Bucks'n does
 

Have a question..........Will a buck breed the same doe again and again? Reason for question is this.....the area I hunt only has a few doe. If they are bred already, will the buck (got him on my trail cam) leave the area in search of unbred doe?

im not trying to jack your thread but if you dont mind, can i ask a question along with your topic? if not just say so and i will delete, but if a buck has already bred one doe will he just keep bredding as long as the does will allow or is he only good for a couple times

A doe will only allow a buck to breed her until she gets pregnant. After that she will shut down any buck that tries.

So if you only have 4 doe in your hunting area and the all get pregnant then the bucks will move off and find more doe in heat.

That being the case, how long will it take the doe to know if she's pregnant?

Let me try and shed some light on this subject. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I have a pretty good idea about how all of this works.

When a doe goes into estrus, that is the time she is actually allowing a buck to physically breed with her, she will only be in estrus for about 24-48 hours. In that time, she will often let multiple bucks breed her.

During the peak of the rut, an increase in testosterone in bucks will cause an increase in the size of his testes. In the couple of months coinciding with and following the peak rut, a buck will breed with as many does as possible. Bucks often run themselves ragged following does and fighting other bucks for dominance and many bucks lose a considerably amount of their body weight through the month surrounding the rut, and sometimes can't get their fat reserves up before the winter and die due to malnutrition.

If a doe isn't bred during her first estrus cycle, which is uncommon but not unheard of, she will go into estrus about 28 days later. This often leads to what many people consider the "second rut." A month following the first real peak of the rut many yearling does will also come into estrus for the first time. Does not bred during this estrus cycle will have another estrus cycle 28 days later. Once a doe is successfully bred, she'll stop creating the estrus scents that put the bucks in her area into a breeding frenzy. In areas with a buck:doe ratio that is out of whack (too many does, not enough bucks) does sometimes go into 2, 3, or 4 estrus cycles before being bred, leading to late-born fawns.

Now on to nratc's initial question. If there are as few does in your area as you say, the bucks that call that area their home range may move off in search of other does, but they might stick around and try to rebuild their fat reserves, depending on how much competition there was to breed those does. That being said, even if you assume all the does have been bred, bucks from nearby may come through your area in search of receptive does. A buck has to scent check an area to know if there are receptive does in the area, and he has to visit that area to do it.

The bottom line is don't get discouraged because you think all the does in the area have been bred. This could be a good thing. It may make the use of estrus scents more effective, and if competition for the does is high, rattling might also be another successful tactic.

Hopefully this answers a few of the questions.

What a wealth of information. You are never to old to learn. Me, discouraged? Not on your life! I'll be honest, I appreciate God's creation. I can get teary eye'd just watching the sun come up. If I get a buck its a bonus to a great day afield.

Like schobs said, bucks run themselves ragged during the rut, that said they return to their home range to recoupe from the rut, so if you have some food sources near thick cover that would be a good place to put a stand. This is why people say a buck's neck "swells" is beacause they lose so much weight it appears their neck swells.

I think their necks swell because of an increase of neck muscles that comes with the "beefing up" they do in preparation for encounters with other bucks in order to establish dominance. It wouldn't make sense that a deer's neck would seem large in relation to the rest of a deer's body, that is, why would a deer's body shrink and not its neck? I have personally seen a deer that had loose folds of skin on its neck due to a swollen neck the previous year with a lack of swelling when the deer was harvested. My personal opinion.

a buck to follow a doe around about 24hrs before she goes into estrus. she releases hormones that notify the buck that shes ready to be bred. hell stay with her until she allows him to breed her and will breed multiple times during that next24-36hrs. and hell continue to follow her for the next 24 hours because she still secretes the hormone and hell stick around until she stops the secretion and hell move on and continue the process. total time with doe is about 72 hrs. 24 before. 24 hrs during breeding and 24 hrs that she still "smells" like in heat. hopefully my explanation made sense.