how's your deer herd
 

Our DEC says they are afraid of a big deer die off
In the NE. Because of the heavy snow and this long
Cold spell and the deer don't have a big body fat build
Up , its been used up. They are holding for a fast warm up.

Food wise, I believe they did ok. We had some snow but not like the NE, plus we had a heck of an acorn crop not to mention theres good agriculture crop around. During rifle season the county where I hunt only allows 1 doe the 1st 2 days of the season if you by the permit. Other counties allow as many as 3 a day! But buzz is their herd is starting to hurt and theyre looing to change that.
All in all in the county I live and hunt id say we're in good shape.

We lost a lot of deer last year in the winter as our winter of 13-14 was even worse than out east. But with bucks only last season and very little snow this year, our herd should be back strong this year, barring some freak late winter storms. Deep snow is murder on the deer - they expend a lot of energy wading through it so they are confined to yarding areas. We have had only about 6" on the ground for nearly the whole winter so deer can browse all they want.

It will be interesting. The worst time of the year for deer is early spring. They have pretty much used up ther fat reserves and most of the food high and low has been eaten and if there is a lot of snow on the round as there is now it takes a lot of effort for the deer to move and find what food is left under the snow. There are several hundred acres of fenced in land very close to my house with a deer herd this year of thirty something. The land is owned by Armstrong World Industries and they allow no hunting. There are small strips of woods and the rest is farmed in corn and the herd is too large for the roperty. Although the deer could get out they rerely do. In a nomal winter with the kind of snowfall we get the deer do ok, but this year I am seeing them out looking for food all day long and they pretty much have gleaned the fields clean, and I would not be surprised if some of the bred doe will resorb their fawns because of lack of food. We just had another 10 inches of snow two days ago. On top of the snow we have had a record breaking cold spell that has lasted a long time and the colder it is the more fat a deer burns and the more food they need. I haven't heard from anyone in the northern tier counties but I suspect the deer are yarded up and hungry.

The deer herd here in Illinois has been sold to the highest bidder.

We are having a normal winter after several really bad ones here in the Canadian prairies. Where I live the deer herd has been absolutely decimated and quite frankly, they should have closed the season last year but didn't.

Will be interesting to see what happens this next year. Whitetails come back quickly but there are so few now it will take 3 or 4 good years with high fawn survival rate and mild winters to get back to more normal deer numbers.

We use to have a fair number of deer winter behind our house. There are none now. We can go for a week without seeing a fresh deer track crossing the road and we see more wolf tracks in our fields than deer tracks.

I didn't even buy a deer licence this past fall as I would feel bad killing one.

Then practice wolf hunting.
I've heard they taste just like chicken.

Well I would love to but I can't. We have a one wolf bag limit in the zone I live in and trapping for them is closed. It is a long story but has to do with wolf studies, radio collars and politics.

In any event it was not the wolves that got the deer in the predicament they are in. They take a few but mostly they concentrate on elk and moose.

It was brutally cold, long winters, very late springs and spring blizzards in the recent past and lots of coyotes, which thankfully had a die off this past year due to parvo. Then there is our huge bear population and the boars kill a pile of fawns in the spring, plus our cougars.

With the coyotes knocked back all we need is a break with the winters and things will turn around.

I took up coyote hunting this year to lessen predators. I only hunted on state park deer reduction hunts for deer in 2014 and will do the same in 2015. I will try to make turkey my #1 game for 2015. I will also pursue antelope elsewhere.

Indiana's overly gracious bag limits have compiled with these extra cold winters. I can kill a hundred does if I move county to county.

The deer herd where I live is doing great. biggest problem they face is the fools in cars who drive to fast in a deer crossing zone.
You can buy 5 doe permits a day over the counter here.

Back on the farm we used to during A Bad winter go cut some trees in February for next years fire wood. I have seen the deer peeling the bark off popple trunks as big as a foot in dia.
they also would walk in our snowmobile tracks for several miles to corn fields.

Here at home they stop every morning and evening to enjoy a few licks on the salt block.





:D Al