On Thu, 03 Apr 2003 16:57:19 GMT, Wayne wrote:

i have tried everything! now, i am ready to put up an electric fence
to keep them out. any advice would be greatly appreciated. how high
does an electric fence need to be? 4 feet? 6 feet? 8 feet? and
how far apart do the strands of wire need to be? 6"? 12"?

There is no point putting strands of 'hot wire' above about four feet
since the deer will have its feet off the ground and will not get
shocked. I have three strands of tape (instead of wire) because it
has better visibality and flutters in the breeze. They are placed at
approximately 16", 32", & 48" from the ground. {You can also run a
ground wire between the strands of hot wire and that will allow
'airborne' animals to get a shock (though they may wreck the fence the
first time, they probably won't try it a second time)). I then have
a strand of twine at about 60" (above the last hot strand). I also
run a single strand of twine (not electrified) at 24" high on separate
posts about two feet outside the electric fence. The purpose of this
strand it to make deer 'uncomfortable' standing near the electric
fence where they would gather themselves to make a jump over the much
higher fence.

I found this approach much cheaper than constructing a sturdy, six
foot wire fence (folks in elk country need an even taller, stronger
fence. Don't know about keeping out moose...

This has worked very well for me. We have lots of deer and in the
autum when things get dry they eat everything that isn't protected
(except the juniper bushes).

Best of luck. Remember, YMMV.

Jim