In the area of Alabama south of Montgomery, the rut will start around the middle of January and the bucks will scrape and chase does into April. Nothing to do with frost or the lunar time. I don't think there is anything concrete to the theory about the length of daylight as there are different times of the rut starting and there isn't but one sun and one earth spinning to make the daylight length. If anybody can explain that I would be very interested in the explanation. I think it has more to do with the genetics of where the deer in your area were stocked from (in the50's and early 60's I understand there was a bad blacktongue epidemic that wiped outmostof the deer inAlabama and the deer were stocked from different herds throughout the U.S.) and the number of over populated does in your area. The stocking herds had developed their time of the rut due to climate and the developing available foragefor the does and fawns before the next winter hits. This rut timing in the different areas of the U.S. took place over thousands of years. T.R., do you have an opinion about that?