Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] deer fencing

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Rain Tenaqiya <raincascadia@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] deer fencing
  • Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 12:56:13 -0700 (PDT)

First of all, Home Depot is an evil box store that drains money out of the
local community- not a very good permaculture practice to shop there.

Deer vary tremendously in their behavior around fencing. Sometimes two
little four foot barriers about 4 ft apart will work, sometimes a 6 ft fence,
sometimes an 8ft fence. The topography and vegetation also affects how
effective a fence is. If the deer are on the downhill side of a fence on a
slope, it is harder for them to jump it. Tree branches along the fenceline
and above the fence also reinforce the barrier. Deer don't seem to care
about getting shocked unless the power is ridiculously high. You end up
having to build a full-on metal fence anyway.

If you have money to buy lots of fence posts and wire fencing like what
Larry described, it could be the best long-term solution, although in the
West, 6ft fencing usually works by itself if you stretch another wire a foot
above it. Sometimes another wire a foot above that is necessary. The
relatively new plastic deer fencing is very effective and requires fewer
posts. It lasts a long time, especially in the shade, is invisible, and can
be recycled. It generally needs to be pinned to the ground every so often.
I would say this is superior to metal fencing where you have lots of trees
around already. I have used it on deer freeways in suburbia and have had no
problems.

My friend has problems with rabbits, wild pigs, and bobcats, so she's using
three feet 2 in guage chicken wire on the bottom portion of the fence, with
one foot of it laying on the outer portion of the ground. It hangs from a
wire stretched along posts put in about 15 ft or more apart. Then she
stretches another wire at 7 or 8 ft and hangs 6 ft or higher plastic mesh
deer fencing (it looks like bird netting and is cheaper than the stuff
mentioned above). This is a very effective and cheap method. I am thinking
about doing something similar, only I plan to get 8 ft high plastic deer mesh
and cut it in half, resulting in a 6ft high fence that I can string one or
two wires above to increase the effective height. My place is on a plateau
so that the deer are below the fence and have to jump higher to clear it.

I don't like having noisy, hungry, and stinky dogs around, but if you like
dogs and can train one well, it can keep all sorts of creatures away, if that
is what you want. And if you feed it foods from the site, it could be a much
more sustainable option than an energy-intensive fence.

Good luck,

Rain


---------------------------------
Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates
starting at 1&cent;/min.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page