Low Cost Homemade Deer Fences

Portable Protection

• For many years, portable electric fencing has been used by horse owners to construct temporary pastures or corrals. The components are readily available, simple to assemble and inexpensive. The system is easily expandable, too. You'll need to buy fiberglass driveway marking rods, plastic insulators, polywire, gate hooks and connecting hardware, a battery-powered fence charger and a grounding rod. These items may be purchased at a farm store or through catalogs or Internet retailers. You can also buy a kit with all of the components you'll need, and might even save money that way.

Assembly

• Attach two screw-on plastic insulators to each fiberglass rod. The first should be about 16 inches above the ground and the second about the same distance above it. The idea is to use two stands so deer cannot sneak underneath or step over a single strand and to enable the wire to eventually form a closed loop. Drive the rods into the ground at 11-foot intervals, deep enough to prevent wind gusts from toppling them. Tie one end of the polywire to the connecting hardware and then thread it through each insulator on the top row. Then bring the wire down to the lower insulator and work your way back to the lower connector. Thread it through the lower connector and tie the wire off again at the top. You have now formed a continuous loop of wire.

  Drive in the grounding rod, add some batteries to the fence charger, clip or clamp it to the polywire and turn on the unit.

How It Works

• Most battery-powered electric fence chargers use a variable capacitor to store and release a periodic electrical pulse. This allows the batteries to last longer. On many chargers you may adjust the frequency of the pulse. The device will not harm deer because the electric shock is mild, designed to startle them and frighten them away.

  The best feature about portable electric fencing is portability. If the deer disappear, you can disassemble the entire thing in 15 or 20 minutes, or you can move it if deer begin attacking another section of your yard. Eventually they will get the message and go away for good.

  Despite the non-lethal nature of a battery powered electric fencer, keep all children away from any electically charged fence at all times.