Age this Deer
 

No photo. I hunt SE Alabama. This past week, while watching a food plot, 3 yearlings and a doe stepped out. The three yearlings all had faint spots on their rump. And looked to me to weigh no more than 45# or so, if that. Any idea about how old these might be and about when the doe was bred? I have never seen spotted fawns this far down into the year ... and seems we have a huge crop of very young yearlings. Early November is not unusual, but mid-December seems very late. Even for SE Alabama !!

I live in the dothan area. Weve been seing a bunch of fawn sized does. But none with spots this late in the year. As far as your question idk. It sounds like the deer where bred very late where your hunting.

Its seems that the fawns you are seeing where probally dropped late. Possibly as late as mid August, possibly very early Sept. You also said there is 3 of them? It could also be that the mother had triplets, Which is not a rare occurance but certainly not as common as a doe dropping twins or just 1 fawn. Although I am unsure as to the bearing of a doe dropping multiple fawns (3 or more) and the effect it might have on the fawns health and growth, I do know that whitetail deer have been known to have up to 5 or more deer in a season. ( this is very rare). The most common is a single fawn or twins. I myself have seen only 1 fawn in my life with spots in December, it was tiny. It weighed about the same as what you where saying appox 45-50 pounds. The mother however was huge!!!! 167 pounds ( feild dressed ) when I was feild dressing her, she still had alot of milk in her and must have been still feeding the fawn. This was strange to me too. I have no clue why this happened? It could have been due to a very extremely harsh winter the year before, but I don't know for sure. Thats why some people believe that there is even a 3rd rut,a theory that suggests if there are any lingering does that have not been succesfully bred that season, the bucks ( by nature ) will do their job as the breeders of the woods. This theory however, is left up to speculation and I really don't believe that it has been officially proven yet. I wouldn't worry too much about it, so long as you are not going to have a harsh winter or a large coyote population. And even if you did, its really out of your hands. They should do fine though. God bless and good hunting.

I live just outside of Dothan and the rut last year didn't hit till Feb. which means a lot of fawns didn't drop to July and August.

Then the fawns you guys have been seeing in the area where you are hunting makes alot of sense now. Sometimes this stuff just happens, could be alot of factors that pushed the rut to start in Feb. last year. It would really be hard to pinpoint one reason why though.

The rut didnt hit our property till the end of jan and feb.

I've seen alot of small fawns over the years - even late in the season. I also think it has to do with the amount of does, and some of them getting bred really late. A few years ago on valentines day, I saw a doe standing for a buck in a wide open field. That makes for some really small fawns in the fall.

Oh, and btw...a "yearling" is not a fawn. Yearlings are your 1.5yr old deer.