Deer Feeder Noise Maker? All Answers

While some owners do their best to keep deer out of their garden or yard because they sometimes cause trouble, others want to encourage deer to visit their property for observation or hunting purposes. One of the best ways to attract deer to your property is to use deer feeders. This article focuses on how to get deer to come to your feeder and property.

Attract deer with corn

There are many ways to encourage deer to visit your property or yard more often. Certain scents, plants, or foods can be very effective, but the least expensive way to attract deer is with corn. You can place corn piles in areas already frequented by deer and be sure they’ll find it. Once the deer become familiar with these corn piles, you can begin to slowly introduce them to more unfamiliar areas, such as B. in your garden. Your deer will visit these locations more often in search of their next meal. A disadvantage of this technique is the fact that over time you will have many thieves like squirrels and other animals stealing your corn. Now let’s take it up a notch and see how to attract deer to your bird feeder.

How to attract deer to your bird feeder

One of the best and most efficient ways to attract deer to your property is to use deer feeders. Automatic game feeders are specifically designed to release any type of food at precise intervals with minimal human intervention and maintenance. If you choose a quality feeder, all you have to do is change the batteries every few months.

Once you’ve made your purchase and installed your feeders, it’s time to take a closer look at how to attract deer to your feeders. You can use a variety of foods and scents to slowly lure the bucks or chicks to your bird feeder – peanut butter and corn piles work best. Once the deer get used to the feeding troughs and are not afraid of them, they will visit them more often.

How long does it take for deer to get used to an automatic feeder?

Deer typically take about three weeks to get used to a feeder. During this transition period you should avoid maintenance on your feeder and get the flock used to the new food source. It’s also a good idea to purchase a deer feeder that will blend in with the environment and not appear threatening. These are the basics of getting deer to come to your feeding station.

Best time to hire automatic game feeders

The best time to place game feeders depends on whether you are using the feeder for population management or hunting. If you use the feeder to boost your deer’s health, you can set it to dispense food for a few seconds once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You can run a few tests and see how much food is being dispensed at each feeding session. On the other hand, if you plan to use the feeder for hunting, you can set it to dispense food for a few seconds just before your hunting lesson.

How long does it take a deer to find corn?

It takes between 1 and 2 days for deer to find corn, but in some cases it can happen sooner if the area is well traveled. It also depends on the number of deer in the area and their travel routes. If you want the process to go more smoothly, you can try power attractants or apple slices.

Once you know how to attract deer to your feeder, you can start eyeing them in time for hunting season.

You have made the decision to provide your herd of deer with supplementary feed. This is an important step in maintaining a healthy white-tailed population as spring is a crucial time for deer development. Healthy birth kids have a better chance of survival. Of course, bucks need plenty of food for optimal antler growth.

Knowing how to attract deer to your feeding ground is important. In this case, if you build it, they will not necessarily come. You need to strategically place your feeder in an area where the deer are already frequent. Also, they are not used to eating pellets from a feeder. You have to “train” them to do this. Once familiar with a feeding ground, they routinely visit the area year-round.

Choose a feeder

It is best to get an idea of ​​the size of your property’s deer herd before purchasing a feeder. It is recommended to have one feeding station for every 25 deer. An adult deer typically eats an average of one and a half pounds of food per day. A 10,000-acre property with abundant game might require multiple high-capacity feeders, like the Feedbank 600, which can hold up to 600 pounds of feed. A smaller wing would be more suitable with a Feedbank 40.

Choose a site

Choose an area of ​​your property that deer roam through regularly. These include corridors near transition areas, as well as clearings in the forest near litter or isolated feeding sites. You want to make sure the deer don’t have to deviate much from their established routine to find the feeding spot.

The location you choose should allow game easy access to the water. If there are no streams, ponds or rivers nearby or if they tend to dry up in summer, a whitewater system is a good alternative. Additionally, if the location offers easy escape routes to nearby cover and a clear line of sight, deer will be much more comfortable.

Introduce the feeder

Once you’ve picked a prime location, set up the feeder. Even if you’re using pellets, the form most supplements come in, start with corn. Scatter a bag around the feeder. Or use a spin feeder by first pouring in a few bags of corn which will be given out first, followed by the pellets.

