We are reforesting about 10 acres of our property this spring. We are planting a mixture of hardwoods. In my area of PA we have a deer problem. Has anyone used electric fencing on their property / forest land to keep out critters? If you have I could use some info on what type, how many strands at what height etc.
Would think it would cost a ton to fence out deer ??? It would have to be tall and stout too. Here deer either jump them or go thure them good luckSome even put white rags on them every so far apart in hope's the see it first :D :D
I'm from PA, and I've seen deer clear fences that are six feet high. Easily. Have you considered a safe chemical detterent, like Bobbex? It is natural (coyote urine) and it is safe to all pets and wildlife, but the deer just eat somewhere else because they smell that coyote. If the deer are really hungry, they could ignore the smell, but I'm thinking in Cumberland County there are plenty of other places for them to eat. That's a pretty rural community. :)
Electric fence doesn't even slow the deer down here in Iowa. Like elsewhere, they either jump it or just go through it. They are a real problem.
It would also be a maintenance nightmare, keeping it clear of grounding debris.
You will need the same kind of fence to keep a deer out as you would to keep one in. Probably at least 9 or 10 foot page wire.
Search deer fencing in google and you get a lot of info.
You have deer in PA? Where?
We hunted for 2 weeks this year and saw two very small doe! >:(
The "game comission" wants you to think that the deer are over populated but ask any hunter and they will tell you different.
Oh my! If you are searching for deer in PA, I invite you to come sit on my back deck and take your pick! Yesterday in the pasture, Cowboy Bob and I counted 8 doe. Those are the ones we could SEE! They had cleared a six foot electric fence and were keeping the livestock company.
My feeling is not that the deer population has grown, per se, but the development is pushing them into more consolidated areas.
About the only thing fence wise that will keep deer out is woven wire 8' high minimum.
Mike too bad you live so far away I'd invite you over to help keep the population down at our farm. About a week or two ago, before the last snow melted, I counted 25 in our back field that we don't fall plow. There was a couple of nice bucks in with them but most were does.
I would like to see us have a season that's a couple of months long that is along the lines of our pheasant season. Each tag costing something like 5 or 10 bucks, heck since I'm the one feeding em I should get the money not the state.
Deer farms in NZ are required by law to have 8' wire netting type fences, anything less a deer will clear without even needing a run up. ;) We had a couple of escaped deer roaming over our farm and several neighbours places, standard and electric cattle and sheep fencing didn't even slow em down.
The was a thread here a while back about leaving tree tops piled up in the logged forest, kept the deer away from the seedlings untill they got above browse height.
Otherwise, yeah I see your problem. Deer are murder on small trees. Luckily here they are officially a noxious pest and will be shot on sight, that seem to protect the trees best.
Ian
Electric fencing is very common in NZ. We have no worries about being prosecuted if someone gets zapped, I know this is a problem in some countries. Try this link for various fence configurations, it might be of interest
http://gallagher.co.nz/nzl/type.permanent.aspx
Ernie
mabie five or six strands of high tensile wire would work?
Stranded fences are useless for deer. A deer can get though a lot smaller opening then you would ever think.
electrified?
ive seen what them overgrown rodents can crawl through. high tensle might stand up to a high speed deer. they also might figger the fence is hot and eat someplace less shocking.
We have good friends who raise commercial strawberries, the only fence they've found to keep deer out are 10' posts set at about 45-60% angle leaning out. Then putting electric (the highest powered you can get) power to a strand of wire every 12-15" up that post. The final product is about 7-8' high but angled so steeply towards the deer that they don't try to jump it. They have about 50 acres fenced like this and have virtualy 0 damage by deer, unless someone forgets to close the gate.
Groundhogs are another story,, their teenage grandson sets up around the patch almost daily w/ his trusty .223 and he stays busy.
This fence is VERY expensive, probably costing 2 or 3 times what the reforestation expenses will be.
Our neighbor had good luck with an electric fence around his garden, but he started by training the deer. He hung a cob of corn from the wire. The deer would come to that and put their nose out to sniff the cob of corn and learn quickly what an electric fence is. Problem solved. The next year he didn't even need the fence, the deer wouldn't even come close to where it had been. :D
We have some apple trees up in Mercer County, young ones, 2 more years to produce
tons of deer, seen 89 spotting this fall in our fields on neighboring farm killed 12 off the farm this year
we keep them out of the orchard with two strands of electric fence, knee and waist high.
