Shaggy2

I have a doe on my farm which will probably field dress 200 pounds. I am guessing that she is five or six years old. I normally only take bucks.

I have an ogoing debate with my brother about managing the deer herd and if this deer should be harvested. I guess my question is, Does a doe ever reach an age when hey stop breeding?

BrianDamage

Leonard Lee Rue tells of a doe in captivity that lived to be 23 and gave birth until she was 18 or so

you NEED to take some does out if you have been hunting only bucks...you will end up exceeding the carrying capacity of your land if you don't and they will overbrowse the vegetation

if she is mature, go ahead and take her out - there will be many more to replace her


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burniegoeasily

If left long enough yes. They only have a limited number of eggs, like all females. They usually die well before they ovulate there last egg. It is true to increase the number of bucks on your land you need to shoot some of the doe. Land can support only so many deer, if all you have are doe then the bucks will move on to other places to feed and set patterns else were.

cableguy119

Well without being winded about QDMA or anything, there is a capacity that any land can hold and taking a mature doe shouldn't have any adverse effects on the herd on your land. Balance is a good thing so I say take her. Another question would be how many other doe do you see on this land? That should factor into it a bit.

jred

I would more than likley take other doe in the area if they are in great numbers. This doe sounds like shes a big one and if left alone for a few more years she could possibley birth some real nice sized deer?



KEEP HUNTING THE GREAT OUTDOORS & GOD ALIVE, PASS IT ON!

skeeter 7MM

Did she have any fawns with her? I have heard from biologist that bucks will often prefer to breed smaller & younger does, not sure how true it is but if you have 200lb bucks on your land and a 200lb doe...with no fawns maybe their is some merit. Harvesting her would than be a good idea, if she ain't being breed than what use does she really have for your buck population or deer in general. QDM requires does to be limited to keep ratios in check, so harvesting does will always bring advantages to the area (as long as over harvesting doesn't happen). I personally don't shoot does with fawns, so that would be my only deterent, besides limit obviously. I say if she has fawns let her pass on her genes and wits, keep her around and take out another doe instead.

propmahn

you need to take some does, the next time you take anytihng less than an 8 point, look down at it and go "man he would have been nice next year", because you just killed an immature buck.

propmahn

strut

I know them ol'long necked does is a trophy in it self cause they can smell you just as far if not farther than any buck you will ever see, especially one with fawns. Not saying that I would kill her though especially if I thought see was still raising fawns cause a doe like that can add to the gene pool just as well as a trophy buck. If you want to take a doe take something that would be better eating.

Shaggy2

Thanks everyone for the info. I usually see other does with her but not fawns. I have not seen her for awhile, couple weeks. She is very smart, i would say smarter than any buck that I have around. I did not know that a doe could live so long. I think that I will let her stay around... I have grown some sort of weird attachment to that deer.

Thanks. all.

TxCowboy

You don't neccessarily have to shoot that certain doe but you NEED to be shooting does......and my guess would be alot of them. In most of the US the buck/doe ratio is waay out of wack because of people only shooting bucks. This was the "old school" train of thought and pushed for decades. Now that we understand more about deer herds and health we understand that does must be killed. In a perfect world the buck/doe ratio would be 1:1 however in much of Texas and many other places the ratio is anywhere from 1 buck to 4 does or even much worse such as 1:6. That is not uncommon at all. If you ever get your numbers down to 1:2 or so, the buck activity will really pick up as they have to really fight for the does. A well balanced herd is much better.

Now if you don't want to shoot this particular doe, I understand that, shoot another one. I just talked to a guy today who owns/leases amost 6,000 acres in Central Tx. They got in a managment program sponsered by the Texas Parks & Wildlife. After doing deer counts and studies the biologist told them to kill 40 does this year and NO bucks. The biologist told them if they keep killing does in large numbers off this 6,000 acres and no bucks for up to 5 years, the deer numbers will be much better and the hunting will be excellent.

Good luck!

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Hunting the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas.