Deer and Electric Fences?

[Ted Brown]

Can electric fences deter deer?

What equipments and configuration (height, number of electrified strands, etc?) is needed?

Thank you.

 

[Gray Farms]

It would need to be around 6 feet tall or they can still jump it. 12" spaces of strands should work.

 

[Howard E]

Ted:

Never built one.....never seen one.....but this is what I hear actually does work for deer......and it's not what you would think.

 

[centrarchid]

Ted:

Never built one.....never seen one.....but this is what I hear actually does work for deer......and it's not what you would think.

I do like the logic behind how such a fence may work. We have research plots at work where the fence is 6 feet high and a strand or two going back over outer perimeter. That setup much more costly than version shown in video above.

 

[ocap]

my electric fence was 40 inches (one meter) with seven charged wires. Only had one deer cross (that I saw), they prefer to go around

 

[cmom]

My brother uses electric wire for his horses. They know it's there and don't come too close to the wire but he has seen a bear going across in his pasture.

 

[MountainGaurdian]

At my last foster parents ranch we built an 18 foot post and field wire fence to keep the deer out and they got into the garden regularly.

I have used electric for years on my horses but it has no effect on the deer they simply jump over it. The elk and moose simply walk through it and string a quarter mile of wire across my hay field dragging it along with them as they walk through the field. Thankfully it doesn't break my wire I bought 3 miles of the heaviest gauge wire I could find and use that now, it holds up to them but there is no way to keep the wire in place when a 1,500 pound elk or a 2,500 pound moose walks through it. It also doesn't manage to keep any of the free range cows out either, by mid august I just have to pull the fence in or the cattle tear it down every day to get to my ponds for water.