RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

i just got 20 acres that im going to work on too. i have heard that antler king products work well. i dont know if its considered baiting there, but i think stuff like deer cocaine, and some of them are just a supplement you put on the ground, and the deer eat the dirt? not sure how it works. on my place, im going to dig a small pond, theres no real water nearby. then im gonna dig some land, fertilize, and spread some clover around, maybe some of that no till stuff too. gonna try a couple different things, have to see what will grow in northeast wyoming. we dont get alot of rain, and i can probably get water to it, but it wont be easy.

good luck with this datamax, im in the same boat.
brad

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

nodog actually hit on something there. I was thinking of planting several rows of evergreens around my property, kinda concealing it, and then the honesuckly vines would add additional cover as well.

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

Data,

Your best bet is to go with the licks and feeders. Fertilizer for the oaks is fine but oak grows slow and you probably won't see much results for a few years. The honeysuckle and clover is great, also try planting some small evergreens as well as a apple tree or two.

Don't worry so much about bedding areas as feeding areas. If you can get the does to feed year round then the bucks will show up during the rut and make your property their breeding gound. The key is to have a constant supply of food during the winter months and that is where the licks and feeders shine.

You don't need much, up here in Illinois, one of my spots is a small private wooded lot (apporx. 4 acres) that is next to a very large forest preserve (can't hunt in it) So I put some feeders out in the winter and along with my parents evergreens:D the deer eat well. Last year without exagerating one bit I counted no less than 30 scrapes and probably double that in rubs all in one acre. There were tracks everywere. I expect to see the same this year come the fall.

Looks like a nice piece of land, good luck. I hope it works out well getting and keeping deer on it.

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

Plant them in a way that creates funnels and with stand placements in mind making it possible to get to unseen and unheard. The evergreens would be a good late season site as the deer will move into them when it gets cold.

You could just do what another poster said and drop some trees to let light in. The under growth will go faster than the evergreens. Do this with the same thoughts as above. I dropped a big ash tree on my 5 acre plot and with in days a large bodied buck move into it. I was unaware of it until to late. I plan on doing it more deliberately this season and going to wait to drop them until they are filled out as deer like to feed on the tops (they'll stay green all summer). A natural food plot and thick cover all in one shot.

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

What my father and I did with the family property in PA is we found a retired PGC deer biologist that now manages and is basically a broker for logging. He came in, recommended some food plots in certain spots, marked the trees that he felt could be harvested with deer management in mind, and then bids the actual logging work out to multiple logging companies to save use money. He makes a small percentage of the total that the timber is sold for then for payment on his consulting and he was very reasonable in price. We just finished the logging and are planning to get the food plots planted in the next 2 weeks.

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

kevin1's place

Imagine my dilema , Data .
how'd you like to have the same problem X 2 ?

My place is the one nearest to the center of the pic . It's 10 acres of fairly thick woods bordered by 80 acres of fallow pasture/40% woods to the East , and about 20 acres of similar woods to the West . None of those get any pressure . The only other cover is windbreaks for at least a mile in any direction . My plot is 95% wooded , mostly white oak , about 15% red oak , a couple of persimmons , with the balance in non-mast trees such as red cedar and maple . I even have a seep on the back five , and plenty of downed tops where the property was logged a few years ago .

I plan to put in some more persimmons , along with hazelnut , beech , and chestnuts . Then I'll try to make room for some fruit trees , black and raspberrys , and possibly some muscadine grapes . All but the bramble fruits will be fertilized . I may also enlarge the seep into a small pond before I'm done . I toyed with the idea of honeysuckle , but it tends to be invasive like kudzu if not kept in check . Ideally , something will be coming into season at all times throughout the year . In about 5 years I'll be sitting in the middle of a nice honeyhole . Did I mention that not one of my neighbors hunt ? :)

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

nodog - you and I think alike :D


kevin1 - I'm going to buy some cedars to plant. 3 reasons. #1 they give the deer the feeling of shelters if I plant them a few rows deep, all the way around the property. #2, deer LOVE to rub them and #3 deer LOVE to scrape under them. I guess you could say I'm creating my own scrape lines - which might be exactly what I'm doing. You have any evergreens around your place there ?

I know honeysuckle is invasive .......... thats where the deer will come in handy to keep it in check, especially in the later months of the year.

I wish I had some persimmon trees .......... I might clear a few trees and plant some of those sweet hybrid ones that get big - deer love persimmons in the fall right after the first hard frost !

RE: how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

Persimmons do grow well in our zone , I believe you're zone 6 also . Give some though to planting Japanese persimmons , they look and taste just like ours but they get as big as golf balls . If that ain't a deer magnet I'll eat my hat ! ;)