supplemental feeding

it's been a hot wet fall with tons of natural food still available but at some point we will get snow and ice. What if anything are you planning to do for your deer?
we typically put out several alfalfa bails out per property per month plus hinge cut a couple trees to add some easy to get at woody brows

in addition to making coyotes feel extremely unwanted and uncomfortable throughout the winter

I'm just hunting coyotes.

Deer process food based on bacteria not acid like humans, this bacteria needs time to become established in their stomachs otherwise the food they eat can not be absorbed into their bodies. If they eat a food that is new where the bacteria is not established and do not eat the food that can be absorbed there is the possibilty of of making it worse for the deer.

If you choose to supplemental feed it must be started early to allow time for the bacteria to establish, and done in small quantities to avoid malnutrition where the bacteria has not established.

My strategy is to plant a variety of nut and fruit trees, a nut tree can live for a few hundred years and will provide more food for wildlife than I ever could.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marker

Deer process food based on bacteria not acid like humans, this bacteria needs time to become established in their stomachs otherwise the food they eat can not be absorbed into their bodies. If they eat a food that is new where the bacteria is not established and do not eat the food that can be absorbed there is the possibilty of of making it worse for the deer.

If you choose to supplemental feed it must be started early to allow time for the bacteria to establish, and done in small quantities to avoid malnutrition where the bacteria has not established.

My strategy is to plant a variety of nut and fruit trees, a nut tree can live for a few hundred years and will provide more food for wildlife than I ever could.

---

there is some truth in what you are saying. there is also fact in the Ontario deer herd was much stronger when the MNR did supplemental feeding in several different locations across the province

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanE

it's been a hot wet fall with tons of natural food still available but at some point we will get snow and ice. What if anything are you planning to do for your deer?
we typically put out several alfalfa bails out per property per month plus hinge cut a couple trees to add some easy to get at woody brows

in addition to making coyotes feel extremely unwanted and uncomfortable throughout the winter

---

I dont do anything at all because they are not on the property at this time of year, they have already yarded up and gone.

I do remember at least 30 years ago driving down Northleys Bay Road near the Peterborough Crown Game Reserve and seeing scores of deer eating from what looked like hay bayles put out by the MNR, not to sure if it did any good considering they have now decided not to do it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gilroy

I dont do anything at all because they are not on the property at this time of year, they have already yarded up and gone.

I do remember at least 30 years ago driving down Northleys Bay Road near the Peterborough Crown Game Reserve and seeing scores of deer eating from what looked like hay bayles put out by the MNR, not to sure if it did any good considering they have now decided not to do it.

---

look at harvest rates from WMU's that did supplemental feeding from back then to now and it paints a pretty clear picture
the Looring yards used to be one of the premier places to hunt not even close to that now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanE

look at harvest rates from WMU's that did supplemental feeding from back then to now and it paints a pretty clear picture
the Looring yards used to be one of the premier places to hunt not even close to that now.

---

I have not looked into the science very much but maybe CWD is one of the reasons they no longer do the supplemental feeding. A lot of these programmes have gone by the way side, I remember when they
still had the pheasant pens up in the Nonquon public land area and even on Scugog Island.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gilroy

I have not looked into the science very much but maybe CWD is one of the reasons they no longer do the supplemental feeding. A lot of these programmes have gone by the way side, I remember when they
still had the pheasant pens up in the Nonquon public land area and even on Scugog Island.

---

The zombie deer is going to be a problem later on for us. More and more studies are being pushed with the possibility of a jump the cdc suggests all meat be tested and a few other things to keep us safe. Cwd just moved into yellow stone and is in 3 province's here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/...read-to-humans

I believe your right about the feeding and cwd



Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fishfood

The zombie deer is going to be a problem later on for us. More and more studies are being pushed with the possibility of a jump the cdc suggests all meat be tested and a few other things to keep us safe. Cwd just moved into yellow stone and is in 3 province's here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/...read-to-humans

I believe your right about the feeding and cwd



Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

---

from what I've read and researched CWD is mostly from overpopulation and stagnant water. not much has been written and reported on from winter supplemental feeding

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DanE

from what I've read and researched CWD is mostly from overpopulation and stagnant water. not much has been written and reported on from winter supplemental feeding

---

Once one is infected and feeding in the same lot chances are the others follow as it's transmitted through its saliva and other body fluids that's all around.

Even without overpopulation this can wipe out a heard in no time once it begins. You can have a sick buck breading with a few does and won't even see a problem for 2 years. Luckily it's not very established yet but it is moving north.

The disease could of originated from overpopulation but it spreads the same as any other virus close contact

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk