Problem with being in a CWD zone is such that a deer has to be tested before eating it. If the deer is butchered by the hunter, the deer head is placed in a freezer for collection for testing. If a processor is chosen the processor sends the deer head in. The result from testing will come back (in either an email or on the TWRA site) in about 3-5 weeks. If negative, there is no problem and the deer which has been frozen is eaten. If positive the deer which has been frozen is thrown out. In either case it is a big hassle.
What I have done in the past if I was processing the deer myself is to freeze the quartered-up deer and place it in freezer and wait on the result. When hopefully it came back negative, I would then thaw out the deer and process it normally. If it came back positive, I threw it out and well, at that point I had at least saved myself work.
This year I changed up because of lack of freezer space. I killed a spike and butchered it 5-6 days after and placed it in freezer. But being absent minded I did eat a little tenderloin. Luckily it came back ānot detectedā.
Being in a CWD zone is not fun. If CWD ever jumps to humans, I will quit eating venison. The hassle will at least end.
I debone mine as I clean. Only thing that comes off the carcass is meat. We then cut off all fat, sinew, anything white. Freeze in chunks and process later. Most processors are not that careful, thatās the reason it is tough or gamely tasting. Or they mix it with someone elseās deer. Iāve watched different processors over the years.
Cwd is a big problem in central michigan, slowlh radiating outward. Lately been seeing such deer on tictoc displaying no fear, and headless deer along the roads. At first i thought idiots were finding bucks and wanting trophy racks. Then I thought about testing and confirmed with an officer that they were being tested for cwd.
I checked to see if CWD was a problem in PA. It started showing up 10+ years ago. Glad I havenāt been eating venison. Iām not sure how people tell a deer is acting brain damaged. Theyāve been doing the BOLT OUT IN FRONT OF MY CAR, turn, run 5-10mph āawayā from me down the street in the direction I was going the whole time.
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 ā48 inch Retriever step through exercise penā 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 couldnāt.
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 youāve invested in the fence you have, it doesnāt 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 4ā-5ā 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 thereās something Iām 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 Iād love to hear about other peopleās 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 6ā is too short as Iāve watched deer jump my neighbors 6ā 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 Iām considering it. Iāve used electric livestock fences at work, but donāt know how to plan for a fence to zap deer or racoons or squirrel - I assume thereād be a grounded wire and a live wire?
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.
Thatās a good question. For the most part, I donāt wish Iād gone a different route. Butā¦I do wish I would have just gone with a 4ā horse fence, with an electric wire at 4ā, then gone with barbed wire every 8" above that till 7.5ā at the highest point. That pretty much describes my fence, except that my fence only has a 30" horse fence and has a 4ā field fence.
The field fence would have been unnecessary if I would have gone with a 4ā horse fence.
Other than that, Iām 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 donāt destroy nearly as much fruit as coons, and skunks donāt destroy any fruit.
Commercial growers have different needs than home growers and most home growers I work with donāt 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. Iāve had 4.5 feet of straight trunk circled with roofing coil work but at at least one site they jumped over 6ā to board trees. I had to remove a lot of lower branches, but you canāt do that after the fact with peaches.
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 stepā¦
With the number of trees Iāve got (now 50+ and most are standard/large pears) and the acreage theyāre on (about 2 - but there are some outside of that), I feel like Iām 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 youāre very wealthy on a fancy property though, you might not want to look at an electric fence or deal with it. Iām in a less wealthy ag area, and while I donāt want an ugly fence, I couldnāt afford the beautiful looking fence I drive by sometimes. I also have been around electric fence enough that I donāt mind it.
I am definitely considering this as part of my strategy! Iāve seen your baffle pictures on other threads. I just think that at some point I have so many trees that by the time Iāve protected each one I might as well just build a fence. I know a fence wonāt 100% prevent squirrel/racoon/possum damage - but it sounds like from @Olpea 's experience physical fence + electric will reduce it.
Deer! I just want to complain as well as plan my fence. So if you donāt want to hear my complaints avoid this post!
Yesterday, I watched a (large doe) stand on itās hind legs with itās 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 showā¦ 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 didnāt 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 wonāt 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.
During the pandemic, we constructed our deer fence āthis 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 7ā height. The bottom tier of fence material is 3ā chicken wire . Husband ran and stretched grape wire at 3ā 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 fenceā4ā off the ground and appearing (to deer eyes) 7ā tall. This fence has been breached twice when I neglected a timely reapplication of garlic oil to cloth strips around the perimeter.
@tennessean ā¦ I am very selective on the deer that i harvest for us to eatā¦
A 1.5 year old doeā¦ normally eats pretty goodā¦ but 1.5 year old bucks are iffyā¦ i have had some that were okā¦ and some that were quite tuff.
If I can get my choice and I normally doā¦ 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 spotsā¦ but are quite youngā¦ and very tender.
The smaller deer in the pic above are my select choice.
60-80 lbā¦ 6-7 month old doe is prime eating for venison.
We have a large and normal sized crockpotā¦ and 2 front quarters off one of those small doeā¦ fits well in the larger one. Makes a good batch of bbq.
