Deer fence

[Anonymous-0]

I am planning to put in a few apple trees on my land (25) and live in an area populated by many whitetail deer. I want to put up fencing to deter them and have plenty of cedar for posts.

I have had conflicting advice on what I need. I can put up 8' woven wire with a couple of top strands, or as some have advised a three-wire electric fence will do the trick.

Any thoughts, advice, comments?

 

[R Geiger]

8 ft woven is best. I would use a solid board at the top that they can see. They may get hung up in top stands. Not a pretty sight.

 

[souNdguy]

good luck on 8' fence.

fellow near me raises deer.. he has a 15' fence, and when he sells a deer, he reccomends a 12' fence if you want to keep the deer for sure..

soundguy

 

[8N'r--WI]

Brad---last year I planted a 24 tree orchard at the farm...in a high deer populated area...

The trees I planted are about 4-5" tall...

I bought a few roles of inexpensive woven wire from Farm and Fleet that was 60" tall with 2"X4" squares to keep out rabbits as well as deer.

I cut lengths of wire so that I could build a 5" diameter fence around each tree. I also wrapped each tree with plastic tree guards to keep the mice away...supported fence with 3 "T" posts.

I was over to the farm this weekend and all the trees look great with no damage from any critters.

Deer, of course, can easily jump over a 5" high fence, but will not jump over/into these small enclosures.

These enclosures should keep deer, rabbits, and mice away for several years until the trees, hopefully, are producing fruit....

When I remove the fence, I will have to pull the trigger more often during hunting season to help control the deer damage....that"s part of what makes growing apple trees enjoyable ...:>)

I picked one apple last year from the orchard already!!

Tim

 

[R Geiger (or)]

(quoted from post at 12:55:27 03/29/10) good luck on 8' fence.

fellow near me raises deer.. he has a 15' fence, and when he sells a deer, he reccomends a 12' fence if you want to keep the deer for sure..

soundguy

I have been told that a deer will jump just as high as he needs to. that said I have 6 foot fence and the only time I have had deer inside is when I left the gate open. When I went to get them out, they jumped it real easy. I think it is easier to keep them out than it is to keep them in. We have pretty small Black tailed deer here, so may be a differeence.

 

[Mike OH]

I have had my share of bad luck when it comes to deer. They have chewed every fruit and ornamental tree I have ever planted and nothing I have ever used has deterred then from eating vegetables in my garden and flowers my wife has spent hours of her time tending. I have tried electric with some benefit around my grape plants as I have it relatively close to the grapes so they can't reach across nor jump into the area. I'd say get the highest fence you can find, but expect to do a lot of mending and hope it keeps them out. I think the best deterrent is to keep a loaded gun nearby.

 

[NOXJohn]

I have a friend that has an apple orchard in deer country. He gave up on fences and got two deer dogs. He said they take care of his deer problem.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thanks for all the input! I think I am going to put in 10' posts and 8' of woven wire to start.

I was lookin' at some diggers for the 8N and I found an 88hp input gearbox surplus and I think I can fab up a fine, heavy duty digger in the shop.
I will keep you guys posted.
Brad

 

[Jimmyjack]

The cranberry marshes around here use both. The tax payers pay for them. Sucess is limited. When determined a deer can go through an electric stranded fence quicker than you can blink. They stick their head out, tuck up their legs, and you might hear a twang when they bump the wire. I have seen sucess around some gardens using a woven wire fence with an electric top strand or two. I wrap my apple trees with woven wire around 4 t posts, but I dont have 24 of them, only 3. I put about a five or six foot circle around them and they only eat what come through the wire or what they can reach over the top. Good Luck, apples are their candy.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have kept deer away from apple trees using only a 5' high woven wire fence with only 3 1/2 to 4' diameter circle. This limits there landing room. I used only two t-posts per circle. Also, I put reflective tape about every 10" on the top wire.

 

[david brodhead]

A fencing scheme that works for Calif deer that can stand next to a single 4ft fence and casually jump it.2 fences-4ft. high 4ft. apart.The fencing is called field fence.Its a woven,galv fence--330ft to a roll usually.I have this enclosing a couple of acres and deer have never jumped it.I actually have only a single 4ft tube gate for the driveway and haven't had deer jump it either.I have actually had deer get inside when a gate was left open and they still would not try to jump the double fence.The crazy things would run right into the fence.

 

[Anonymous-0]

HEY YALL I LOVE TO DEER HUNT NEED HELP. I WILL COME AND TWKE A FEW OUT FOR YOU. THEY TASTE REAL GOOD. RICKY

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I have an 8' fence around my vegetable garden and have never had a deer in it (knock on wood). The bottom 4' is chicken wire and then just stranded wire over top of that. I have no flagging or anything on the top so you can hardly see it, I've been told if the deer can't see the top they wont jump it (and over the years it has worked for me).

 

[Dr. Bert]

Brad: I use woven wire hoops about 5 feet in diameter around my trees (mule deer) and anchor them with a 2 pieces of rebar laced thru the woven wire and driven about a foot into the ground. Don't know how this would work with whitetails.

 

[BillM (OH)]

Orchard over the hill from us has fence that goes up ~5-6 feet and then goes 45 degrees out from the top another 4 -5 feet or so - has all 150+/- acres fenced with this and deer do not jump it.

 

[lha]

Deer are smart creatures,especially where fences are concerned.On the big ranches in south Texas[and I mean BIG] they use what's called"king ranch" fence.It is as well as I can remember it is a heavy duty fence like hog wire,but wires closer together,and smooth wire stretched really tight above the roll fence.The particular ranch that I remember had miles&miles of it and have to keep in all type of exotics including nelgi,elan,other huge antelope.seems like they are +,- 8'tall.---lha

 

[Bob Harvey]

The elderly gent / neighbor of mine had (note had) an excellent garden with fruit trees that he planted in the '60's, he put up an 8' post and chicken wire fence and was successful in thwarting the deer for 30+ yrs., then some axe holes decided to introduce Elk into our area (No record of previous habitation), guess what happened -- yep, the Elk wrecked out his fences (walked through them) and phuqued 30+ yrs. of work, nice. P.S. can't shoot them, and even if you did they've been feeding on cedar and salal and taste like dirty diapers-don't ask.