useless fence

Yesterday morning, Saturday, one of our neighbours came to the door saying that one of our ducks was caught in the netting and couldn't free herself.  I thanked him very much for telling me and ran out into the field, it was Honey who was stuck fast and very tightly.  I was glad I'd brought scissors with me as I had to cut a lot of strands of the former electric fence to get her out.  Once freed she got very noisy as I carried her down to the pond where all the others had escaped to.

That little episode gave me the final push to pull out the very costly electric fence.  Initially I'd bought it to keep ducks and drakes safe from foxes, then used it to keep too many drakes away from vulnerable ducks  or to keep warring factions apart  -  none of which worked.  I've lost count of how many times I've mended the netting after rabbits chewed through great sections of it, and after we saw the vixen leap clear over it from a standing start when she'd tried to get Hedda away we knew it couldn't serve the purpose it was intended for.  So we decided to take it out altogether and, as we have hundreds of metres of it, place it against our boundary on the far side of the ditch to maybe form a bit of a barrier against foxes slipping through the undergrowth from the other side.  Honey entangling herself in it gave me the final push, and I went right after our morning cup of coffee and ripped out what I could.  One section is still standing, and a lot of tidying up still has to be done, it can wait till next week.  I took a few pictures late yesterday afternoon: