How big are they JD? They might be beehives. I've seen them in alfalfa and canola fields up here, must help with pollenation. Just a guess.

I hunted on alarge farm in the Bow Zoneand there were bee hives all lined up along the back edge of one of the HUGE fields. This was kind of in the middle of no where. It had me wondering, for what? That's intresting

When deer get yarded up for the winter they can do serious damage to crop and hay bales.

As to the size of bale no, it has to do with the equipment the farmer/rancher has to make the bales (hay bind) and demand for the bales(sale wise). Square hay bales are used for sale tohobby farmsor in horse applications. Rounds for the cattle farmers. You'll usually find more rounds then squares as it is less work for the farmer.

2 types of bales, hay - feed(alfalfa, grass, etc)and straw(combinedcereal crops - wheat, barley,oats)- bedding.

Wooden boxes, plastic domes, etcare for bee's. Alfalfa/bee's go hand and hand!

Y'all are startin to sound like a bunch of ol farmers. Ya those are prolly leaf cutter bee huts there jd. Some farmers choose to let their alfalfa go to seed and get these little bee huts placed on their land during the spring-fall. The bees are removed for winter and stored in a large constant heat building. Honey bees do not due that great of a job pollinating alfalfa, has a flower that causes problems for the honey bee so many farmers go to leaf cutters for pollination. It is actaully a pretty big business in my area and even bigger to the north of me up around Nipawin, Carrot River. I had one person from regina think they were ice fishing huts one time. oh boy......

I like to first see if there is any crop left out that never got harvested. Oats, wheat etc the critters will have the swaths dug up and picked up come spring. Close second would be fall rye, winter wheat. We have grown fall rye several times b4 and it has seemed to winter well even with all of the critters on it. Ski-doos will kill a heck of a lot more than the animals. They also like to nibble on red clover if a guy can find any of that around. I have some pretty god spots in my area but no time to get there.

Like skeeter says bales can vary but either they are feed or straw. Straw will be lighter color almost a yellow most of the time with oats, wheat and barley being the biggies but some also bale flax straw.Occasionally you will get some green feed bales, crop that is baledwithout being harvested while it is still green for cattle, usually this is oats.Feed haywill be darker and may be clover, alfalfa, timothy, slough grass etc. From my travels in alberta especially in the south there seems to be a big shift to the big square bales only reason i can think of is nicer to haul and stack. Most of the colonies down around lethbridge, cardston, taber etc do not use the round bales anymore. If the deer or elk find a stand of second cut alfalfa bales look out baby. Many guys here have put up elk fences around their hay to keep the buggers out. We applied to get one of these fences from the government but we would have had to drive an hour to take down this one that wasn't being used, bring that material back to the farm and set it up so the papi said pee on it. More enjoyable to scare them out with the truck. Thing is about elk is they will not just eat one bale. They will nibble on as many as they can, roll them around, bust and push twines off the edge making it a beach of a mess. We had 10 or so hangin around the farm while i was at home but never did too much damage. The big herds are the killers.We are feeding the deer in the yard oats and lil square second cut bales everyday but i guess that isn't good enough. They are eating at this one round bale also which has another bale stacked ontop of it.They have that bottom bale ripped apart pretty good now and prolly a few more days i think dad might walk outside to find fresh meat layin under that top bale lol. Naw he will move it off within the next few days. Curious, nibbling like buggers.[8D]

I wanna go farm nowSeriously though, thanks for the info fellas. I'm trying to get as educated as possible so I can start undrstanding these friggin animals better. We hunt a coulee right along the river and I see the deer heading to the fields on top or see them in the mornings. I know there are tons at night as the farmer says he sees real nice ones with a light. Funny thing is we never see BIG ones early on too often. I know they are nocturnal but they still gotta eat. Thing is they seem to stay down low where the cattle graze while we hunt. I need to know how to find them or trails, hotspots, etc. early in bow season when the rut is not happening. Ah well I figure just keep going out there and try to pattern as best I can. Thanks again guys!!

No doubt about if jd, they doeat on cropbut while your long gone. I have similar problems here but find myself moving closer and closer to where the deer are bedding. Lots of them big buggers don't get up until there is 10 minutes of shooting time left depeding on the pressure they have had. I hate hunting a bucks bedroom for fear of spooking them but to kill a buck who is almost always nocturnal thats bout all you can do. The land my big boy was on this fall i drive by it everyday in summer on my way to work at the bee house and never once did i see that deer. He hung up in a river flat/swampy area and never showed himself once out in the crop until the late stages of the rut. If a guy can figure one of these mosters out its not hard to pull it off because they always do the same thing whereas in the rut tail takes over the mind. But patterning a big boycan often take a guy years before they can figure it out. Ask shed33, he has hunted deer for a few years b4 he has eventually connected. He killed his pig a 80 yards or so away from its bed, had video and previous sheds from him. Homework does pay off, for those who are paitent enough to do it.

Here skeeter i thought u maybe could use this after the storm. Dad called today and said the grader was having to take multiple runs at some of the drifts on our grid road. Buried it once but managed to weasel his way out. The wife and kids said that the university even closed down. She must have been one rude storm.

Oh yeah it was something!!! An adventure drivingthe couple blocksfrom school yesterday afternoon,sustain wind wasover 70km, snowing and you couldn't seepassed thefront of the truck!!25cm or 10" they say we got but in areas drifts where 4-6' high. We sparked up a snowblowing crew last night, 4 blowers it took us 3 1/2hours to clean out8 driveways & the street as our corner got hammered due to the wind direction. Heard of a 20 car pile up on circle, took my brother in law 4 hours to get from lawson heights to silversprings (normally 20-30 mins in heavy traffic). People stayed overnight at Canadian Tire, Co-op, Costco, etc. Every highway was closed, all the bridges were closed by 5 pm, many streets as well, cellphones service went down for a period due to over usage. They closed schools today on the account of the severe cold and drifts.Humdinger to say the least.

Sounds like quite the stormI thinkwe only got the northern edge of it because we didn't get that much snow. It was still enough to shut down the school buses for a few days. Talking to a buddy in Saskatoon yesterday, he said it took him 5 hours to get home[:@]from downtown to Lawson heights. A couple other buddiesjust camped out at work[:'(]Another had a snow drift in his basement from the wind blowing into his furnace's air ducts.

I'll tryagain to post a pic.