Fencing the deer out of the gardens

[Joey Wahoo]

I absolutely must do this this year. Someone recommended Premier Fencing to me. I've never ordered this kind of temporary electric fence. I have four areas 1/2 acre or less that I need to fence.

Would love to hear from anyone with experience/thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance!

[shadowwalker]

This is how I finally ended up with my fence to keep deer, rabbits-out. Put in good corner posts of wood. Put in two posts where your gate and if needed entry for tractor to get in to till with. Then I rototilled between the posts.All the way around. Next I set tee posts every 10 feet. I then bought small spaced fencing three feet tall. Now dig the tilled dirt about 1 foot wide, about 1 foot down in front of the posts and tee posts. I bent the fencing about 1/3rd of the way up into the shape of a "L". I set the L shape pointing out away from the garden, this leaves 2 feet to stand up along the posts. Set the wire along the dug out line. Cover the laid wire and tie to posts. Tamp good. Now get those one foot pieces of rebar I set those 12 feet apart and three inches out from the wire. Drive them into the ground until four inches sticks out. Now set the outside electric fence holders three inches above the ground. Next set of electric fence holders about 10 inches above the stakes on the fence posts. On the other rows of electric wire holders go 1 foot and weave back and fourth along the garden. I started at the gate as I had electric out to the water well only a few feet away. I rigged my switch by the gate. I ended up attaching more 2 feet long rebar stakes to my fence. As the deer could jump over the five feet sticking up off my six foot tee posts. My corner posts were seven feet tall. So I ended up with my electric fence going to the top of my seven foot fence.
I also had to bury the poultry fencing below my gate and leave it up out of the dirt to just below my gate.

[pheasantplucker]

I have heard from several people that if you lay chicken wire flat, down on the ground for 6feet around the fruit tree, or six feet outside the perimeter of your garden, that deer will not cross it. they say deer don't like to stand on it. I haven't tried it but I think I will this spring when I plant my apple trees,

[Bearfootfarm]

Anything less than 8 feet tall wont keep out a deer that really wants in. Google "deer proof fencing" and youll get good answers. A good "yard dog" will work better than any fencing for deer

[PlowGirl]

Premier Fencing has a great article on deer and fencing. There are several options.

One involves changing deer traffic behavior by using single strand electric fences and scent caps which tempt the deer to actually touch the fence and get zapped. Causes avoidance.

Another is the use of three dimensional fencing which confuses a prey animals depth perception. If a deer can't tell how far he needs to jump, how high is a non issue.

And then there's the ultimate wall, 8 feet fence. Would take a basketball player to install this type of fencing.

I'm partial to the 3D fencing with scent caps for extra insurance.

Premier has some of the best fencing materials and supplies, especially for electric fencing. I've bought from farm stores, but since buying certain items from Premier, the farm store stuff has turned out to be mostly junk. And generally, more expensive junk.

[MoonShine]

Originally Posted by pheasantplucker

I have heard from several people that if you lay chicken wire flat, down on the ground for 6feet around the fruit tree, or six feet outside the perimeter of your garden, that deer will not cross it. they say deer don't like to stand on it. I haven't tried it but I think I will this spring when I plant my apple trees,

I heard the same thing! I hope it works for you.

When I was working on a organic fruit and veggie farm. They had 8ft fencing that had six strands of of electric ribbon on it around there new area of the orchid to keep out the dear. It worked well. One would figure how to get in once in a while But this fencing coverd a couple of acres allso.
Good luck!!

[Pigeon Lady]

We're going to go with the 8' fence. 5ft cattle panel with 3' hog panel above that.

We've watched our neighbor fence and re-fence with everything from the bright orange 'snow' fence to five foot fence topped with electic horse tape. The deer just sail right over the top of everything. Their dog pen -complete with noisy dog is right up next to the garden too.

Last year we tried a few strands of fishing line thinking the deer couldn't judge how high to jump. They figured it out in no time.

I had the most success with our little kitchen garden which is planted in the borders right up against the house. We think the porchlight has something to do with it. We left it off one night and all the hot pepper plants were eaten!

This year I also want to set up that awful singing fish MIL gave our son when he was a toddler. The one that sings "take me to the river" whenever something walks by.

Pauline

[Paul Wheaton]

The absolutely correct answer here is "it depends".

It depends on what your deer are like. It depends on what you are going to grow and when.

In some places/conditions a five foot fence is plenty. Or a four foot electric fence. In others, you will need a six foot physical barrier. In others, it needs to be eight feet. And in some cases, ten feet.

If you are going to experiment with a winter garden, or if you are growing baby apples trees (the young wood is winter deer candy) you gotta figure that your choice of barrier is going to be evaluated by an animal that is choosing between death by starvation and conquering your barrier. The electric shock isn't such a big deal then. Nor is chicken wire.

But if you are growing a summer garden and the deer has plenty of other munchies outside of your garden, well, your garden smells nice and all, but not worth dealing with the annoying zap or chicken wire.

I gotta heartily endorse the sentiment above about a dog. A good livestock guardian dog (LGD), such as a great pyr, makes a huge difference. A LGD plus a lesser fence could be better than a super fence. Because as the deer try to figure out the fence, the dog would run them off: death by starvation vs. death by dog.

Now, back to the electric fence stuff: If you go with the smelly caps, be sure to go around every few weeks to add new smellums. Test the charge regularly to make sure there is plenty of zap. Go around the fence every few weeks to chop down the weeds that might touch the wires. If you do the double fence thing, either do a round area, or make sure the corners have criss crossing wires - otherwise the deer just jump in at the corners (yes, they can figure that out).

The electric solutions are far cheaper, but require more maintenance and have less peace of mind.

I hope this helps!

[ginnie5]

if I ever need it this is what I plan on doing
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive...cken_moat.html

[turtlehead]

What do y'all use to support the really tall (> 5') fences?

[Ardie/WI]

DH set up a motion detector attached to a flood light and a radio in the garden. Deer and raccoons don't like light and music!

[fishhead]

I kept the deer out of my garden with 36" - 2" mesh chicken wire with an electric wire about 6" (42" from ground) over the top. I hung some tin foil strips with a dab of peanut butter on the wire to get the deer to lick it. For a charger I used one of those cheap pet chargers.

It worked great.