Once the deer find the piles, gradually increase the distance from the feeder until you have corn underneath. Then you can also start filling the automatic feeder. When the deer start eating from the feeder, stop throwing corn on the ground.

After the deer are comfortable eating corn from the feeder, begin slowly adding pellets to the mix. Gradually reduce the amount of corn until you are only offering pellets. When traffic slows, mix some corn back in. This process usually takes at least two or three weeks. You’ll need to be diligent during this transition period to see how the herd responds to the new food source. For those of you who can’t be in the woods every day, a wildlife camera can give you insight while you’re away.

Eye the deer

Begin by patterning bucks and planning stand locations. Instead of chasing over the feeder, pick a spot near the trails that lead there. You want the food source to be considered a safe area by the deer, so avoid disturbing them.

More often than we’d like, the perfect location for a feeder might not have the ideal locations for a stand or blind. In this case, creating a funnel can draw the deer to where you want them. Place debris like a log along the forest floor near paths so that it restricts the deer’s movement. You dodge the obstacles and get closer to your stand on the way to the pier.

There are two advantages to having feeders on your property. You’ll be helping to keep your herd of deer healthy this spring, including helping bucks grow their antlers. It also means the deer herd will have a reliable food source to rely on throughout the hunting season.

When Georgia first legalized deer hunting with bait in the southern half of the state in 2011, my father felt compelled to install corn feeders on our family farm just to compete with the expected bait landslide in the wider neighborhood. Dad placed some of his game cameras by the corn feeders. In the meantime, I continued to place my cameras on scrapes and crossroads. Over the years I’ve seen a clear pattern. Corn cams primarily capture hinds and annual bucks, and most of them at night. My cameras are capturing more bucks overall, including all of the fully grown bucks seen in each photo. The difference cannot be explained by hunting pressure as we are not sitting above the corn eaters.

What I am describing is not science, it is just an anecdotal observation. I didn’t count all the photos, identified all the deer and subjected the numbers to statistical analysis. But in another part of Georgia, someone did. With statistical reliability, scientists saw a phenomenon similar to what I saw at Grace Acres. Let’s take a look at their results.

Who Visits Feeder?

David Stone earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, who is studying deer use of baiting sites, and some of his findings have now been published in scientific journals. One of David’s main questions was whether social status, sex or age of the deer play an important role in whether deer use forage. To answer that question, in 2013 and 2014, he ran game cameras at 16 feed stations for two consecutive hunting seasons (mid-September to early January) on a 10,000-acre hunting ground in Georgia.

Trail camera surveys prior to the study estimated a deer density of approximately 40 to 50 per square mile and a balanced sex ratio of one dollar per 1.1 deer. The age structure of the bucks was very well developed: 61% of all bucks were 2½ years or older. In fact, 39% were 3½ years or older, more than a third of all dollars! The property, including the feeding sites, was actively searched during David’s camera study, although the pressure was considered “light”. About 10 deer were killed each season, which is about one deer per 400 acres, including deer and adult bucks.

To keep the photo analysis manageable, David drew a subsample of photos from three days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) from each week of the two hunting seasons. After eliminating fawns from the count, he sorted all the photos of deer that he could confidently place into one of three categories:

Age 1½ or older

One-year-old bucks 1½ years old

All adult bucks from 2½ years.

To analyze social interaction, David grouped year-old bucks and all females as “subordinate” stags and all adult bucks as “dominant”. He also separated photos by day and night, with “day” being defined by the legal hunting times.

David immediately had his answer to class segregation. From the subsample of 6,994 photos containing deer that could be categorized, “dominant” adult bucks at least 2½ years of age appeared in the same photo with a “subordinate” doe or one-year-old buck only 54 times, less than 1% of the Photos.

“These adult bucks dominate the feeders,” said David. “When they are there, the other deer stay away.”

The breakdown of social interaction can be seen in the chart below.

What would a hunter see?

According to David’s findings, a hunter perched over one of David’s corn eaters during legal opening hours was three times more likely to see a deer or yearling buck than an adult buck during the pre-rut through late October. This difference in attendance was reversed at night. Adult bucks used the feeders mainly at night in all seasons, but the difference was most pronounced in pre-brood.