We ringed the orchard areas with the fence that is powered by a solar unit. every couple of weeks we smear peanut butter on the wires (turn it off first)
the deer come up to the fence, lick it and dont come back for a long time.
I was up there last week with snow on the ground and you can see the deer prints coming up to about 20 feet from the fence then turning and not getting any closer. Not a print close to or inside the fencing
Haven't had any buds eaten since we started smearing peanut butter on the wire
If your hunting and put the but of your gun on the electric fence to push it down so you can step over, don't let it slip half way across :o :o :o . My cousin did this in the 70's and I don't think he's right yet. :D
The secret to any electric fence is the charger. I used cheap chargers for years and always had cows getting through the fence. >:( Bought a Gallagher from Ernie's homeland and no trouble in the last 10 years. 8) Deer will jump the wire or crawl under but they won't go between the wires.
I have touched the fence a few times :o and I see why animals stay away from it. The shock did nothing to help my mental illness. :o
Bob
Best adcice I can give you about an electric fence is
DO NOT PEE ON IT!!!![/color]
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Trust me on this one!!!
Quartlow,
What ya got ta do is pee while standin' on one leg and it won't bite ya. It's a groundin' thing. Trust me. ;D
I had one a them high power chargers. I had it run just about head high over a gate one time and it caught my dad in the forehead. It knocked him cold and I thought for a minute it'd killed him. A couple a times I got against it and you'd think yer heart was going to stop. I finally did away with it and put up 6 strands of bobwire.
The thing is, deer would still ocassionally go through it and knock the wire lose or short it out. Lots a times they don't stop to look, they just hit it wide open and then it's too late fer the fence. I had one go through it and get inside my yard, which had mostly cattle wire all the way around it at the time. The dang thing got all exicited and couldn't find it's way out and give itself out before it figured out it oughta be a jumping, or go out the way it come in. It was just a little one and I didn't have the heart to shoot it after the show it'd put on so me and the wife and kids opened the gate to the driveway and hearded it out. Dang thing was all beat up and it's nose was all bloody from hitting that cattle wire.
I reckon them goats I had could smell that hot wire every time it shorted out. I had about 30 head or so of them boar goats and one day I got mad and loaded em up and sold every dang one of em.
Bought a small herd of Bramahs. A couple of em would ocassionally take a notion to try to kill ya and a couple of em could jump a 6 strand barbwire fence as good as any deer could. I had a big ole bramah bull that knocked my dad about 30 foot or so one time and I decided I better weed em out and sell off the bad ones before they killed somebody.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10913/ckjethro.JPG)
If you run wire for the fence make sure it is the heavy kind as them deer steal the 12 gauge wire 50 feet at a time when we had cattle. One winter when I was a kid we yarded the beef in a small woodlot. We fenced in an area 10X20 feet with woven wire cattle fence 9 feet high to store the hay in for a few days of feeding. If you want to be in a rodeo you should try to get a deer out of there after it has jumped in. To make things worst the bull with the herd hated deer so when you opened the gate to try to get the deer out he would stand there and dare that deer to come out to see him. If it would have happened during deer season we would have had alot of venison. I had to get 10 different deer out of that pen that winter. ???
Hi Quartlow,
Oh what memories your post brings back!! :o :D Been there. done that. You learn quick growing up on a farm!
As the saying goes - Experience is a hard teacher, she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards!
Cheers
Charlie.
Hi Roxie.
There are still deer in PA and I suppose in certian ares there are more.I can still remember spoting deer as a teenager and seeing as many as 50 in one field.Now we are lucky to see 4 or 5.
Where is Oxford PA?
Norm.
If you keep handing out those invites you just may see me pull in the drive way one of these days!Tell you what.I will come out and keep your deer population under control but you have to cook em!!
Old3dogg.....hey back at ya! Oxford is in Chester County, about a mile from the Maryland line. I grew up in this area all my life and I've never seen as many deer as I do today. But again, I wonder if development in the area isn't pushing the same numbers into smaller places making them more visible. The hunting is real good for Chester County and Cecil County in Maryland. I have heard from hunters that go to the Pocono's that the deer seem to be diminishing.
We are over run with the beggars too. The yuppie acreage owners howl about hunting and killing Bambi until they nail one with the beemer. We are now seeing mountain lions as they are following the deer along the river valleys from the mountains.
There was an apple orchard here that put up 10 foot high page wire to keep deer out. That was after they shot about 6 deer I think. They were eating the apple flower buds. I don't think they electrified the fence either. It cost a fortune and I think they got assistance from government to save their orchard.
