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

My Deer are starting to come around to feed. Its been a few weeks since i`ve had anything on my game cameras. I just went up to my property yesterday and put a bail of alfalfa at each feeder. Pics are from a couple of weeks ago.

They look pleasantly plump.

We have not seen a deer in months here in NW CT. We drive the area every day in both wooded and open areas.

It's different this winter. The ground has been covered with snow. We still have 9" or more around here. I don't know what they are eating if they are even alive!

At 10 pm here it's 22F.

They are eating browse, if they haven eaten all they can reach.

Don't worry too much about this. We had snow that was from knee-to-waist deep from Dec 1 to April 1 last year and record breaking cold and still many if not most of the deer survived. When it gets tough the deer find a way to make it. What you describe is not too bad at all.

[QUOTE=Big tine;4188837]My Deer are starting to come around to feed. Its been a few weeks since i`ve had anything on my game cameras. I just went up to my property yesterday and put a bail of alfalfa at each feeder. Pics are from a couple of weeks ago.

IMHO that is not a good thing to do at this time of year when their digestive system is not geared up for that after the long winter they've gone through. You'll probably do more harm and possibly kill them if they eat much of that at this stage when they are still on a browse diet. People really need to read up on things before they "help" the wildlife!

Yep, they would be much better off going out and cutting some trees down and let them lay for the browse.

Here in SE Alabama we do not contend with the severe winters that you folks up north do.

Where I hunt the main issue is over population. We have worked closely with the state game folks for about 15 years to address this problem. It has amazed me how many deer we take off the 3000 +/- acres we hunt .... year after year and yet see no real drop off in population. Typically we take about 60-80 does and 20-25 decent bucks every year. Last yer we took 68 does and 27 bucks.

Photos on trail cameras we set out almost immediately after the season indicate that there are still plenty of deer hanging on the property. For example, on the 36 cameras we set out, one each on a 36 food plots, in one week's time there were over 65,000 photos. Yep ... 65,000 !! Gobs of does. Lots of young bucks and a hand full of studs that made it another year.

Interestingly enough, there were very, very few photos triggered by turkeys. Unusual for where we hunt .... and so far it has been a dry turkey season for us.

They are thrivin in my neck of the woods.

Let me expand on what Topper and Oldtimer are trying to get across. During the lean winter months, a deer's digestive system as well as it's metabolism slow down and feed more off it's fat stores. If you suddenly throw out a high protein supplement such as an alfalfa bail, you will more than likely end up giving them colic. Bad mojo in the cold weather for deer. In the warmer spring and summer months, they can get over a bout of colic fairly easily on their own. In the winter time, they don't have the appropriate forage they need to help "loosen" up their bowels or the warmer ground to lay on to help loosen up either. Now, if you have given them this all winter long, then they are used to it and won't end up with colic.

As for the original posters question, the 6 areas I hunt around southern IL have suffered some winter losses but it doesn't seem TOO awful bad as of yet. But this weather this year is freaky to say the least so the Spring fawning may not be very good at all. Then again, may have an explosion! Welcome to Nature, she will never let you know it all and the moment you think you do, she will giggle like a maniac the second you figure it out that you know next to nothing!

Deer here at home are still in groups. Yesterday (3-25-15) there were two groups. One in my woods laying on a south facing hill , there were 12 in that group. Another group was laying in the path along a old fence line in the sun, there were 15 of them. They are also starting to shed at a good rate. Today there were 18 in my woods and 9 in the vacant field. They are snarfing up any Acorns they didn't get last fall. Should soon start dispersing to have their fawns.

:D Al

You,d think the squirrels would have had all of those acorns snatched up.

I shipped 49 pounds of Acorns last fall, still have two 5 gallon pails of them stored away yet and there a lot still left.

:D Al

It would take hundreds of squirrels to eat all the acorns on the ground on the property I hunt this year. It was like walking on marbles in the woods.

I saw no deer today on my ride in NW Connecticut! I drove thru farm, suburban and wooded land.

Much of the snow is melted and I expected to see deer in the fields where I saw them last year.

The temperature just after noon was in the mid 40'sF.

We saw one doe last evening in a forested hill near a house where some of the grass was turning green just a little.

Perhaps they feed the deer?

In the large farm fields in the valley where we always see deer in warmer weather we have not seen any so far this year.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says 12 deer have been found dead in South Hampton, most likely the victims of eating human-provided foods.
They were found Friday in two groups in some woods in South Hampton. Necropsies on eight of them indicated they had died from complications caused by winter feeding.
Two deer were brought to the University of New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which concluded there was evidence of a condition caused by a rapid change in diet. Daniel Bergeron, Fish and Game deer biologist, said there was evidence of corn, hay and what appeared to be pelleted grain eaten by the deer.
“All of these can be detrimental to deer when suddenly introduced in the winter,” he said.
An adult doe found dead in Dover in February is also believed to have died from supplemental feeding.
The department urges the public not to feed deer. A rapid change in diet to human-provided foods high in carbohydrates can reduce their ability to properly digest food, or release toxins that are absorbed into the deer’s system.

I saw most of our herd having burgers,fries and extra thick malteds at the local shake shack which just opened for the season yesterday.




Hadn't seen a deer in several weeks; with the snow finally receding they are now out in the fields feeding regularly.