chuck65

i have a very small peice of property in mid michigan, a total of 26 acres that i hunt on during bow/gun season thats covered in oak trees and hilly terrain. my question is what can i do throughout the year(if anything) to increase deer activity on my property? planting a small food plot? use of mineral blocks through out the year? i have two beddign areas and a total of 5 scrapes, ive got pics of a spike,4 pointer, and a 6 pointer. and a few does. none of teh bucks are shooters but would love to keep them around at least until next year if no one else takes them.

nctaxi

I recently saw a show "Get in the Game" on the Outdoor Channel that discussed selective clearing of trees. Sorry don't know which show #, but they were using a herbicide called "arsenal". What they were doing was cutting into the tree witha hatchet and spraying the herbicide into the cut. Basically killing unwanted trees to open the understory to allow light to reach the forest floor to let the more desirable trees to grow and also allowing natural vegitation to grow. Claims that it makes the property more desirable to deer. The recommended trying it on like 5% of property total. Also what kind of land is around your property? Similar? Open fields? What are your neighbors doing? Are they interested in deer management? If they have food plots then planting the same may not make yours more desirable to deer. Just a thought.

BrutalAttack

Since it's a small amount of acreage, I would focus on quick and easy tactics to draw in bucks from the surrounding properties. Establishing a few salt licks in sheltered areas would probably be helpful.

I don't really see clearing trees as being helpful if your getting a good mast crop during the year. If your not getting a decent mast crop then very selective harvest would help and you (or the landowner)could potentially profit from harvesting a few oaks.

chuck65

the surrounding areas are wooded just like mine, my area is a little more thinned out considering i had some trees removed about 3 yrs ago. i'll do the salt licks nvr tried them before. not sure what teh neighbors are doing but i think there doing corn feeders. do you think like planting a small area with like clovers might help? or would it be a waste of time. i was also going to get some corn feeders that run off of timers. but i don't know. with all the acorns in the area i don't know if anything else could would intise them.

BrutalAttack

Yeah that was what I was talking about. If you have a good mast (acorn) crop, using food plots or feeders probably won't have much impact.

chuck65

this past weekend i experimented and through out a bag of sugar beets and over a 2 week period the the deer ate them up. there were jsut a few left, there are tons of acorns though but every one has got themso i'mtrying to give my property a lil advantage, i feelthat considering i'm not there 3/4 of the year helps tremedously with the deer not feeling pressured, maybe like that a safe zone for them, buti guess that could backfire to because then when i do go up there maybe they get spooked because there not used to the traffic. i'll do some salt blocks early next year and see what happens.

BrutalAttack

Put your trail cams up at the licks and post up some pictures.

chuck65

should i put the licks out now or wait until next year, i thought they huit them during the summer.

BrutalAttack

Actually, they will hit them all the time. Thesooner they figure out where the licks are hte more likely they will be in the area and habitually visiting them.

The extra minerals also are a boon to the females before and after they fawn.

chuck65

alright then i'll get them out there as soon as possible is there a particular kind i should get or maybe some thing to add to it or pour over it?