By June the bucks and does should be on their summer home ranges, and the does should be fawning. It's time to start working on habitat improvement, fertilizing, mowing, spraying, and clearing trails and paths. You can also start glassing from the roads, to see if there are any big bucks out there, and where they hang out.
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How Social Status Affects Health and The Rut
It may be that current deer management and hunting practices in many areas (which result in lower than normal buck:doe ratios) that are the cause of the rut being delayed until late November, and continuing into January and even February in many northern states. In a deer management study by Dr. Larry Marchinton between 1981 and 1986, an increase in the buck to doe ratio from 25:100 in 1981-82, to 54:100 in 1983-84 resulted in the average breeding date changing from November 11 in 1981 to October 15 in 1982, almost a month earlier than normal; and the length of the breeding period was shortened from 96 to 43 days. In another study using quality deer management techniques, the average breeding date occurred almost two months earlier.
During Marchinton's study the average number of fetuses per does over the age of 2 1/2 years increased from 1.6 in 1985 to 1.9 in 1986, and pregnancy in doe fawns was detected in 1985. Fetal male:female sex ratios shifted from 64:36 during 1981-83, to a more balanced 47:53 during 1984-86. The average weights of yearling bucks increased from 90 pounds in 1982 to 110.5 pounds during the 1983-86 portion of the study. There was a significant weight increase in the 3.5 year and older bucks in a similar study by McKelvy. The positive results of these studies were credited to the increased age structure of the bucks.
An increase in the number of older dominant bucks in the deer herd has a direct suppressing effect on the testosterone levels of younger bucks, which reduces their aggressiveness and competition for breeding privileges. Since a low position in the breeding hierarchy results in less reproductive behavior and lower weight loss, those young bucks that do not breed grow to greater body size before they become dominant. This results in an overall increase in the number of older dominant bucks, which leads to earlier fawning dates and heavier body sizes of yearling bucks; and this leads to higher survival rates and eventually to increased buck numbers.