GMan5465
5 year old buck +
That looks so nice!
Hungry deer
- Thread starter 4wanderingeyes
- Start date
All those big trees out there - 24”/30” native pecan.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Green plot looks good. Deer are liking it! Pecan - great wood to smoke meats with - if you do that.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Nice. In some winters, I think it helps critters get through.
In years past, my Dad and his brothers would spread several bales of hay on the ground and dump jugs of black-strap molasses on the hay. They only did that in the worst parts of the winters in the mountains of north-central Pa. Dad told me they'd go back at the end of the week and couldn't find 1 scrap of hay or molasses. They'd feed once a week during the really cold, snowy weeks of the winter, to supplement the browse which was largely out of deer reach. I don't remember Dad ever saying they found dead deer in the area they put out the hay.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
What's your thoughts on alfalfa (baled)?
Was that this year? That's really too bad since that's a lot of dead deer from one area.
I haven't been back up to my Rusk County place in a while, but I've been told it is pretty rough up there now with the deep snow and now this warm weather that will create an ice layer.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I dropped some Aspen trees today, the deer were a fan. This is just from a couple trees off my back deck. I don’t have any cameras by the other trees, and I can’t see them from my window.
That should help them out for a few days. I figured I would drop about 10 a week, for a few weeks, that should get them through mid March, after that hopefully some of the snow is gone and they can dig in food plots.
That should also get me a lot of not so great firewood for next year.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
In sure they appreciate it. If you get some of the canopy opened in those areas, the regen should be phenomenal next summer too!
I did some research after this happened. What I remember is the article said something like their rumen in their stomach couldn't adjust fast enough to break it down. They were basically starving even thou their stomach was full. If they were fed hay all year it wouldn't be a problem. The way in understood it was the hay basically went right thru them without be able to use any of the nutritional properties of the hay.
No, this was 4 or 5 years ago, neighbor about a mile down the road. This is another reason Im so against feeding. I know someone that puts out a coffee can of corn out a day. Sometimes she has up to 8 deer come walking thru 2 feet of snow for a few kernels of corn. They have to burn more calories then the bring in.Plus a couple of these deer got smoked on the road comming to get this little bit of corn. I still have my Spartans running in Ruusk. The deer look in very good condition. I guess alot of trees snapped off and bent over with that big ice/ snow storm around the first of the year. I bet that brought a bunch of browse within their reach. I hope so.
That's good to hear you are getting pictures of healthy looking deer. This warm spell should help as well, but there is still a lot of winter left. The early start to winter had me very worried we would see a repeat of the 2013/14 winter that took out about 1/2 the deer and 95% of the turkeys from my Rusk County neighborhood. Hopefully that is not the case.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
That was my first winter in MN, was absolutely brutal that year.
Fed wildlife = dead wildlife.
Your friend found out the hard way...but I guess the deer found out the hardest way.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I have 2 deer bedding in my wood, log area, that I can see out my back window. They are there daily, and nightly. When I dropped a bunch of trees last week, I had 12+ deer here the first few days, and they will wonder in and out now, some times I will see 5 or 6, sometimes 10. This is just within 100 yards of my back deck.
Now I am wondering if I should continue to drop trees for them. On one hand, I need to drop trees for firewood, and this is the time of year I usually do that. On the other hand, I am worried I will have 10 plus deer eating more understory, and setting my property backwards, and maybe I should wait to cut down trees.
The deer are looking healthy, nice and plump, but they come running after the trees hit the ground, so they are hungry. I have noticed as I walk out to feed my wood boiler, the deer 20 feet away, barely pay attention to me, and keep eating the tree tops. The ones bedding barely look up at me when I am feeding the boiler.
I do enjoy watching them, but I don’t want to get them use to people, because not everyone is as deer friendly as I am. Also come hunting season, I want to hunt deer, not shoot pets.
Now I am wondering if I should continue to drop trees for them. On one hand, I need to drop trees for firewood, and this is the time of year I usually do that. On the other hand, I am worried I will have 10 plus deer eating more understory, and setting my property backwards, and maybe I should wait to cut down trees.
The deer are looking healthy, nice and plump, but they come running after the trees hit the ground, so they are hungry. I have noticed as I walk out to feed my wood boiler, the deer 20 feet away, barely pay attention to me, and keep eating the tree tops. The ones bedding barely look up at me when I am feeding the boiler.
I do enjoy watching them, but I don’t want to get them use to people, because not everyone is as deer friendly as I am. Also come hunting season, I want to hunt deer, not shoot pets.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
You can only cut so many trees, too - then you lose woods acreage. Trees big enough for firewood or timber sales take 40 years (at least) to get to a decent size. The problem is - deer can eat more browse plants faster than we can grow them. 10 - 12 deer can eat a LOT of browse, cut down or growing at their level. On one of our logging projects, we dropped about 20 acres of trees, left the tops lay, and the deer had them cleaned up in a couple weeks. They'll only eat the young tender stuff - they won't consume the entire tree top. That was 10 to 15 deer at our place.
Short of winter-planned food plots, I don't know an easy answer to keep deer fed in tough winters. Maybe start putting some sort of hay out in October before the cold & snow hit?? Give their gut flora time to acclimate to the hay??
Short of winter-planned food plots, I don't know an easy answer to keep deer fed in tough winters. Maybe start putting some sort of hay out in October before the cold & snow hit?? Give their gut flora time to acclimate to the hay??
Ruttin1
5 year old buck +
Deer have actually survived millions of years without man’s help. They will be alright!
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Yes deer have survived for a long, long time without help from humans. But we aren't talking about extinction here. Numerous studies out there stating the health of the herd is most dependent on the health of the mother while carrying her fawn(s). To me it is a no-brainer to get more food to the deer during the period when they're the most vulnerable.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I do have food plots, and there is turnips, radishes, winter rye and clover planted, but it’s under a couple feet of snow. Once the snow melts down some, there should be food available for them then.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Without man's help??? Are you taking into account the negative changes that humans have done to our environment?? We altered habitat, eliminated some habitat, cut down vast forests, "developed" lands that were good habitat for a number of critters. " Clean farming" where every scrap of grain, stems, & duff are vacuumed up, brush rows / patches are in production, etc. Habitat loss is caused by humans. During past centuries & millennia, deer & other critters didn't have those things to contend with on the scales we have happening today. Right near my home, a whole section of land - probably 400 acres that was excellent habitat for deer, rabbits, turkeys, grouse, and loads of song birds - is gone. It's all housing "development" with house so close, if your neighbor farts - you'll be smelling it. Maybe your deer and critters can go to the local strip mall for grub??
Looking at recent national demographics, it seems more & more "city-folk" are moving out into the country ------ YOUR country. Get ready for "developments" and lots of bulldozing, paving, concrete, mini-malls, strip malls, parking lots, traffic congestion, banks on every corner for all the "excess money" that people have to store.
