Hello Gang,

The snow depth has been reduced enough to wear my ankle highs into
the bee yard. This made for much better conditions to check
the electric fence for efficiency. I have a deep cycle marine
80 A.H.  battery that feeds power to the charging unit.
I should have remembered to charge it at room temperature,
but I did not. I must have been having a mature moment! ;-)

The idiot ball was green indicating full charge, and it is usually so,
if the charging temperature is 60 f. There is no substitute for instrumentation. A voltage check revealed only 9.5 volts instead of 13.0
volts.

I have spare gel-cell batteries on charge at any one time for my
ham radio activities, so I brought the deep cycle in for a good
over nighter @ room temperature. Replacing the undercharged
deep cycle battery made a big difference in the output of the charger.

The fencer was putting out 3.7 KV at the end of the fence and 4.4 KV @
the source when fed by the deep cycle battery charged to 9.5 volts.
The same fencer put out 6.1 KV at the source and 5.7 KV @ the end of
the fence when fed with a 13.4 volt gel-cell. Not bad for frozen ground.

BTW, ground rod connections need maintenance too. You can have the best
fencer in the world guarding your apiary, but if you have a poor to
non-existing ground, you might as well hang out a welcome sign for
Winnie the Pooh when he wakes up from his winters nap.

A good installation has ground rod connections greased up with axle grease
after a good sanding to make the rod shiny. Then place Dux-seal over the
connection. Dux-seal is an electricians putty. Work it like clay, and
encapsulate the ground rod connection with it. The connection is made
with a ground rod clamp. This goes around the rod and clamps the wire
leading to your fencer to the rod.

To insure a good ground in dry conditions bond 3, six foot ground rods together with a heavy braid battery cable. Set the rods 10 feet apart.
Join one to the other, 1, 2, 3, and then join one of these to your
electric fence charger. A good ground will make your fencer kick like
a Missouri mule.

Yes , this is a lot of work to keep bears out of the apiary.
The work is worth it to me. Looking at a bear damaged yard is sure a
sickening feeling. I hope I never have to experience it again.



Ernie Gregoire "Beekeeper," definition= partially brave,

                            partially excentric

Grist Mill Apiary

Canaan, NH. USA


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03/01/99 14:35:48