Fencing, sadly a need.

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Pakanohida, Mar 15, 2015.

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Fencing, sadly a need.

  1. 6' tall chain link

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. Willow / Bamboo/ Mock Orange or other plant walls.

    0 vote(s)
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  3. 4' Hogwire with electric wiring

    0 vote(s)
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  4. Combination

    25.0%
  5. Other, you missed something.

    75.0%
  1. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    My zone 1 perimeter is in need of a fence to keep the deer and fawns out. Money is always a serious issue, so with that in mind I am conducting an opinion poll of how to handle it. If you have other suggestions please post them below.
     
  2. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    16 views, 1 vote but with no comment. I r sad now.
     
  3. dreuky

    dreuky Junior Member

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    At our last place deer were a really problem and everyone in the valley had their favourite way of keeping bambi out of their vegie gardens. We had a 5foot high chicken mesh fence. Didn't look all that flash but it seemed to do the trick for us. Our neighbour swore by his electric fence. It was one strand of electric about three and a half feet above the ground. He had a much larger vegie garden than us and so chicken mesh was not practical. He ran it off of a portable unit that ran on 6 D cell batteries. I had the same unit for my horse and it was very economical. The batteries lasted about 6 months.
    When you only have one deer on the place it is really pretty but we found very quickly they bred up to a herd that was a real problem. We had no predators and no hunters so when we left the valley the herd was about 20 and we could not see that decreasing. In the Adelaide Hills (where we were) deer had escaped from deer farms, when the bottom fell out of the deer business, and are becoming a serious problem that no one seems to be prepared to do anything about. Good luck with your deer problem
     
  4. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    been too busy the past day to do much writing...

    think you missed something.

    for deer around here 6ft is not high enough, 7-8ft is ok. also hear that elk need higher fence,
    dunno if you have elk around...

    chainlink is very expensive.

    we adapted some recycled/reused old rusty fencing, see if you can find some to block the paths the deer are using to get into the property easily. we also used some old crappy fencing along one of the ditches that the deer cannot jump over because the would have to do it coming up out of the ditch at the same time. makes it a pain in the ass to do any work along that edge of the ditch though.

    i would much prefer a portable setup that is much more flexible like those used to move the rotational grazers around. of course will need to be much higher, but i see no reason why you would need more than the single electrified strand. the big advantage is that you can adjust it as you learn about the paths the critters are using to come in and as you fix or fill in with hedges, trees, rocks, or other barriers then after a while you can probably remove the fence or use it some other place. a large chain link fence is such a major investment and a fixed structure that i don't really consider it a good idea if you can avoid it via using other methods.

    currently the fence we have around the fenced veggie gardens and flower gardens is about 7-8ft and very flimsy and the deer don't go over it, but it doesn't always stop the rabbits or other smaller creatures including the raccoons that climb well over anything if they can smell something interesting inside (note that is a good reason to not compost or use fish emulsions if they are a problem as they can rip up plantings looking for what they think is a meal...) the deer don't have an easy jumping off point in very many spaces around the fence so we rarely see any tracks most of the year. once in a great while we get a deer that wanders through, but as of yet none have taken up habitual visitation. sharp rock piles are not things they like to walk over. wind chimes or other things that move and flash they don't like much either.

    can't say it will solve all problems 100%, but it is cheap enough and works well enough for me to be happy for now. if i do anything in the future it would be to add a better lower mesh to keep the rabbits, chipmunks from having an easy way in along with one strand of electrified wire to keep the climbers from going up and over. then perhaps i could grow corn again some time, but as of now it doesn't matter to me anyways as i don't really eat corn much, it would only be to add grain/grinding corn for meal if i needed more of a staple crop production to get through the winter months.

    there must be some references out there too. keep looking. : )
     
  5. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Hi, I have an 8 foot high/2.5 meter chicken wire fence that works great on deer. I ran the 4 foot role horizontally as the first layer up against pounded metal posts with extensions to get them up to 8 feet. The second horizontal layer of chicken wire was running parallel to the first. I used galvanized wire to twist around the metal poles and catch the chicken wire and secure it.

    The raccoons have figured out a way to climb this fence at the corner post, and get in and break fruit tree branches (I think going for the snails among the leaves) but I find hundreds of empty snail shells that they have helped me with, and that is after I have gone around and filled up empty yogurt containers with them and transported them out of there. Then I took barbed wire and zig-zagged in a 3 foot/1 meter zig-zag where the raccoon was climbing, that stopped him.

