Do you feed them through the year?

[Boo]

This is the 3rd year for a food plot and feeding corn during the winter at my hunting property. It seems like there are more and more coming every year. I start in Sept with 60 bags of corn and it lasts until the beginning of summer. I am also putting out corn at home until Dec. Anyone else putting out corn outside of hunting season?

[AJ01]

Yeppers...ALL year round!!
And even Big Uglies that you don't really want!!



And then there's the case if you don't feed year round, then there's nothing to eat year round!!



However, I do understand that in some localities it is illegal to offer wild animals "free food"!! Thankfully here we can indeed "feed" year round. We CANNOT hunt migratory birds over grain or feed. That is illegal.

IF and I say IF you can LEGALLY feed year round, I personally would!!
Just my not too humble thoughts on the matter!!

[AJ01]

Double post!! My Bad!!

[Patcon]

Yes, I feed year round. I hunt on 6 acres, so I feed year round to try to keep animals coming through my postage stamp.

[robertyb]

I have been feeding deer year around for well over 40 years now and have never bought a bag of corn or other feed for them. Plant food plots and they have year round food available 24/7. It is a lot less expensive in the long run also. We don't get covered up with a lot of snow here.

[xcaliber]

Here it is illegal to feed them. DNR cracks down pretty hard on people because they opt for the feed corn, and since it is not normally available to deer at the hardest times during the year it is considered dangerous to their digestive system. If the deer eat your plants, that's okay.

[AJ01]

The pics in my previous post show East Texas versus South and West Texas.

Pics 2 and 4 are of South Texas and West Texas. You can plant food plots in either of those locations, but I doubt that anything would grow.
I will attest to the fact that you will have an outstanding crop of Mesquite, Cactus and Rattlesnakes!!
Soil is hard packed red clay, no rain to speak of, so it's either feed or don't.
In those locations we have even put in water systems and dug ponds... Took 2 ponds in West Texas 4 years to hold enough water to get muddy!! Gotta have them, or you have no deer.

East Texas is another story. In the pic with the Hogs. I don't care about them other than giving the kids and grandkids something to go hunt.
I run one (1) feeder on this place, and it feeds one time a day. 10AM!!
I don't even run any cameras on this place anymore except at the main gate. Nothing there but Big Uglies!!

The deer however, I feed 2 times a day. Usually about 8am and then again about 4:00pm. Anything later than 4 pm and all you have all night is a steady parade of "Trash Pandas"!! And hate them as much if not more than Hogs!! The places that we hunt deer in ET also have large Oak trees, Persimmon Trees and a couple of wild Apple Trees. Plus a couple of large ponds or tanks. We don't plant a lot of food plots simply because most of these places are heavy timber, a mixture of Oak and Pine with a few Hickory thrown in for good measure.
What open spaces there are usually mowed by the Oil companies, so if you planted on them, you'd just be spinning your wheels.

Needless to say, we buy bulk corn by the ton. I don't know about you fellows, but down here a bag of corn runs about $9.50 for a 50lb. bag. That's to durn high!

Y'all be Safe out there!!

[flightattendant100]

The pics in my previous post show East Texas versus South and West Texas.

Pics 2 and 4 are of South Texas and West Texas. You can plant food plots in either of those locations, but I doubt that anything would grow.
I will attest to the fact that you will have an outstanding crop of Mesquite, Cactus and Rattlesnakes!!
Soil is hard packed red clay, no rain to speak of, so it's either feed or don't.
In those locations we have even put in water systems and dug ponds... Took 2 ponds in West Texas 4 years to hold enough water to get muddy!! Gotta have them, or you have no deer.

East Texas is another story. In the pic with the Hogs. I don't care about them other than giving the kids and grandkids something to go hunt.
I run one (1) feeder on this place, and it feeds one time a day. 10AM!!
I don't even run any cameras on this place anymore except at the main gate. Nothing there but Big Uglies!!

The deer however, I feed 2 times a day. Usually about 8am and then again about 4:00pm. Anything later than 4 pm and all you have all night is a steady parade of "Trash Pandas"!! And hate them as much if not more than Hogs!! The places that we hunt deer in ET also have large Oak trees, Persimmon Trees and a couple of wild Apple Trees. Plus a couple of large ponds or tanks. We don't plant a lot of food plots simply because most of these places are heavy timber, a mixture of Oak and Pine with a few Hickory thrown in for good measure.
What open spaces there are usually mowed by the Oil companies, so if you planted on them, you'd just be spinning your wheels.

Needless to say, we buy bulk corn by the ton. I don't know about you fellows, but down here a bag of corn runs about $9.50 for a 50lb. bag. That's to durn high!

Y'all be Safe out there!!

I knew those mesquite trees were NOT in East Tx.

[flightattendant100]

The pics in my previous post show East Texas versus South and West Texas.