Although adult bucks were sometimes photographed at feeding stations in daylight, this was a fairly rare event considering the total number of photographs. To examine the statistical likelihood of bird feeder use, David analyzed the total hours monitored by the cameras and which deer, if any, ‘occupied’ those hours. He found his cameras monitored nearly 10,000 hours of daylight in his sub-sample of the two seasons. During the pre-rut, only about 1% of those daylight hours saw an adult buck at the feeder, either with or without a subordinate stag also at the feeder. Sure, this counts the midday hours when deer movement is usually at a 24-hour low, but if you sit and watch the first two and last two hours of a day, you’ve hunted more than 30% of that day’s daylight hours in the fall.

If a hunter was determined to see an adult buck at a feeding station during legal hunting season, his best opportunity was in the post-rut.

This is especially discouraging when you remember that this includes all dollars 2½ and older. If you only count dollars 3½ or older, the frequency is undoubtedly much lower, and it gets even lower if you sort for even older dollars. This is not due to the lack of adult money at the place of study. The study area and thousands of acres surrounding it have been under Quality Deer Management for years, and the district has a mandatory antler restriction that protects all annual bucks. Bear in mind that red deer density was relatively high, the sex ratio was balanced and an estimated 61% of all bucks on the property were 2½ years old or older: If a hunter knew these details about the location, a hunter would wait for an adult buck appears at a corn eater be disappointed with the action.

rut peak results

Feeding visits from all deer were at their lowest during the rut peak, which occurred at this site from October 26 to November 27. This made sense to David given the available movement data from other white-tail studies. Adult bucks move more during the rutting peak than at any other time of the year, but they don’t focus on eating. They focus on breeding. Meanwhile, females who are not in heat may try to hunker down during this time to avoid bucks, so avoiding places like feeding stations can also be beneficial.

However, David was less able to explain why year-old bucks were rarely seen at feeding stations during the rut. They participate less in the rut and the near absence of dominant bucks at the feeders gives yearlings an opportunity to forage more. Why not? One possible explanation is hunting pressure. Most of the hunting occurred during the rut, and hunter activity logs showed that most hunts were focused on foraging grounds and feeding sites.

Again, a hunter expecting an exciting hunt for top broods on well managed land with many adult bucks would be extremely disappointed in the time he has spent spotting a corn eater on this land judging by David’s camera evidence. Whatever the best spots to see all of these adult bucks on this land, this study showed they weren’t corn eaters.

Response after the rut

In David’s study, this changed after the rut, and you can see it in the graph above. Adult bucks, no longer focused on breeding and now attempting to offset these weeks of intense rutting activity, turned up at the highest rate of feeding sites during the hunting season. However, only 6% of the daylight hours saw the emergence of an adult buck in the post-rut (12% of the nighttime hours). This remains a very low activity rate considering the density of adult bucks on this land, but if a hunter was determined to see an adult buck at a feeding ground during legal hunting season, his best opportunity was in the post-rut.

To me, David’s findings help explain camera trends in our family hunting country. During the peak of our rut, nearly all adult bucks are photographed over grazes and in travel corridors while pursuing breeding opportunities – not corn. Scratch photos still don’t necessarily tell us a likely location for these bucks to be killed since most of them are taken at night, but at least we know the bucks are in the area.

David’s study, funded by the Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division, also examined the movements of GPS-collared bucks near these feeding sites. These results are still being analyzed and we will share them as soon as they become available. Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay up to date with our latest deer content.

Bait is a four letter word that can cheer even the most Zen-like bow hunter. I’m not sure why. There are benefits such as B. Improving nutrition and the availability of food sources. Putting deer where you want them in terms of hunting purposes can obviously help. But today we’re just going to cover the different types of baiting and whether or not you go for it.

In some states it is legal to bait deer but with restrictions such as being out of sight or a minimum distance from your stand. Others regulate how much bait can be placed at once. Some states do not regulate baiting at all. If you can back a dump truck full of corn on the cob – topped with some Big & J BB2 – up to your favorite tree every day, it’s fair game.

With that, let’s cover the different ways people implement baiting and the variations on this widely used term.

