July in the wood

[tracy]

What are we doing in July?

We camped last night - brilliant!

and then we did some more track repair and moved some firewood down out of the wood where it is easier to cut and extract. Lovely being able to do it when the ground is hard and dry.

Could do with some rain though!

[Rich]

Yeah we're very dry up here on the edge of Ashdown forest as well! Seem to be fighting to keep deer out of the coppice, I always knew they could jump the 2metre tenax fence at a push, but they seem to be doing it for fun now, must be pressure of numbers. It's all a bit disheatening to see the damage just one deer can do in a couple of hours :-(

On the brighter side, our squirrel control is paying off and we're getting cherries and mulberries for the first time near the cottage, might even get some hazelnuts if we're lucky:-)

Rich

[Darren]

Rich, have you seen the deer jump over? We had a deer get inside the Tenex last year, munched every thing. I found the deer in there and it pushed underneath to get back out. might be a good idea to peg it to the ground?

[Rich]

Hi Darren,

Yeah that's what I thought was happening at first, and to be honest at first, I think some did get in that way, especially the smaller ones. So last week I went round and pegged the fence to the ground all the way around. Blow me if I didn't go down there the day after and staring me straight in the eye was a huge stag, once it had made it's point it took a bit of a run up and leapt the fence with ease!

It's not devasted the regrowth, but they seem to have gone mostly for the hazel and strangely the birch and alder which I thought they didn't like so much. The chestnut has been mostly left.

Rich

[Darren]

Sounds like you have the Steve McQueen of deers there.

All I could suggest is a couple of lines of wire one and two foot above the tenax. Maybe with some ribbon to make it clearly visible to the deer.

[Rich]

yeah you might be on to something, last year I used a heavier grade tenax which is more visible, maybe that puts them off trying to leap? This year I used a lighter grade which is marketed as 'low visibility'. Perhaps they don't perceive this as such a barrier, when I looked round it last night I could see areas where they've obviously had trouble and stretched and in some parts broken the nylon mesh.

Think I might move out there in this fine weather!

Rich

[Stephen1]

Hi Rich

I'm lucky living where I do in that most years we have very few deer problems. When it has been bad though we found that if you angle the fencing towards the deer (i.e. towards the outside of the enclosure)so that the top of the fence is nearer to them than the bottom, it makes a more effective barrier. It's a royal pain to put up but the illusion of width it creates as well as the height seems to do the trick. Obviously it's not 100% effective but it is significantly better, and more than makes up for the extra hassle in errecting it.

For the odd ones that do get over you have to have a few earth mounds on the inside of the fence, scattered around the enclosure, to enable them to get back over easily - this reduces residence time and damage within the enclosure - and reduces likelihood of damage to the angled fence from the inside when they're trying to get back out.

Does that make sense the way I've explained it?

[Darren]

How high is your Tenax fence?

[Darren]

Went around the paths with the tractor and a pallet tied behind to clear the bracken.

[Stephen1]

Great idea Darren! I spend ages flailing them down but of course flattening them like you suggest would be just as effective. I'll definitely be giving it a try next time.

Do you add any weight to the top of the pallet?