Pics 2 and 4 are of South Texas and West Texas. You can plant food plots in either of those locations, but I doubt that anything would grow.
I will attest to the fact that you will have an outstanding crop of Mesquite, Cactus and Rattlesnakes!!
Soil is hard packed red clay, no rain to speak of, so it's either feed or don't.
In those locations we have even put in water systems and dug ponds... Took 2 ponds in West Texas 4 years to hold enough water to get muddy!! Gotta have them, or you have no deer.

East Texas is another story. In the pic with the Hogs. I don't care about them other than giving the kids and grandkids something to go hunt.
I run one (1) feeder on this place, and it feeds one time a day. 10AM!!
I don't even run any cameras on this place anymore except at the main gate. Nothing there but Big Uglies!!

The deer however, I feed 2 times a day. Usually about 8am and then again about 4:00pm. Anything later than 4 pm and all you have all night is a steady parade of "Trash Pandas"!! And hate them as much if not more than Hogs!! The places that we hunt deer in ET also have large Oak trees, Persimmon Trees and a couple of wild Apple Trees. Plus a couple of large ponds or tanks. We don't plant a lot of food plots simply because most of these places are heavy timber, a mixture of Oak and Pine with a few Hickory thrown in for good measure.
What open spaces there are usually mowed by the Oil companies, so if you planted on them, you'd just be spinning your wheels.

Needless to say, we buy bulk corn by the ton. I don't know about you fellows, but down here a bag of corn runs about $9.50 for a 50lb. bag. That's to durn high!

Y'all be Safe out there!!

Aj, When we hunted just west of Fort Worth, Danny Miller came on a hog hunt w Boo and Late forum member Awshucks. It was Feb. and all was dead looking and eaten off. Danny said....It looks kind of like Africa! It was pretty barron then.

[AJ01]

The pics in my previous post show East Texas versus South and West Texas.

Aj, When we hunted just west of Fort Worth, Danny Miller came on a hog hunt w Boo and Late forum member Awshucks. It was Feb. and all was dead looking and eaten off. Danny said....It looks kind of like Africa! It was pretty barron then.

The pic with scraggly looking Does is just west of San Angelo about 20 miles. If memory serves me right, that pic was taken in December of 2021. Ain't nothing out there but rocks, cactus, mesquites and LOTS of rattlesnakes!!
Did I mention LOTS of rattlesnakes!!
A big deer out there MIGHT weigh 130 pounds, with rocks tied to 'em!! But there are about 100 deer to every hunter! That's Irion County which is a 5 deer county. Ya just have to find one that when ya slide it between two pieces of bread to make a sandwich, they don't disappear!!

If y'all hunted west out past PK, there are some BIG Hogs out toward Stamford and Graham.

[Hillcountry]

I try to but they don’t cooperate…I don’t feed during hunting season even though there are baiting dates (game wardens around here don’t take kindly to baiting “out of season” and will claim, even though you are NOT actively baiting a stand per se, by feeding at your property you’re “patterning the deer” to travel certain routes that may go by your stand locations)
That said, it is not illegal here to feed deer…they “suggest” not feeding them.
My area has so few deer that I’m sure the yotes are doing their winter slaughter and I want to help them any way I can do a survive.
This (end of winter) I have had a bag of deer feed in a feeder for a month with no deer visits (last tracks in the yard were in January when I wasn’t feeding yet) by the time the deer appear (soon?) the bears will be waking up and commence ruining my feeder.
The tree rats, however, have had a feast. NH govt just changed the gray squirrel laws to “NO CLOSED SEASON” so some target practice will be in order

[Hester0305]

I feed corn at my house year round and keep cameras going also, I like watching them grow throughout the summer and into the fall to help me decide which deer I'm going after. On my hunting club property that I've had leased for 24 years I feed corn before deer season and a couple months after season to see which ones actually made it. I plant food plots at my hunting club also in the spring and the fall.

[janesy]

I don't bother for two reasons.

1) there is still thousands of acres of standing corn in the fields around here well into January or February.

2) the deer are yarded up in there normal locations for the winter, and I feel separating them, or attempting to anyway, only helps to potentially increase unusual movement and subsequently increases chances of death due to vehicle impacts or predation that would not normally occur if they are hunkered down yarded up somewhere safe. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen a dear dead on the road in the winter around here, they just don't move much. Either way, I don't need to interfere.

But at the same time, if your close to a yard, if that's even a thing where you are, and your fortunate enough to be able to watch them year round, I'd probably feed them a bit. Probably carrots they last forever and don't get stolen by turkeys.

[Deaf jeff]

wish i could but in michigan it will be illegal to feed birds before long

[BrotherRon]

I star feeding a corn and roasted soybean mixture a couple weeks before season opens, then switch to a deer mix once the snow flies.
I stop feeding when the season ends and let them herd up in their winter area about a mile from our property.
They come back every spring because we have a creek running through our property and a spring fed pond.