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Electric Fences

Started by RPeter, February 24, 2005, 02:40:23 PM

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RPeter

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.
"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."

J_T

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
Jim Holloway

Roxie

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.   :)
Say when

Patty

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.
Women are Angels.
And when someone breaks our wings....
We simply continue to fly ........
on a broomstick.....
We are flexible like that.

Jeff

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.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

old3dogg

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.

Roxie

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. 
Say when

Norm

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.

Ianab

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
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

Ernie

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
A very wise man once told me . Grand children are great, we should have had them first

redpowerd

mabie five or six strands of high tensile wire would work?
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

Jeff

Stranded fences are useless for deer.  A deer can get though a lot smaller opening then you would ever think.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

redpowerd

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.
NO FARMERS -- NO FOOD
northern adirondak yankee farmer

FiremanEd

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.
Full time Firefighter / Paramedic
WoodMizer LT300 as secondary, full time job.
AccuTrac Electric Edger

Minnesota_boy

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
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

Mike_Barcaskey

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
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

rbarshaw

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
Been doing so much with so little for so long I can now do anything with nothing, except help from y'all!
By the way rbarshaw is short for Robert Barshaw.
My Second Mill Is Shopbuilt 64HP,37" wheels, still a work in progress.

pigman

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
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

Quartlow

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!!!
Breezewood 24 inch mill
Have a wooderful day!!

chet

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 am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

etat

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.  



Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

farmerdoug

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. ???
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

KiwiCharlie

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.
Walk tall and carry a big Stihl.

old3dogg

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!!

Roxie

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. 
Say when

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