Use #1: Herd inventory

Many hunters (and even non-hunters) place lures in front of game cameras to see what’s nearby. Hunters do this on the properties they hunt. Non-hunters generally do this within the grounds of the home. Many states allow this in one way or another, but mostly it must be done outside of deer season.

Tactical Tip: In states where decoys are not allowed during hunting season, all decoys must usually be removed a certain number of days before the season. But there’s a catch. Remnants of bait on the ground can leach into the soil, and wildlife authorities may go so far as to test that soil to ensure there are no attractants left after the hunting season begins. If you are in such a state, it is best to put food and minerals in a tub. Just dig a big enough hole, put the bucket in the ground and pour in the food. When the time comes, remove the bucket and you should have no leftover bait on or in the bottom.

Use #2: Supplementary feeding

Serious deer hunters who manage large areas often conduct extensive feeding programs. They will set up feeding stations to feed and house deer in strategic locations, but the primary reason for this use is to supplement the local herd’s diet with additional food.

Tactical Tip: Use Boss Buck Feeders to make your feed last longer than just tossing it on the ground and to prevent raccoons and other vermin from stealing as much of it.

Use #3: Keep deer in season

Some hunters use bait to keep deer on their property but do not hunt over it. This is a common tactic in the Southeast. It can be effective, especially in areas that lack quality grass or agricultural food sources. It is good practice to place the bait in the middle of the property.

Tactical Tip: Most states have distance (or out of sight) limitations on deer baiting. Study your laws, then measure the distance from your bait stations to stand of trees, ground screens, or potential hunting grounds. If this rule applies to you, make sure they exceed the required distance and that they are out of sight. Don’t forget that leaves fall after the season has started, so something that’s out of sight in early fall could be clearly visible late in the season.

Use #4: Get a Shot

Only about 25% of states with huntable whitetail populations allow hunters to shoot a deer via bait, but it’s a common and popular practice where it’s legal.

Tactical Tip: Some say to dump as much fodder as you can muster. Others choose to limit the amount they spend and replenish them regularly. Try both and see what works best for you. Then, when laying out corn, do not go around your bait pile. I personally climb from the cab of my truck onto the bed without touching the ground. Next, empty your yellow bags of acorns from the back of the truck and return to the truck cab the same way – without ever touching the ground.

So are you using bait? And if so, in what capacity do you implement it?

Don’t miss: Does your deer need minerals?

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Wild feeding in spring and summer results in a healthier herd

With deer season well behind us, there is no better time than now to start planning and preparing for next season. Part of this planning and preparation is providing your herd of deer with the right resources at the right time to maximize their potential. The Spring and Summer Wild Feeding could be your chance to do just that.

Spring and summer deer feeding basics

Wild feeding can take on several aspects. Overall, it includes planting forage areas, providing additional minerals and feed, and working on habitat projects to improve native forage production. Deer management is all about providing the best resources in the right amount and at the right time. Proper feeding of deer in the spring and summer allows you to improve your herd during critical times, resulting in a healthy, more resilient deer herd in the fall hunting season.

Deer feeding in spring and summer is quite different from feeding (or baiting) during deer season where it is legal. Although there are nutritional needs for deer in the fall during hunting season, the maximum benefit and need for deer feeding occurs during the off-season, particularly spring and summer. However, feeding deer during the spring and summer months can be expensive. It can also be ineffective if not properly planned and purposefully designed for your property as part of a larger deer management program. For example, herd dynamics, such as overall herd size and buck to deer ratio, and habitat concerns, such as carrying capacity and available forage, are important considerations to make before considering deer feeding programs. With these being considered, it may be time to look into a spring and summer feeding schedule.

The 4 key benefits of spring and summer deer feeding programs:

Attract and keep deer on your property. Increase the antler potential of the bucks. Improve the overall health of the deer herd. Increase in fawn recruitment.

When to start feeding deer in spring?

In addition to the weather, also focus on the vegetation. Spring brings new growth in the fields and in the woods and deer know it. Their nutritional requirements shift from survival mode to growth mode for both buck and deer.

