RE: What bait is best?
Do not feed the deer!
Deer are extremely resiliant and it takes a few months for them to starve. In KY your snow will be gone in no time and the feed you give the deer will be a waste of time.
This is an unusual year for us-our snow cover has only been here for 3 weeks, but normally we have a 4-5 month snow cover, with 125-200 inches of snow, usually 35-40 inches on the level, with times of below freezing weather for over a month at a time. We have not nut crops, fruit, or farm fields. If our deer can make it over 4 months in these conditions, yours can make it a few weeks until the warm weather comes.
There is probably plenty of browse in your area they can reach, probably things you didn't even know deer ate.
Let nature take it's course.
Jeff...U.P. of Michigan-"Snowmobile capital of the world".