Deer fencing for Berks County gardens, orchards and small farms

Deer fencing is a different job from a backyard fence. The goal isn't privacy or keeping a dog in. It's making a space deer won't jump into and can't push through. Around Oley, Boyertown, Hereford and Elverson, with farm fields and woodlots close by, that pressure is high.

How tall does a deer fence need to be?

In a Lancaster Farming article on deer fencing, a Pennsylvania Game Commission officer recommends 8 ft fence over the older 6 ft high-tensile electric design. The same article quotes a Berks County farmer who says deer "go right through" high-tensile wire alone. Our advice follows that. If deer are already eating your crop, a 6 ft fence usually just teaches them to jump.

The article also gives a sense of scale for farm-size jobs. One 1,300 ft woven-wire deer fence with 20 braces and 4 gates cost $19,500. That was someone else's project, not our pricing, and a backyard garden enclosure is a much smaller job. It does show where the money goes: bracing and gates, not just wire. The Game Commission's old deer-fence cost-share program ended about 20 years ago, and the same report says a bill to bring one back was introduced.

What your township allows

This is where most garden deer fences run into trouble. Zoning codes in our area were written for backyard fences, and several cap height below 8 ft without a deer-fence exception. What we've confirmed:

From each municipality's zoning code as read October 2026. The joint ordinance's clause on taller fences was only partly readable. Codes change; we confirm before every install.

If your township caps fences at 6 ft, the options are a variance or special exception from the zoning hearing board, a different design (see below), or putting the deer fence where the code treats it differently, such as an agricultural use on a farm. We don't guess on this. We ask the zoning officer, in writing where possible, before we build anything over the posted limit.

Deer fence designs that work here

Woven or welded wire on wood posts

The farm standard, and the type used on the 1,300 ft job in that article. Heavy wire mesh stretched on treated wood posts, with braced corners and gates. It's very durable and nearly invisible from a distance on a field edge. On Berks ground, the bracing is the hard part. Corner and gate assemblies have to resist years of wire tension in soil that freezes hard and, around Boyertown and Bally, is full of rock.

Wire extension over a lower fence

Where code allows the upper part of a fence to be open, as in Upper Hanover, a 6 ft fence with an open wire or mesh extension above it can reach deer height. It's also a way to upgrade an existing garden fence without starting over.

High-tensile electric

Cheaper per foot and easy to run long distances, but the advice we're citing says high-tensile alone doesn't stop determined deer. Local codes also limit electric fences. The Boyertown-Colebrookdale-Pike ordinance allows charged fences only to contain farm animals, and only at low intensity. We don't recommend electric as a stand-alone deer fence on a residential lot.

Smaller enclosures

Fencing just the vegetable garden or a block of fruit trees, instead of the whole property, means less fence, fewer gates and often a smaller zoning question.

Feeding, baiting and the county line

Deer rules change at the Berks line. The Game Commission's Southeast Special Regulations Area covers Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, not Berks. So an Elverson or North Coventry property follows different hunting rules than one in Oley or Boyertown.

Parts of Berks are also inside Chronic Wasting Disease Disease Management Area 4. When it was created in February 2018, DMA 4 covered 346 square miles of Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks counties. It grew to about 743 square miles in June 2020. Inside a DMA, feeding deer and using deer urine attractants are banned. Check the current Game Commission map for your address. If you've been putting out corn near the garden, that's a habit worth dropping anyway, since it draws deer to the very spot you're trying to protect.

Elverson and the Hopewell Big Woods

Properties around Elverson sit next to some of the largest woods in the region. French Creek State Park covers 7,730 acres across North Coventry and Warwick in Chester County and Robeson and Union in Berks, and it allows hunting on more than 6,000 acres. Gardens and young orchards on its edge see steady deer traffic. Elverson Borough limits residential fences to 6 ft and 4 ft in front yards, so plan the deer enclosure behind the house and ask the borough about anything taller.

Planning checklist

1. Decide what you're protecting: the whole lot, a garden, or an orchard block. Smaller is easier to permit and cheaper to build.
2. Look up your municipality, not just your mailing address. A Boyertown address can be in any of several townships.
3. Confirm the height limit and whether deer fencing gets an exception.
4. Plan gates wide enough for a tractor or garden cart, and brace them as well as the corners.
5. Leave room to mow both sides, or deer will find the weak spot under the weeds.

We build deer fences in woven or welded wire, and we'll check the zoning before anything is ordered. Ask about a deer fence when you book your free estimate, and tell us what's been eaten. It helps us size the job.

Common questions