how can I make my land more attractive for deer ?
 

I'm buying a new house and it has 5 acres with it. The red lines are my property boundary, the blue lines where I've seen sign of deer movement and the yellow dots are deer scrapes from last fall ! Its a level 5 acres, probably 30% white oaks, 50% red oak and 20% other. At the very bottom as you look at that pic, theres someone that has a tree stand still there from previous owners/hunting season.

How does one fertilize white oaks ? What can I do (short of baiting) to enhance the property ? Any ideas ?

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

From my experience , if you have 30% white oaks , you wont have to do a damn thing!
Them white oak acorns are like filet mignon for deer around here. You could plant a few apple trees.

Are they mature white oaks? If they are , you needn't do nothing.

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

I heard of tree paks for fertilizing trees, but I do not know many details. I think they are just permeable paks filled with fertilizer that you just place at the base of the tree.

You could open up the canopy to allow shrubs to grow by downing some trees. This could offer secure travel cover. Not, to mention woody browse for those spooky mature bucks.

Good Luck!

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

I got some really nice white oaks - mature - and by the ammount of deer tracks I'm seeing and a few rubs and scrapes the deer are use to coming through my place. I was thinking maybe some honeysuckle ? That would attract year round, but especially late winter. I don't know how many local guys hunt around the community, could be some nice hunting. Thats going to be so cool - hunting in my back yard in the evening if I choose. No more subdivision for me !

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

Here's a website:

[link]http://www.nutripak.com/faq.html[/link]

Good Luck

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

:) Sounds like a great place data!!! With that many white oaks, you should see lots of deer. Remember tho, the acorns only last a short while. Honeysuckle is an excellent idea!! We have it running rampant here, and the deer always help us out in the winter months by feeding on it. Another that they seem to like is called Privy Hedge (sp). Folks used to plant it between houses to offer some privacy. It tends to spread pretty fast and can become a nusiance. We see the browse line every year where they feed on it. ;)

I don't know how your laws are on baiting, but I feed my deer corn and dog chow in the hard months of winter after season is over. I saw an advertisement on the Outdoor Channel for some kind of corn that you can buy to feed deer that has extra vitamins and nutrients in it. Also guarantees no alpha toxins that tend to give deer diarrhea. I am hoping to see that ad again and write the info down.:)

If you have any bare spots that get minmal sun, plant some clovers....The soil takes alot of lime for clover and if you can get a good stand started (the deer eat mine up before it matures, meaning I need to work on some does), but has done great here in other areas where they control the population better than I do.

I would also suggest getting some mineral licks.....they LOVE them and they last a long time.

Good luck if you plan on having a garden!![&:] I have decided that I just plant mine for the deer!! Only thing I DO get that they don't eat is okra and maters....[:o]

Good luck!!!! and Congrats on a new home that sounds like paradise!!!!

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

fOOD PLOT,EVEN A SMALL ONE OR SEVERAL SMALL ONES

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

I know a couple guys that had similar properties...they picked out a few "special" oak trees and put a 50 pound bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer around each one. From what they tell me it worked out great and the trees produce more than they did before.

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

10-10-10 huh ? Thats what I'm thinking too. Fertilize the big white oaks, plant honeysuckle all over the back 1/4 or 1/2 acres, maybe a mineral lick or deer cocaine etc too. I know baiting (legal in Arkansas) would be a huge benefit too.

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

[&:] 50 lbs of 10-10-10 will kill the biggest oak you can imagine!!!!

Take a pitchfork, poke holes even with the canopy....no more than a pint per tree....[&:] You do NOT want to burn the roots that are NOT used to heavy fertilization.... We have some 36" diameter white oaks here....:) They get a small handfull every other year!! The leftover acorns from a "bumper crop" act as the fertilizer in mast crop years.

You might want to contact your local forester for advice.....[:o]

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

We used Scott tree spikes to fertilize some white oaks last year. They have different spikes for different kinds of trees. On the larger trees we put three or four along the drip line. We had some success, but not as much as we imagined. I think alot of that had to do with the lack of rainfall we had in the area last year.

If you want small food plots but don't want to bulldoze, use some Secret Spot seed mix. I had one of the food plots in front of one of my stand sites and it came up even with little rain. Key is to clear the area of weeds, lime, and fertilize the area before broadcasting the seed. If you have time to get a soil sample that's even better. Depending on the PH of the soil you may use more or less lime and fertilizer. I've heard that the Imperial No-Plow is a better product than the Secret Spot (same manufacturer) and I might try some of that on logging roads this year. Good luck!

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

I respectfully beg to differ that 10-10-10 will kill the trees...it is quite a mild fertilizer. I put a 50 pound bag of 10-10-10 in my garden every year and I have never had a problem with burning the roots...and you may be thinking that I have a huge garden...but not really 20x20ish.

I would not recommend pouring the fert. all in one area around the base of the tree...you need to spread it around the dripline of the tree...with big trees it should end up being a circle with a diameter of say...50 feet

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

Another thing you could do to keep the deer in your area.

Let them all know you hunt with your recurve. They'll feel perfectly safe!:D[8D]

Just kidding. Lighten up!;)

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

hardy har har

Maybe add some aluminum to the soil I guess to go with the BS fertilizer hahaha ?

;)

It would be SO COOL to kill a deer on my own place with trad equipment. I've got yet another goal for 2005 :D

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

That southwest corner looks to be a pretty good funnel. Plus you have seen movement there already. I would focus on hunting that area and putting a food plot further east or north from there and if you hunt that southwest area you will catch them on their way to your food plot.

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

Get a high fence. Put it around the whole property. Then put in some special breed deer to insure they will grow huge racks. :D:D te he he he he

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

CLICK HERE: Quality Deer Management Association Lots of great info. They publish a magazine too.

Don

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

About a half dozen hot does, will work all the time. LOL

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

To fertilize your trees just take a piece or rebar or something strong and use a hammer to pound deep holes around about a 4 ft. diameter around your tree. Then just fill the hole up with (triple 13 is what we use) your choice of fertilizer. A 50 lb. bag seems kind of overkill for one tree.

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

Thick cover.

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 ! ;)