    I have several sacrificial rose bushes in the center of each length of chicken wire. Deer don't seem to be able to resist roses, and I can tell right away if the raccoon has squished the wire low enough for them to hop over. I also run a top line of bright pink or green construction string across the top of all the poles at the 8foot/2.5 meter level to show the quail that there is a chicken wire fence there, that barely shows up in low light levels, because at dusk and dawn Quail Number 12 can smack right into it when all the previous 11 made it over. Doesn't hurt to keep that top line bright for the deer as well. That string lasts several years and is not expensive.

    I can sleep at night very nicely now that the fence is in place, and it is worth every penny. However, the rabbits are very good at getting underneath it, so make sure your gates have extra chicken wire bent outwards to keep them out, and if you let some grass grow it will hold down the bottom layer of chicken wire and they can't lift it up and get under it.

    :)
     
  6. andrew curr

    andrew curr Moderator

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    Pallets ,spiky plants (yesterday i got an apple)) generally the possums/birds get all my fruit,,,,(said apple was protected by a yucca!!


    Hard to beat electric fencing,,, that said a deer stole my electric tape and reel He got excecuted by my bemused neigbhour!!
    Have you tried the bone juice???
     
  7. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    the trick for keeping digging animals out is to lay the fence on the ground outwards from the fence a ways and then cover it with your dirt or pathway material or whatever, so that when they dig they hit fence in the ground too. most are not smart enough to back up several feet and dig in from there.

    we have not had any of this sort of problem here because most areas around the fence are covered with crushed limestone and larger rocks that are very tough on animal paws to dig through or move. at least as of yet it is working ok for deer and diggers, but not climbers or the smaller rabbits that can push through the holes in the fence up higher than a foot. i was not with Ma when she bought the fencing or i would not have gotten it as i already know that rabbits can sneak through smaller spacs than you expect. you need a pretty small mesh size to keep rabbits out. even smaller if you want to discourage chipmunks/ground squirrels.
     
  8. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    This is how it's done in NZ

    [​IMG]
     
  9. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Paka, I forgot to mention, I attributed a lot of damage to deer when it was also the rabbits. They can stand on hind legs or get up on things and get quite high. I kept checking the fence to see where the deer were getting in, but it was the rabbits that were coming under, or even sneaking in at the end of the day when I had the gate wide open and they were coming out for dinner on the driveway.

    I also had a real attack of a pack rat chewing off limbs of even poisonous plants like oleander to make a nest with. It chewed almost every single shrub I had. When a pack rat chews it off it's a clean cut at a 45-degree angle. When the deer chew it off they always seem to leave a little strip of bark behind, especially on a fruit tree limb.

    Pebble, looks like lovely soil :)
     
  10. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    I figured I would post information on the nemesis. The Black Tail deer, learned a lot about it's habit such as my zone 5 it must utterly love. I should note my neighbor up the hill from me calls them all "Buddy" and feeds them corn by hand on occasion.

    Really, 6 d cells? Amazing.
     
  11. briansworms

    briansworms Junior Member

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    I would try the electric fence as a cheaper option. The Mock Orange would take too long to grow. Last option sit up at night and shoot the deer. Dead deer don't come back.
     
  12. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Paka, here is a short-term thing that worked for me for years before I got the chicken wire fence. Egg yolk spray. It isn't that it's stinky. There is a chemical in the eggs that mammals don't like. Spray every evening for the first 3 days, then only once a week, unless it rains. A 16 oz. kitchen-type hand sprayer covers a large garden. Use more egg yolks as the summer and fall arrive and their green food starts to disappear.

    1. Separate 3 yolks from the whites.
    2. Mix the yolks with a fork in about 1 cup of water
    3. Strain the yolk mixture through a fine mesh kitchen sieve, those half of a ball ones with the handle out the side
    clumps in the yolks will clogs the sprayer
    4. Pour the strained mixture into the sprayer, fill to the top with water
    5. Drip in 4 drops of cooking oil as a spreader/sticker
    6. Use a fine spray on all plants, making sure it dries before night-time condensation can get it.
    7. If you don't use it all, store it in the refrigerator
    8. Be sure to rinse the spray tube and sprayer head well, as the yolks can clog it if left in there

    9. A second layer of spray beyond the garden helps as well, especially on the paths where they enter the garden


    And like I mentioned, there are several other animals helping themselves, so shooting deer isn't going to solve much. Deer are the easiest ones to keep away. :)
     
  13. sweetpea

    sweetpea Junior Member

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    Paka, here is a short-term thing that worked for me for years before I got the chicken wire fence. Egg yolk spray. It isn't that it's stinky. There is a chemical in the eggs that mammals don't like. Spray every evening for the first 3 days, then only once a week, unless it rains. A 16 oz. kitchen-type hand sprayer covers a large garden. Use more egg yolks as the summer and fall arrive and their green food starts to disappear.