Early spring to mid-spring is a good rule of thumb to start your spring deer feeding program. This roughly coincides with the start of planting forage fields. Bucks will still recover from the rut and the past winter, but they will also begin to start new antler growth. In addition, the fawn kittens enter the final stages of fawn development and prepare for grooming. In the third trimester and then when breastfeeding newborn fawns, fawns naturally have high nutritional requirements to ensure the best survival of the fawns.

Nutritional needs of deer in spring

Spring deer feeding needs to focus on the needs that bucks and bucks have in transition from winter. As previously mentioned, bucks begin to grow antlers and prepare to raise fawns. Both of these life cycle changes require specific nutrients to maximize their potential.

If you haven’t planned properly for the late season and spring forage, chances are your forage plots are about to be planted. This can create a gap in available food just before and during spring greens. Protein is crucial for bucks to rebuild muscle and also for proper development of the kids. Choose protein-rich wild food such as Big Tine 30-06 Protein Plus

In addition, certain minerals are also required by whitetails to maintain a healthy and productive herd. Native grazing, foraging areas, habitat projects, and newly growing vegetation will meet deer’s food needs, but supplementing these sources with the right minerals creates more mineral intake for deer and more opportunities for hunters. Deer feed ingredients such as calcium and phosphorus are a must for antler growth. In general, deer require a range of nutrients and trace elements during the spring season. What they don’t already get from the environment, they can get from a good mineral block like the Big Tine Block.

Finally, an often overlooked need for whitetails in spring is sodium, or more commonly, salt. The need for this relates to the increase in food intake occurring at this time. Ingesting more succulent vegetation greatly increases the amount of water and potassium for whitetails, and the need for salt to balance the digestive process is great.

When to switch to summer deer feeding

The transition between spring and summer deer feeding refers to the next phase of the white-tailed deer’s life cycle. Bucks keep growing their antlers and now fawns are starting to drop. In connection with this, seasonal changes also occur.

Spring and summer deer feeding has no clear end and beginning. However, deer can alert you to when to change your supplemental feeding regimen. Two observations can help you decide when deer have entered summer mode. First and most obviously you will see fawns. Second, antler growth will increase in bucks to the point where you begin to see more development of tips and height. Both observations are an indication that the nutritional needs of deer are changing again.

Feed deer in summer

The most important time for whitetails to eat properly is summer. Bucks quickly increase antler growth and recover from fawns and care for these newborn fawns.

For bucks, calcium and phosphorus are also important for maximum antler growth. A large percentage of these two minerals go directly into antler growth. When choosing the right summer deer feed, make sure that the calcium to phosphorus ratio in the feed is 1:1 or 2:1 to achieve optimal antler development.

Has the greatest nutritional needs in summer, especially a lactating hind. Your requirements exist on two fronts. They lose energy and nutrients while feeding their fawns and in return must pass adequate resources to that fawn via their milk. If suitable food sources are not available, the survival of the fawns can suffer and the health of the deer herd can be compromised. In order to meet the needs of the females in the summer, high amounts of carbohydrates and protein-rich food are required. The protein content should be higher in summer than in spring. The feed should have a protein content of 15-22% upwards. Even when feeding deer in the summer, your feeders need to be accessible to fawns so they too can take full advantage of any deer feed ingredients that you supplement.

Conclusion

If planned well, your forage plots and native vegetation, in addition to their management, should provide all of the nutritional needs that whitetails require. Plots planted with quality forage such as Arrow Seed’s Deer Delight blend will provide high yielding, tasty and high protein forage from which deer can easily get all the nutrients they need during the summer. Of course, every bit of energy, protein, and nutrition can go a long way in spring and summer, and even fall and winter.

In summary, spring and summer feeding of deer is extremely important to the overall health of the deer herd and to maximizing antler development. Don’t think of it solely as a supplemental feed and mineral, however. Deer rely primarily on the habitat and environment, not supplemental feed. Always check your state’s regulations when it comes to deer feeding and minerals for deer. Wherever possible, make habitat and flock management a priority over supplements and minerals. However, once you have met these management requirements, providing additional nutrients can be an added asset to your property!

Deer eaters have positive benefits when managed well, but ensuring wild animals have access to foraging plots is a better strategy.