DEER FENCE INSTALLATION: MIDDLE STEPS 2
What happens if you are running your fence along flat terrain and suddenly the ground slopes up or down? Obviously, you have to realign the fence to follow the new grade. Do this by installing a post where the slope changes and cutting the fence just after it passes this post. Then angle the next length of deer fencing up or down as much as necessary to make a straight run to the next post , following the new grade and being sure to leave enough deer fencing material along the bottom to create a six-inch flap. Securing the Deer Fence Bottom
One of the most common errors of deer fence installers is to focus so much on how tall the fence will be that they neglect its bottom. But the bottom is precisely where the deer usually get through. So for starters it is essential to leave a 6-inch flap of deer fencing material extending outward (toward the deer) on the bottom. This flap should be firmly secured with ground stakes (generally kinked galvanized steel stakes, see items 18-01 and 18-02), to ensure that entry is barred not only to the deer but also to animals like rabbits and woodchucks. These ground stakes are usually placed about 6 feet apart and are supplemented with rocks when suitable rocks are available. Whether a polypropylene fence is being repaired after holes have appeared in its lower reaches, or whether it is being combined with a metal hexagrid “skirt” 2 to 4 feet high at the time it is first set up, the resulting plastic-metal deer fence combination should offer no open seam for exploration by would-be intruders. The metal skirt (with its 6-inch flap) should be kept on the outside (the side from which the deer will come), and should be firmly attached to the plastic deer fencing with zip-lock ties or hog rings (roughly one per square foot), and both flaps (if there is a plastic one) should be pegged down.
The top of the deer fencing must be left visually undefined. As noted earlier, the deer have trouble seeing our polypropylene or metal deer fences. They especially have trouble telling how tall these fences are, and so they don’t know how high they need to jump. If you put something on the top of the deer fencing that defines it–like, say, a two-by-four board, then that will lead the deer to think (correctly) that the fence ends there and will present them with an open invitation to jump. Since you don’t want to send this invitation, you should avoid putting anything along the fence top that defines the fence’s upper boundary. However, you do want to provide support along the top of the fence–something that is done with monofilament line (see next page). And of course when using metal hex fence you should use three additional runs of monofilament line, extending the fence's working height to seven feet. |
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