Deer Bait- Pile or Dump

[Horridfiber101]

I see some videos where the guys use a fertilizer spread to scatter corn etc
or is it better to pile the corn/ apples in one location ?

One fat Bear and the pile will be gone.
Also not sure that more than one doe family will work an area at a time.
But the scatter method may mean lots of the bail goes unfound?

Any thoughts ?

[Sam Menard]

Yes bears love it and will devour it all. It’s best to scatter it and the deer will scavenge for it. Scatttering it is healthier for the deer as well as too much corn can cause serious health issues, even death, for deer.

[dean.f]

We usually scatter any corn or feed so the deer spend more time pawing at it and scavenging we've found it brings them to the cameras more often even after the feed is gone.

[Horridfiber101]

Just scattered 1500 lbs of apples- so time will tell

[Species8472]

Just scattered 1500 lbs of apples- so time will tell

Sounds like two totes of ground apples. Did you buy them? Before i owned property with apple trees i used to get them at Chudleighs for $60 per tote - that was a while back so likely double that price or more now. Tote was 700-800 llbs.

[Horridfiber101]

Barrie Hill farms $160
I see a place in Collingwood for $120 or $100 for 2+ bins
They were pretty rotten, so hopefully they last a week or so

[sabmgb]

a local seller about 5 miles down the road from where I hunt would give me all the rotten apples or ones that they couldn't sell. Worked out good for both of us as they didn't want them around their place to draw the deer in and I wanted them to draw the deer in. I'd just dump them in one spot, but all I got to come were coyote so I stopped baiting.

[Fenelon]

For god sake don’t bulk dump bags of corn or grain unless you want to kill the deer you are trying to attract. The rumen needs to be slowly acclimatized to sugar/starch rich forage, or you will get a classic case of acidosis that will kill the animal. The animal’s rumen will bloat. I had a neighbour who used to dump 40lb bags of full corn for the deer. I found two deer dead on my property and a third showed up on the game camera bloated up the size of a 55gallon barrel. The deer I shot that year was horribly bloated. When I dressed it the rumen was bloated up the size of a punching balloon and the corn gut contents were fermenting like a beer vat. . Google ruminant acidosis if you want to read up on it. I broad scatter about a liter of full corn per baiting, every two days. It’s more than enough to draw them to your baiting area.

[Sam Menard]

For god sake don’t bulk dump bags of corn or grain unless you want to kill the deer you are trying to attract. The rumen needs to be slowly acclimatized to sugar/starch rich forage, or you will get a classic case of acidosis that will kill the animal. The animal’s rumen will bloat. I had a neighbour who used to dump 40lb bags of full corn for the deer. I found two deer dead on my property and a third showed up on the game camera bloated up the size of a 55gallon barrel. The deer I shot that year was horribly bloated. When I dressed it the rumen was bloated up the size of a punching balloon and the corn gut contents were fermenting like a beer vat. . Google ruminant acidosis if you want to read up on it. I broad scatter about a liter of full corn per baiting, every two days. It’s more than enough to draw them to your baiting area.

Good info. You can’t bait deer the same way that you bait bears. On another note, even though cattle and deer both have 4 chambered stomachs, there are many things a cow can eat that a deer can’t properly digest.

[dean.f]

Just picked up a crate of carrots, cheaper than anything else I've found. Going to spread them in a few spots the same as last year and hopefully they last the week. Last year they were almost gone by opening day.