Went to a VA dept of Ag display a few years ago. The had a beautiful vegetable garden growing right in the middle of the woods with no fence. When I ask how they kept the deer out, they showed me their solution.
4 foot T post with an old nylon stocking hanging on it with a bar of Irish Spring soap in them. They were spaced about every 10 feet around the garden display.
DR_BUCK....I heard on the news a week or so ago that your county was named the county with the cleanest air in the country. :) Must be a nice place to live!
Dr_Buck,
My father did that with his pear trees and the deer kept on nibling the buds. >:(
We use electric fences to contain our cattle, but the deer just hop over and come and go as they please. Occasionally they get messed up and tear one down, especially one that hasn't been up long.
Twenty years or so ago, during a busy planting season, we had a bull trying to get into a feeder cattle pen. My brother hung a weed chopper in a little-used shed on my barn, and just hung the wire up the quickest way he could to get power out to the fence. A few mornings later, a storm came up as I was doing my morning feeding. I ducked into the north end of the shed, and walked to the south end to watch the storm. After a while the door blew open on the other end, and I started back to close it. Bam! I was on my knees wondering just what the heck had happened! For just a little while, I was utterly convinced I had been hit by lightning. It was odd, though, because I was pretty sure I was still alive, but I heard no thunder, and if I was alive, I thought I should hear something! Finally, I looked up, and there was that DanG wire. ::) It had caught me just under my cap bill, and gave me a really good whack. I found a proper route for it real quick. :D
Faron,
Those weed choppers are extremely dangerous. My Brother killed a 1600lb Charoiais cow with one of those things. :o They wood constantly short out on things and build up amps trying to burn them off and get real dangerous.
Bob- kin to a killer
Bob, Yes, and I have seen more than one fire started by them. These new low impedence (or is it high impedence, I forget) chargers are far superior to anything in the past. They sure hurt if you accidentially get into one, though.
On the farm I grew up on, we had a pool that was sectioned off from the cow pasture by an electric fence. Teenage boys used to slip down to the pool for a midnight skinny dip when it was really hot. One night my girl friend and I decided to sneek down and steal their clothes. In order not to be noticed we came from the west, and had to jump over the fence which was downhill from our launch point. I cleared it easily, but my friend slipped in the WET grass and sat on the electric barbed wire fence. :D Her shorts were stuck to it, and you never heard so much squalling in your life!
This is my Dad after the calamity was under control...... smiley_smash
I hate electric fences. Have ever since I crossed one and overestimated the length of my legs :o >:( ::)
:D :D Yer supposed ta stand on yer tippy toes when strattlin' dem things.
After a night of frog hunting, my high school buddy underestimated the length of his legs as well. We were, naturally, pretty wet, and being dark, we could see the sparks jumping down his legs every time that thing hit. :D :D :D All he could manage for several seconds was to jump in the air, but every time he came right back down on the fence. Finally he managed to fall over, and get loose. Since he was our good friend, my brother and I helped him by getting out of the way and laughing. ;D
Our farm was pretty close to town when we were kids, so our friends would sometimes come out and tag along while we did our chores. We had a couple of air rifles with metal frames and cocking levers with wooden stocks. We checked fences with them by holding the stock and shorting the fence to a post. Invariably our friend would think that was pretty neat, and want to try it. They almost always grabbed the cocking lever and...... :o ;D :D 8) 8) Wasn't very nice, was it?
If you watch farm dogs in NZ they always run around with their tails held low to the ground.... :D
Watching the young ones learn the reason for doing this is often amusing, although you do feel sorry for them :D
One of our dogs managed to touch a live wire over a drinking trough with her ears while getting a drink... direct path through the ears and out the tounge :o . After she came back down to earth the look she gave us.... "but I wasn't doing anything wrong"
Our fence energiser was one of the late model Gallager ones, digital readouts, remote controls and LOT of power. If it was driving into a short circuit someplace out on the farm you could hear the wires vibrate on each pulse. It sure improved the standard of my fence repairing tho, no place for sloppy twisted together connection. If you didn't have a good clamped joins on the main feeds it would just arc and burn through the wire in a few weeks.
Ian
I fenced my punkin patch with two strands of white fence ribbon. One strand at 32" and one at 48". I didn't think it would stop them and was setup to put another strand at 16" and one at 64" but I never had another problem 8) I still can't hardly believe it worked but my fence supplier said that the white tape fluttering in the breeze is just as good a deterent as the current in it. This was a 1 acre patch of ground. A 10 acre woodlot would be a different story