    1. Separate 3 yolks from the whites.
    2. Mix the yolks with a fork in about 1 cup of water
    3. Strain the yolk mixture through a fine mesh kitchen sieve, those half of a ball ones with the handle out the side
    clumps in the yolks will clogs the sprayer
    4. Pour the strained mixture into the sprayer, fill to the top with water
    5. Drip in 4 drops of cooking oil as a spreader/sticker
    6. Use a fine spray on all plants, making sure it dries before night-time condensation can get it.
    7. If you don't use it all, store it in the refrigerator
    8. Be sure to rinse the spray tube and sprayer head well, as the yolks can clog it if left in there

    9. A second layer of spray beyond the garden helps as well, especially on the paths where they enter the garden


    And like I mentioned, there are several other animals helping themselves, so shooting deer isn't going to solve much. Deer are the easiest ones to keep away. :)
     
  14. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Can't shoot it without repercussions from my neighbor that feeds them by hand. He's a WW2 vet whose mental faculties are leaving him, maybe when he passes on to the great compost pile, but for now that is not an option even though I can get free tags to hunt deer due to the amount of fruit trees on the property.
     
  15. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    Just wait till you see your first deer climbing a tree. LOL

    I forgot bone juice!



    A lot to think about. Sweetpea, thank you also, I wonder if chemically there is something similar between the bone juice and egg spray.
     
  16. Curramore1

    Curramore1 Junior Member

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    Paka, we have plenty of deer here from Red, to Rusa and Fallow. I use an 8' electric fence set on an angle. The 4 wires are spaced at 20" intervals, but set on an angle they appear to be closer to the deer. The supports are 2" black poly pipe with holes drilled for the 1.6mm galvanised wire, spaced 50 feet apart. The fence is sloped away from the paddock you wish to protect. I run a 10000Volt bipolar pulse with the bottom and second from the top wire on one polarity and the second from the bottom on another polarity. That is so that when they touch two wires they get a double whammy. The energisers cost about $600.00 Australian here and are rated at 400 km of fence and are able to run both on 12V with a solar charger or on mains power. The deer can feel the pulse and they always test the fence by putting their noses near so you have to have them on at all times. We make a lot of venison and mutton patties and sausages here. Electric fencing tends to lower the amount of pilfering by two legged mammals as well, but we don't really mind, they must be really hungry to come and steal my fruit.
    The egg spray has worked for us in forestry plantings as long as we re-coat every two weeks and after rains.
     
  17. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    That's a problem in a temperate rainforest. I can go over a month with nonstop rains.
     
  18. Bryant RedHawk

    Bryant RedHawk Junior Member

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  19. Tchaka

    Tchaka New Member

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    My husband built a 7-strand, 7' high electric fence around our acre of garden and orchard. It keeps the deer and other large pests out. He used 5 strands of high-tensile wire and two strands of tape. Rabbits have gotten through it in winters past, but we are gradually installing a chicken moat around the perimeter of the space, on the inside of the electric fence, so if/when we ever get it finished there will be no way for smaller varmints to get in. The fence for the moat is 40" high chain link- two runs of it set 6' apart. Only have about 100' of it installed so far- using free/scavenged fencing to keep the cost down, but have used up most of my stash at this point. Need to get busy and find more of it.

    Another method which I have read abut, but never tried, would be to set two runs of 4' high fence (hog wire, or field fencing, would work for this) parallel to one another with a 4' space between them. The deer (supposedly) will not jump into such a narrow space because it does not give them much room to maneuver in to get back out. Don't know if the deer have read the same materials as I have, lol.
     
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  20. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    This deer fence (at the right side of the photo) was constructed of four foot tall poultry fencing, one above the other, stitched along the seam with monel wire. Railroad ties for the corner supports, T-posts covered with pvc pipe for support in between, 12" buried as Pebble illustrated above. Cheap, easy, effective (the exposed height is 7 feet). Has stood the test of time as it's over 7 years old now. I have one cat that can claw his way up the ties and maneuver his way past the overhanging bit, but he's been the only animal penetration vector so far. The fence encloses about a half acre. It's also quite the water catchment system as evidenced by the heavy frost!
    [​IMG]
     

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