This explains the testing for CWD in Tennessee.
https://www.tn.gov/twra/hunting/cwd/cwd-testing-and-results.html
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I live in a subdivision, and we have restrictions on fencing here, although there are lots of deer. I also have a small car, and I am inept with tools. I discovered the “48 inch Retriever step through exercise pen” at Tractor Supply for 80 bucks makes a perfect prebuilt tree fence. Easy setup, take down, and one panel is a small gate you can squeeze through. It is pegged to the ground and you do need to use all the provided pegs. They are an expensive but easy solution. They look nice enough to please the neighbors and have worked well for me since I only have a few trees. An extra plus has been that I can take the fence down pretty easily for shoveling mulch or whatnot. You do still have to protect the tree trunks as well. I found out the hard way that rabbits can fit through the wire mesh even though almost anyone would guess that they couldn’t.
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I waited a bit long to add this in but am glad I came back to find out about CWD. I did not know about it and we do have it here.
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Thank you for sharing pictures of your fence!!
I did wonder how people with larger orchards managed to keep deer away. Also curious about deterring racoons and squirrels. (And curious about birds. Though I imagine those would be a bigger problem for berries).
Based on this:
I am also wondering if you wish you had gone a different route? I understand that now that you’ve invested in the fence you have, it doesn’t make sense to change. Would having electric at the top deter raccoons and squirrels?
@clarkinks do you have problems with deer getting your trees? I have many older, taller trees like yours, but deer last year ate bark off them in spring and damaged a bunch of younger trees too. Do you have problems with racoons and squirrels?
When I drive by some very large growers in my area, they seem to have just a plain 4’-5’ barbed wire, wood, or wire mesh fence around their orchards - which seems unbelievable to me as the number of deer is insane here - but also those orchards have very little cover so maybe they prefer my house where they can hide in the trees and long grass? Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing.
I would like to plan a fence for both my veggie garden and orchard area (with now about 45 fruit trees) - which does not have near as many trees as some here, but more than a small number and I would have to fence about 2 acres with approx 1,500 feet of fence. If I did just the garden it would be about 300ft of fence.
So I’d love to hear about other people’s fences and get advice. The individual cages are really too much of a pain for me to be willing to use them on every tree and not really practical for the garden. I want to start planning my fence now so I can save for it and put in part or posts as I am able.
Thoughts I already have: I think 6’ is too short as I’ve watched deer jump my neighbors 6’ deer fence and they made it look easy. So I guess it will be 8 feet to be cautious or perhaps adding electric to the top would be sufficient if it is shorter?
I was not going to plan for electric, but now I’m considering it. I’ve used electric livestock fences at work, but don’t know how to plan for a fence to zap deer or racoons or squirrel - I assume there’d be a grounded wire and a live wire?
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Deer browse my lower branches at times or pick on small trees. My full size trees really work out good against them. Using callery rootstock for pears is highly effective. The bark becomes very tough and the taste is repulsive to deer.
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You may find this thread helpful and there’s more about Olpea’s fence system, including a hot wire to deter racoons, et.al : Solar Electric Fence Charger - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
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That’s a good question. For the most part, I don’t wish I’d gone a different route. But…I do wish I would have just gone with a 4’ horse fence, with an electric wire at 4’, then gone with barbed wire every 8" above that till 7.5’ at the highest point. That pretty much describes my fence, except that my fence only has a 30" horse fence and has a 4’ field fence.
The field fence would have been unnecessary if I would have gone with a 4’ horse fence.
Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the fence. It seems to help keep people thieves out because it looks rather intimidating. It keeps deer out. It keeps 90% of coons out. It keeps no possums or skunks out. They dig under the fence. But possums don’t destroy nearly as much fruit as coons, and skunks don’t destroy any fruit.
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Commercial growers have different needs than home growers and most home growers I work with don’t want to install an electric fence capable of deterring climbers.
The damage that buck did is not something I see here in the scores of orchards I install and manage. We have white tail dear and a 14 gage fence ring around the trunk has always proved affective at discouraging buck rubs. The big boxes carry galvanized of this thickness but also carry something lighter that is plastic coated. I did get serous buck damage at one site with this fencing but at others it worked well. Wildlife behaves differently from site to site.
Squirrels and coons I repel successfully at many many sites with baffles and have for decades now. Squirrels vary in their ability or willingness to leap past a given height. I’ve had 4.5 feet of straight trunk circled with roofing coil work but at at least one site they jumped over 6’ to board trees. I had to remove a lot of lower branches, but you can’t do that after the fact with peaches.
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Thank you! the info in that thread is really great and pretty much answers all my questions (so far) about electric.
