Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Deer fence options

What would be better and/or cheaper, a high fence or the two fences three feet apart like I've been seeing in magazines? I want to start an orchard and there are a lot of deer by the creek.

I believe the cheapest would be an electric fence. Deer, if they want to can clear a 10' high fence.

Not sure about electric fences and deer. I tried electric when I had cows and the wire kept getting torn down. After I got rid of the cows, I wanted to try out a solar powered fence rig. It also got torn down. An old Rancher told me that when a cow touches an electric fence, it backs away but a deer, when shocked, lunges forward. I have no idea whether that is true.

If you go the electric fence route, don't forget the peanut butter on aluminum foil trick. It is important that you are diligent at the beginning with this trick, so the deer get conditioned to avoid the fence. If you think it won't get their attention, you might want to lick the peanut butter yourself with the power on (just kidding - don't do this!). Once the deer do this, they will stay away. While barriers are OK, if you have a suitable area, allowing a single RESPONSIBLE hunter to help you out, is good insurance. Find someone local that hunts a lot both during the whole archery/gun season and who hunts alone.

Electricity is too far away. Has anyone tried to double fence?

They have solar fence chargers. No grid hook-up needed.

I'd go with the solar electric fence. Cheapest and easiest to maintain and from my experience, the most efficient at keeping the deer out.

HI BrianH,

Up in MI, there are a number of deer farms. Mostly for private/personal keeping or pay to hunt.

I have never seen a double fence setup, not to say they there are not out there. I usually see the 8 foot high fence setups with Deer and Elk.

One Op. a few miles from here recently added another two foot section to make them 10 ft high.

Not sure why it was done, either they have deer with blinking red noses, or they may be trying to keep the resident Cougar's out. Deer are the main diet and favorite food of Cougar's. A concentration of deer that can't escape would be a Cougar's wildest dreams come true.

From what I understand, electric fences don't work with deer. Deer are pretty much neurotic, crazy animals when in a fight or flight situation. An electric fence probably would not stand a chance.

Just my thoughts,
J

Brian, I have an 8 ft high fence around my garden. It has five feet of high tensile goat and sheep fence on bottom with four strands of barbed wire on top for a total of 8 feet. I have never ever had a deer challenge that fence. If a deer was on the inside of the garden and was challenged it might jump it, but they don't won't fruits and veggies bad enough to come from the outside. In the last couple of months we have found 4 deer with their leg caught in the top two wires of a regular fence. Needless to say they didn't survive. One of them I found was still alive and I called the game warden and he came out and disposed of her. Raccoons now they are a whole other problem. They will crawl anything.

My neighbor has a vineyard. We had an existing barbed wire fence and when he put the vineyard in he placed an 8 foot fence outside of the barbed wire fence. Although I've never witnessed it happen, my neighbor claims that deer still occasionally jump the double fences but it has significantly cut down the deer presence on his property.

Personally I like the deer and I've named them, let's see there is Al Coholic, Barb Dwyer, Dwaine Pipe, Marsha Mellow, Marty Graw.....

Thanks a lot guys

Jeff, you gotta start giving them shorter names. Like Sausage, snack sticks, jerky, tenderloins......

Breakfast, lunch & dinner.

How does Sunil always say it so eloquently???? oh yeah......Freak!!!

How many trees are you planning? I have two orchards one with 15 trees and the other with 24. I have opted to fence each tree enstead of a fence around the orchard. You can use 4 to 5' tall 2x4 welded wire in 12' to 15' lenghts to make roughly a 5' diameter cage. This will keep the deer out since they cannot jump inside. It does make pruning and orther maintenance a little more work. But for a small orchard it is more cost affective. I close the cages with cable ties so it is real easy to open them to work on the trees.

Scott/Travis, I've found a handful of the solar chargers on the web and am wondering if you guys have heard anything good or bad about any particular brands. I'm thinking this would be a great way to protect our garden once we build it.

Good idea, lassig. We're going to be planting probably half a dozen fruit trees very soon and I like this approach - low maintenance and low fuss. I assume you stake the sections of fence down to keep them from tipping over and creating easier access to the tree?

I'll do some checking... I don't know what brands are being used. Next time I talk to a couple people I know who have them, I'll see what they say.

Todd, IMO the only way you can protect a garden in deer country is a high fence with some really nervous dogs.

I love it, Dave! My chihuahua is the only nervous dog we've got! The chessie likes deer and lets them lie in the yard here while he has his afternoon siesta. Once we move to the farm, he'll probably be worthless at protecting a garden!

Yes I uyse 2 5' or 6' T-posts. I use two cable ties on the one T post that doesn't have the openning and 3 on the Tpost that has the two ends of fencing on it.