Reply #50: I'm really surprised the deer couldn't figure out how to jump the fence again and get out [View All]

[Sebastian Doyle]

You would be surprised how high they can jump. My family had a big fenced in garden when I was growing up. The fence was about 5 ft tall. Kept out most critters, but not the deer. They just jumped over and ate whatever they felt like. My mom got tired of Bambi and his friends eating all of her vegetables and demanded my dad do something about it. He didn't want to resort to the time or expense of building an entirely new fence, so we "extended" the existing fence with chicken wire (which we happened to have on hand) and raised it up to about 12 feet high. Problem solved, right?

Next morning we found a clump of deer hair in the wire. Don't know if he managed to clear the fence, but he damn sure tried. I said "If a deer's gotta work that hard to get a meal, I think he deserves to eat it". My mom didn't agree. Of course she also wasn't happy when they started eating her roses, which were on the other side of the house, and not protected by any sort of fence.