Just thought I would post some pictures from my trail camera, of deer in the orchard. Some pictures of the deer were before I put the orchard out. One picture is of a buck with a trash bag stuck on his antler.
I don’t envy you- what a pain!
Looks like some pest control is needed.
Those piles of corn are not how you keep them out
I feed the deer for about 3 years. Then the property next door sold, and the guy is building a huge house. He also cut the back woods down. So, I decided to start a orchard. The “Deer Buffet is official closed” No more free hand outs.
Those are some solid cages for your trees. I started with 4 ft high chicken wire cages, but they were a little too short and several of my trees got their tops nibbled. I upgraded to 5 ft 2x4 in welded wire cages, wired to a single t-post. So far so good for everything inside the cages. I wish I’d made the cages a bigger diameter though. Most are 16-18 inches across, so I can’t start establishing scaffold branches until quite high up. I also wrap the bases in strips of aluminum window screen in the winter to keep rodents at bay.
O my gosh, it looks like a petting zoo. Hope your dogs have had their lime shots!
At first, I tried bird netting, but the limbs just got caught up in the trees. I went out and bought a couple of rolls of hog fence (4’ high) and lifted them off the ground. I can now trim under the trees, prune, and reach through the fence to graft them. They will out grow the fence in a couple of years.