Deer Fence

Nice project.

Here in Florida the deer are small; a 6' fence works OK.

I would make a couple of these bear cut outs and hang them in the pen....

May as well cover the top at that height. Then you can keep out the birds and squirrels, too!

Thanks for sharing your project.

Not so fast. I made a fully enclosed "tree jail" out of 4x4's and chicken wire mesh. The top of it has 1/2" PVC electrical conduit to give it a nice curved shape. The chicken wire covers the top and is 100% "sewn" together. My wife's lychee tree is inside. The tree is about 12' tall and all of the chicken wire is "sewn" together with wire. The chicken wire extends about 6" under ground. I spent 3 days and about $250 to protect about $50 of my wife's fruit. For the third year in a row 100% of the fruit is gone before it ripens. I have carefully inspected the enclosure many times and it is 100% secure. Squirrels in Florida have evil powers and use black magic to get into any enclosure you put in your yard.

Have you checked the neighbors fruit bowl

Here (in Mauritius) is about Bats v/s Lychees. They take a toll. And we have orchards of this fruit which we also export. How to combat these is to cull the bats (a protected species) which noone wants to do obviously. So in the recent years, very big nets are used to cover EACH and every tree, if the grower can afford this.

In your case, electrifying the enclosure might be a solution.

I may have to cover it if the turkeys decide to fly in. That's the other critter I have to deal with here. All of my squirrel, chip monks and other crawly types tend to sucumb to lead poisoning (22caliber type)!

I thought about your avatar, I really wonder what was on the leash. Could be a dog or deer but hey, nice for the chickens- trapped free range chickens

Hey, nice venison trap! Too bad you can't shoot the king's deer.

http://www.treehelp.com/scarecrow-animal-deterrent/

One of these would have chased the deer away and any other animals that would get in your garden.

Almost any animal I think the kids or grandkids would have fun with it.

I have 7 dogs in a kennel that the deer get within 20ft of...they don't care! A bear cutout or scare crow would keep them back for a few minutes. These guys are pretty tame.

Tame or bold?!?! Or maybe really hungry?

Well you had the best solution to the deer problem and didn't use it. If you took one of those dogs and put it on a chain over night. Then each night moved it around the deer would soon not come around. That dog coming out of the darkness at a different spot every night would make them weiry to come close to the property. Right now they know where the kennel is and the limits of the dogs. Then again you just said dogs. The dogs could be chihuahuas. Not very fearful to a deer.

The dogs are Australian Labradoodles http://singingtreelabradoodles.com and they are wroth too much to stake them out at night! That's a bit cruel. And deer carry deer ticks which I don't want my dogs near!

Okay that explains the lack of attention the deer are giving the dogs.

You don't think ticks can't craw 20 feet.

The area around the kennel is treated to keep the ticks away...been working for several years now.

Scorched Earth policy? LOL!!!!

Close..it's actually diatomaceous earth...kills all crawly things...put around the foundation keeps ants away too.

Breakfast is served....

Rudolf wants your veggies!

The typical deer around here are good for about 7ft. NO rudolf sized here!

I see many meals.....problem solved with a deer rifle.

haha this one's probably an olympic high jump champion, exceptionally talented.Nice one OM

Below is a picture of the garden at my place of employment. We have a 'garden club' where like minded people grow veggies and the like. We have many deer in the area. We are able to keep the deer out of the garden with just two strands of electric fence on temporary fiberglass posts. We use that polypropylene with wire strands for light weight.

http://www.amazon.com/Fi-Shock-PW1320Y6-FS-6-Strand-Polywire-1320-Feet/dp/B00AZA1PCW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1434490241&sr=8-3&keywords=electric+fence+wire

The first strand is about knee height and the second strand is about waist height. We put the zap box on a timer so it only comes on at night as the deer won't (generally) come around during the day. They do not seem to want to jump over the yellow line. I think they come up to it, sniff it and get a snoot-full then stay away. The raccoons and rabbits can still be a problem but the fox usually do a pretty good job of controlling the bunny population.

Yes, you had better cover the veggie pen as well. You need to fend off birds, racoons, opossums, chipmunks, and squirrels too.

Two years ago I was out on the back deck sipping my morning mug of Joe and watched a good sized buck sail right over our 6-foot tall wood stockade fence, with room to spare. I had to open the back gate so he could get out of the back yard. He had trampled all of my blueberry, elderberry, and black raspberry plants.

A pack of dogs had been chasing it...

wont they go over the door which looks lower than the whole fence. Why leave a gap in the whole thing?

There is now some "decoration" over the door to keep it at the same height as the fence. Just had not done that yet when I took the picture.

Thats kinda small for a garden, compared to the rest of the yard.

If I had a yard that big, I would put up a 12 foot high steel chain link fence.

Not only would it keep the deer out, it would last 30 years and you could grow a large variety of fruits and vegetables.

I'm too old and have too many other projects to have a larger garden! I have 50 acres here, I'm not about to make the whole thing into a garden!

Tom,

50 acres! WOW!!!

I will be happy when I get my 15' x 30' garden ready. Too late for this year so I will continue working on it so I can plant next year.

Nice project.

Fifty Acres ! Thats not a garden, that's a farm. Have you seen the growth in the production of Asian veggies ?

Here in riverside county 20 years ago it was a $ 28 k industry, now it's grown to over $ 285 million & quite a lot is being exported to china.

The man's sitting on a gold mine.

It's not all field...maybe 10 acre in field the rest is wooded...I cut my own fire wood.

Wow man. that is a great place.

Plus if it's like a lot of places in Maine, Tom could probably harvest enough rock to build a sizable cathedral.

You've got that right! They had to blast the ledge to put the foundation of the house below ground level. As I mentioned about the fence, the posts are driven about 12 to 18" until I hit the ledge under that garden! I tilled it with my backhoe and was constantly hitting the ledge. I have rocks in every size and shape and doubt that I'll run out soon!

12 to 18 inches of soil? I'm impressed. You're one of the lucky ones.

As a creative do it myself kinda guy I enjoy seeing the projects that other creative people do. I appreciate it when it is detailed out and the creator (you) explains why you did something a certain way. When you do that, it brings out the creativity in myself and helps me when I want to do a project just like or similar to yours.

Why couldn't Santa's Rudolph and Blitzen sell all their stuff on Ebay?

They were too dear! (boo...)

jt.

I feel for you Tom. When I had my property in Oregon I ended up have to put up an 11 ft. fence around my garden. I started with a 6 ft. electric, which was a joke, they didn't even break stride going over it. Then I went with an 8 ft. chicken wire fence and manged to corral a couple Does. After that I put up the 11 ft and put a stop to the salad bowl. What I didn't understand, I had 5 acres of planted alfalfa maybe 30 yards away from my garden and they still insisted on eating my garden

Looks good Tom, had a similar one when I lived in Ohio, though not as tall or well made, mine was 4x4's with chicken wire. I did off set it about 3 feet though, all around, to provide side access.