Tayloring your land for Deer?

[FJ540]

Short of clear cutting the trees and planting food plot crops, what would you guys recommend for encouraging the deer to come to my area?

I've got a little parcel (1.6 acres) across from some cabins (with a few full time residents) that abuts to several hundred acres of forest. Right now, there's no evidence of any deer traffic, but the neighboring property does have a very old deer stand on it close to the lot line. I also know there's a herd that lives in those woods, as there's a clover field on the south edge and after rifle season there's still 9 deer I've counted at once.

Right now I'm thinking of dropping several salt/mineral licks, planting some apple trees (for the future), and trying to get the canopy thinned enough to support clover and other traditional food plot plants instead of grass and saplings. I'll also be planting raspberries by the road to increase the cover density and try to block the view of the road from the woods (and cause we like raspberries). I'm not sure if I should bother trying to create a thicket or not, due to the proximity issue, but getting them to bed there would be awesome. Then again, additional shrubbery would help use up the available water and might dry it out for more usable space. Some years it's been pretty dry over there, but this year it's got 8" of standing water with a constant flow out the culvert into the lake.

More heavy thicket would also be good for the rabbits I'd like to encourage. I'll be creating some brush piles with the express intent of growing their population for hunting as well.

Questions/thoughts?

[Heffay]

Hmm... if you want deer to come by plant about $500 in trees. They'll come by and mow them down in no time!

[westberg]

If you can't control the water anything you do may be hit and miss. If you can get a open patch try winter rye which you plant in September. If you have trails you can till up a little, try some of the mix seed bag stuff at GM or Cabela's.
If you put out salt licks put them on stumps because they will dissolve into the stump and make a natural salt lick for a few years.
With out some dry area's and no human traffic, I don't know how you will get them to bed there. If you do a search I know there are some sites that show you how to improve your property. 1.6 acres isn't much to hold deer for any length of time.

[FJ540]

Deer do eat saplings...

I'm kinda nervous about the apple trees being able to "take" before the deer chew them to pieces. Wire mesh and all that sometimes only goes so far in detering critters.

Ron, it's very dry in the land beyond mine (it's all high ground). I've probably got over a half acre that's dry. The issue is that the rest of it is low enough, and the water table is high enough this year that most of what remains is saturated. So I almost have an ideal lot since this is very similar to the swamp where my elusive doe lives on my buddy's land (I saw her again on Saturday, so she made it through rifle season). The vegitation is different, but the ground conditions are pretty similar. His was dry the last couple years as well, and this year has a good deal of standing water too.

I'll have to clear out quite a bit of canopy to get the apple trees going, and in those first few years I'll have a good patch for the food plot mixes. This spring I'm already planning a controlled burn once I can get the sprinkler pump back on (we use lake water for that).

[plblark]

IIRC, the apple orchards use ?soap? and electric fences

[westberg]

You may already know this, apple trees need to be planted with having a male and female tree near each other. We have planted apple trees and build a 5 foot tall by 4 foot square wooden frame or fence like around them then wrap chicken wire around the wood frame. Not pretty but does keep the deer off them until they grow and produce apples.

[FJ540]

I'm not concerned with pretty. The area these will be in is completely out of view all summer, and even now is difficult to discern from the road without snow to define it.

I also did know about the male/female issue, but thanks for mentioning it for others who didn't. They also say you need at least two different types of trees, and they can't be more than 100' apart.

The plan is to do a number of trees with different due dates so there's apples falling from September through November.

[Snowgun]

So....How does one deduce the type of wedding tackle on apple trees?


(the answer is that trees are both male and female, you just have to have varieties that flower at different rates so a male flower is blooming at the same time as the female)



BTW, whatever you decide to plant, keep in mind the topography, so that the bushes or trees or whatever produce a natural funnel that the deer tend to travel through. This will help with tree stand placement or whenever you are pushing.

[FJ540]

I only have 1.6 acres and I seriously doubt Potlatch will entertain my po-boy bid to buy the 40 next to mine since they're currently leasing the hunting rights for what my annual payment to the county costs (I've got a 5 year contract for deed - but it won't take me a year to pay it off).

Funneling will consist of getting them in the area and ambushing them from within/above the "orchard" so to speak. Or if I'm really successful - they'll be headed to bed on the other side of the apple trees and will be passing through anyway.

[westberg]

You could try this Wisconsin hunters method, I would recommend skipping the pile of corn.

Deer Preparation 2010.................................

1. Cut a 1 mile long trail in the woods to the deerstand
2. Buy and put up new deerstand
3. Buy new trailcam with video
4. Put out corn the day before hunting
5. Put out scent wicks the day before hunting
6. Sit in a different stand for the Wisconsin Opener
7. Pull the SD card Monday Night to view what you missed at that stand.........

WATCH THIS VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb66fBWbo3k