Roe deer!

[Nicos]

I'm really excited cos I've just seen 2 roe deer at the bottom of the field!!

..and then I started thinking about my veg plot

hmmm...and it's weekend- and the hunters will be about

[Flummery]

We see them from our allotment site - over the fields about 2 fields away. There's never been any sign that they've been in the site though.

[scarey55]

Funnily enough, I saw three in a field yesterday - we don't see them that much around here.

When I was a child we often had deer in the garden 'twas magical but there were never any apples on the trees

[Jardiniere]

i've gone off deer since my sister caught lyme's disease and was so ill she had to take early retirement.....she lives in somerset not france.

[Alice]

If those pesky roe deer take to visiting your garden Nicos you might wish the hunters had got them.
They are absolutly beautiful - in the distance - but in the garden it's like having rabbits and slugs 5' high.

[Nicos]

Well- last year I had a bulls eye tick bite ( some of you may recall) and needed antibiotics.

Hmm..I remember what you said last year Alice!

Maybe I should be thinking of electric fencing more than 4ft high ( for the chooks!) for keeping out the foxes- and then pop it round the veg plot at night!

Do they eat most garden shrubs and flowers???

Jardiniere...that's awful news about your sister!..sorry to hear that- quite easy to happen too I imagine?

[Alice]

Nicos, the deer will eat anything and if they don't like it they just spit it out - but the damage is done. They bark the trees with their little horns and they don't go by paths - they trample all over everything. And they're not as timid as people think. I had them right up to the doors of the house eating my flower pots. When I went out to chase them they only retreated 1 yard for every yard I advanced.
They could do hundreds of pounds of damage on 1 visit. I was at my wits end with them. I had to fence them out. That worked.
If you're putting up fences for foxes anyway you could think about the deer while you're at it.

[burnie]

Just to cheer you up,they'll be having babies soon so you'll have even more of them.They don't like things flapping about,some local farmers put out flags and windmills(small ones)to keep them away,seems to work.

[Jardiniere]

absolute b**g**s....................

[GreenPete]

I've had a lot of trouble with deer on the plot I've got on a friends farm. It's not just that they eat everything, they have also trampled through where I had my winter onions, garlic and broad beans waiting to come through. They just jumped over the rabbit fencing and the electric cable I had running at the top. I've now got cage walls going round that they had spare at the farm, their the barriers you see round building and road works. They've done the trick, luckily my plot is quite big so I don't feel caged in.

[mogs]

Our allotment site backs onto woods and when I first took it I was asked what I thought was the biggest wildlife they got on the allotments, went though rabbits, badgers etc - was gobsmacked when they said roe deer - I've walked the dogs hundreds of times over the years in them woods and never ever seen anything resembling a deer- and I live in a town, which is even more amazing to me!

[Mike and Louise]

We have had Roe Deer at the bottom of our garden. Luckly though they can't get into the garden itself.

Lovely animals. We have quite a few here in North Wiltshire.

[Birdie Wife]

Gorgeous to look at, even better in stew!

[Mike and Louise]

Gorgeous to look at, even better in stew!

Yep.

Our local farm shop sells venison (spelling ?) sausages. They taste so yummy.