I actually laughed out loud reading about everyone who kept touching their own fence to see how well it worked. I have fenced a lot of cow and horse pastures and hit enough fences accidently that I will be skipping that step…
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With the number of trees I’ve got (now 50+ and most are standard/large pears) and the acreage they’re on (about 2 - but there are some outside of that), I feel like I’m mixing and matching between what home growers do and what (smaller) commercial growers do. I have to imagine some of your clients are similar.
I can understand if you’re very wealthy on a fancy property though, you might not want to look at an electric fence or deal with it. I’m in a less wealthy ag area, and while I don’t want an ugly fence, I couldn’t afford the beautiful looking fence I drive by sometimes. I also have been around electric fence enough that I don’t mind it.
I am definitely considering this as part of my strategy! I’ve seen your baffle pictures on other threads. I just think that at some point I have so many trees that by the time I’ve protected each one I might as well just build a fence. I know a fence won’t 100% prevent squirrel/racoon/possum damage - but it sounds like from @Olpea 's experience physical fence + electric will reduce it.
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Deer! I just want to complain as well as plan my fence. So if you don’t want to hear my complaints avoid this post!
Yesterday, I watched a (large doe) stand on it’s hind legs with it’s front feet against an apple tree and munch on a watershoot about 5.5 feet up while my dog stood 10 feet away and barked at it.
A couple months ago, I watched two bucks fight under my pear trees - it was kind of like a nature show… and also could have done real damage. Later, I went out and saw that one had rubbed against one of the trees and taken off a patch of bark about 1.5 feet all along one side of the trunk. Another time I came out to find the cage I had put around a young tree completely crushed. I am glad I didn’t end up with a live deer stuck in it like @reno.
I do not hunt or know how to shoot, but I did invite several people to come hunt at my house. One of them shot her first buck on my property (and she gifted me a nice chunk of venison)! Our deer do not have CWD yet, but we are just two counties away from places with it in northern VA. They are really encouraging people to hunt here (earn a buck) to get the population down, with the hope that the CWD won’t spread.
I have done my hunter education class and got my license. I am planning on learning to shoot - at a minimum to dispatch a racoon or possum. I have no idea if I will like it or want to do more than that. If you live trap in my area, you have to kill the animal.
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Used this excellent recipe 3-4 times and again today!
Only change I make is that I add a small can of mushrooms. Suppose to help with the indigestion.
How many pounds and ounces of deer do you generally do per one use?
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During the pandemic, we constructed our deer fence —this after years of every possible deterrent. We re-used the driven metal steel posts and attached treated2 x4 s to them. There were already some in-ground 4x4 posts. Because I had noticed deer in previous years sticking their nose under deer netting to get in, we used solid 1 x4 boards at the bottom of the fence and 1 x3 boards at 7’ height. The bottom tier of fence material is 3’ chicken wire . Husband ran and stretched grape wire at 3’ from post to post. This provided attachment by slip ties of the chicken wire. Above this, all around we used lightweight plastic mesh ( one inch ) . Again grape wire stretched tight holds by slip ties the cheap, plastic mesh. The result is a rather inexpensive fence—4” off the ground and appearing (to deer eyes) 7’ tall. This fence has been breached twice when I neglected a timely reapplication of garlic oil to cloth strips around the perimeter.
- List item
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@tennessean … I am very selective on the deer that i harvest for us to eat…
A 1.5 year old doe… normally eats pretty good… but 1.5 year old bucks are iffy… i have had some that were ok… and some that were quite tuff.
If I can get my choice and I normally do… i only kill the first year deer. They were born in the spring (April normally) and when harvested during our deer season they are 6-7 months old.
They no longer have spots… but are quite young… and very tender.
The smaller deer in the pic above are my select choice.
60-80 lb… 6-7 month old doe is prime eating for venison.
We have a large and normal sized crockpot… and 2 front quarters off one of those small doe… fits well in the larger one. Makes a good batch of bbq.
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You have a knack for expressing things in an interesting mnnner.!
I agree
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I just figured it was the typing equivalent of talking slowly.
I like venison ground. It seems to moderate most any undesirable qualities, especially texture. I feel the same way about lamb.
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How are any of you removing the game taste from the deer? Sometimes it can be overpowering.
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Canning the meat helps a lot. When canning you can use beef bouillon to give it a beef flavor.
Not sure if you use chicken bouillon if it will taste like chicken. 
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All the fat has to be trimmed. Every single speck. Aside from that, it has a taste similar to lamb that you cant eliminate. You can use recipes for goat or lamb and the spices help the flavor.
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The 6-7 month old doe… has no real gamey taste… very tender and taste better too.
Try beef liver… and then try calf liver… same type decrease in that stronger undesirable taste.
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