW and other dry climates. The earth/dirt is still ground, but when the soil is very dry it may not conduct enough electricity to give intruders a shock. So the additional āabove groundā ground wire allows a good shock to be there even when the ground is dry.
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