The Little Woods

H20fwler

5 year old buck +
This was the first property we bought just for hunting and habitat, like the big woods we had hunted it for years before buying.
It is mixed hardwoods that was logged around twelve years ago lots of hickory in this woods maybe 60%. The other good trees would be red and white oak, walnut and cherry. It is a REALLY thick woods with every kind of thorn and sticker bush and tree growing low in it...it is a mean woods to walk through but full of wildlife. There is a CRP strip around ten fifteen yards wide running around three sides of it that is planted to clovers/chicory and switch grass.
This farm is about five miles from our other, the river is about two miles to the north and there is a good sized creek 3/4 of mile to the south, so after reading on the luck everyone was having putting in small ponds and tanks for wildlife watering holes we dug in a koi pond a couple years ago on the south side in the CRP strip, here is the thread link of that project;

http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/the-coy-pond.5745/


Here is a satellite view of what we are working with;

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View from the road today;

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There are a few other small woods of from 8-9 acres to 60 acres in the neighborhood surrounded by rotated crop fields. I am in a very high agriculture county in NW Ohio.

Link to my other property tour;
http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/my-land-tour-the-big-woods.8704/
 
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We started planting apple and pear trees along the south side of woods in the CRP strip 4-5 years ago. The first year was brutal having to haul water by hand in gallon jugs in a wheelbarrow 400 yards along the property line in between standing corn. Just our luck it was the driest summer in ten years so I hauled water to the fruit trees a couple times a week...all the trees ended up making it and now are really growing well.
Most of the apples are on M111 and the pears are on OH97.

In this orchard we have,

Apple trees;

2-DropTine crab
1-Yellow Delicious
1-Cortland
1-JonaMac
2-30-06 crab
1-Ten Point crab
1-Sheepnose
1-Gray Ghost
2-Liberty
1- Enterprise
1-Golden Hornet crab
1- Lodi

Added 4/7/18
1-Crossbow crab
1-Zumi crab.

Added 4/3/20
1-Sansa

Pear trees;

2-Keffier
1-Bartlett
1-Olympic
1-Seckel
1-Moonglow

Added 4/3/20
1-Shenandoah


We also have a few Dunstan's and a half dozen nice Chinese chestnuts along with some hazelnuts.



This will give you kind of an idea of what the orchard looked like a couple years ago;

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Last spring the apple and pear trees all wanted to make fruit;

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The only two trees I let make fruit this past year were a Droptine and the Yellow Delicious, pinched everything else off.

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It has been rare to see turkeys in this woods, we have only seen a few over the years but do find an occasional turkey feather.

There always seems to be a doe or two with yearlings around this property...and for whatever reason in the summer it is LOADED with bucks from little baskets to nice mature bucks. Come September the bucks move off to other properties except for a small basket or two, during rut anything can be seen passing through and late season everyone is back. Its kind of a bachelor staging area through the summer. We keep a full feeder and a mineral block in the woods year round.

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We do see nice ones now and then in the fall and during gun season you just never know what could come by.

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We have two stands in this woods.
 
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I love those small wood lot islands. We have afew around here that owners think are to small so I've been able to gain hunting permission. Especially productive in years of standing corn for discrete access.

What's the short 2x2 stakes in apple cages all about? Necessary due to winds across open field or just preventive insurance? Just caught my eye being lower support than I'm used to seeing in most guys orchards

I like the pond, you ever look into a solar aerator for winter? Curious if it would keep up with cold Temps
 
Yes, the stakes are for wind...it is as flat of country as anywhere in the USA in our county and can get pretty windy. After a few years the stakes aren't needed, I plan on taking them off in the next year or two. I've never looked into a solar aerator...something to think about.
 
Three years ago the boys and I planted a bunch of conifers down the east side of the woods for bedding and cover, 50 scotch pine, 30 Norway spruce, 20 blue spruce, and 30 white pine. It has grown up since then some are doing great others not so much, the rabbits browsed the white pines to death and a few of the spruce got rubbed pretty hard.

When we planted;

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It has grown up with switch around them and I think that has helped protect them, I usually only see them while bunny hunting.
 
My wife had me put up some bluebird boxes along the CRP strips but so far only tree swallows use them even though I see a few bluebirds on the property.

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One of my favorite things about this woods is it is flat out loaded with bunnies most years, one of the best spots I have ever rabbit hunted in my life. Tough to hunt as thick as it is without a few inches of snow but when it's right the boys and I have limited out a couple times just hunting this farm.
Last year the boys got frustrated with me missing bunnies or just not shooting because I was so busy checking on my trees while we were hunting.

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I've got a friend in MO that has a 160 acre island. Drives me nuts. He's covered up in bucks every time he takes a stand. I've spent years looking for big islands and can't find one. Maybe small ones are where it's at.....

North woods guys would pass on places like this. But Kansas has kicked out lots of yuge deer on little strips just like this.
 
Your place looks mighty good to me !! That patch of woods will produce some good hunting now & in the future. With the food & cover you have growing there, it'll lure does. If they find a home there, you know who's gonna visit come fall - locals and cruisers.

Bird houses are good for insect-eating swallows and bluebirds. Good addition.
 
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Why the yellow pipe? Coons, etc. can climb it.
 
How many acres is your woods? Do you have any issues slipping into your stand without spooking deer after the crops are picked? Have you had much luck there during archery or gun seasons? That's a nice looking place.
 
Nice place! Between your big woods and little woods, I think you have everyone looking for an island now. Like your other farm, this place has some great bucks too. Is that shed off the big ol 8 in the pics? Would be cool to get the same buck on cam sometime at both farms. Looks like your neighbor plowed his bean stubble? Not much browse in it!
 
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I've got a friend in MO that has a 160 acre island. Drives me nuts. He's covered up in bucks every time he takes a stand. I've spent years looking for big islands and can't find one. Maybe small ones are where it's at.....

North woods guys would pass on places like this. But Kansas has kicked out lots of yuge deer on little strips just like this.

There is a lot to be said to that Bill.
Because of the help from this site we have done a lot of things I never would have even thought of to tweak the properties even though they aren't that big, they are still a work in progress.
I have tried to cover the basics food/water/shelter and the biggest thing to me is safety....if animals feel safe and protected they will stay with those other three requirements met. I think thick resting and bedding cover really helps. I am very big into being as low impact hands off on the properties as I can, we work on projects at certain times of the year that wont run animals off and the rest of the year while checking cameras and feeding I take the exact same rout I'm in and out as quiet as I can and that's it. When we hunt we play the wind and loop way around coming in ghosting to and from the stands as quiet as we can. We don't mess around scouting/looking for scrapes and rub lines or any of that, we already have our stands in the best spots so we don't disturb or alert the deer if we don't have to.
For our area this works.
As soon as gun season starts our woods seems to really fill up, the deer know we aren't going to bother them...much.
 
Why the yellow pipe? Coons, etc. can climb it.

To help keep farm equipment from hitting it, I have the bird houses on the edge of the CRP ground at that woods. If a coon wants to clime it, it would tile or no tile I've seen them go up a T post like it was a ladder. I put predator guards on my wood duck boxes made of metal sheeting made into a cone...that really slows them down.
 
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How many acres is your woods? Do you have any issues slipping into your stand without spooking deer after the crops are picked? Have you had much luck there during archery or gun seasons? That's a nice looking place.

This one is eight acres, not a lot of trouble getting to stands quietly just need to watch the wind. We have had great luck at both farms archery and gun...the biggest thing I've noticed over the past few years is we don't shoot very many antlerless deer anymore and we are getting very picky about shooting smaller bucks...I feel I've almost become more of a deer watcher than shooter, not that I won't shoot a smaller buck if the mood strikes me.

As of 8/20 around twelve acres.
 
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Nice place! Between your big woods and little woods, I think you have everyone looking for an island now. Like your other farm, this place has some great bucks too. Is that shed off the big ol 8 in the pics? Would be cool to get the same buck on cam sometime at both farms. Looks like your neighbor plowed his bean stubble? Not much browse in it!

I think the shed was off a smaller buck, it is a nice shed the pic doesn't do it justice. We have pics of the big eight from the last three years, I think he is starting to get a little thinner...would love to have him get in front of one of my boys!

Check this out...had this guy on camera a few times in summer last year;

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Then showed up five miles away during rut at the other farm!

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And that is saying something with the roads and open ground he had to cover, some bucks run a lot bigger loop than I would have ever thought.
 
This is from one of the best and fastest bunny hunts we have ever had on this farm, forty minutes after a good snow.
Hunting with my two sons is about as good as it gets for me! And to do it on our own property is pure icing on the cake.

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This is a great thread H2O. I really enjoyed looking at all the pictures. I also like the idea of an island of woods...
 
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