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Location: Eastern Ontario | Anyone feeding deer in the winter and if so what are you feeding?
I have 3 deer hanging out behind the house 1 injured they have been coming up and scrounging sunflower seed that has blown off the bird feeding platform. I want to the feed store where I get the sunflower seed and asked for deer feed and when I got home saw it was called beef finisher . I think it's corn , oats , rye, and molasses it's being ignored in favour of the odd sunflower seed and a juniper tree that I would be glad to see gone. |
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| horsehunter - 2/4/2021 8:57 AM
Anyone feeding deer in the winter and if so what are you feeding?
I have 3 deer hanging out behind the house 1 injured they have been coming up and scrounging sunflower seed that has blown off the bird feeding platform. I want to the feed store where I get the sunflower seed and asked for deer feed and when I got home saw it was called beef finisher . I think it's corn , oats , rye, and molasses it's being ignored in favour of the odd sunflower seed and a juniper tree that I would be glad to see gone.
We don't feed, although I have one deer that has learned to stand on it's hind legs and lick the thistle seed out of one of my feeders that is 6' off the ground. But, you don't want to pay that much to feed them. We have a neighbor that feeds and they just put out shell corn. |
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | Corn will be fine just make sure it's legal to feed.deer. |
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Posts: 213
| As with most areas in MN & WI it is not legal to feed deer during due to CWD. that being said it is still very common in our area. Pumpkins are excellent. The local village put out a couple hundred for fall decorations and these seem to find their way into the wood once the decorations come down. Hay is also a top choice. A local stable won't use the small bales if a barn cat has crapped on them and will give them away for the asking. Couple locals put out small amounts of corn, Basically a gallon or so a day. Too much corn can be a bad thing. If you are rural just buy a large round bale. Price of forage is down so these cost as much as 10 bags of corn and are healthier and will last all winter. Check your local laws. |
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| pstrombe - 2/4/2021 10:27 AM
As with most areas in MN & WI it is not legal to feed deer during due to CWD. that being said it is still very common in our area. Pumpkins are excellent. The local village put out a couple hundred for fall decorations and these seem to find their way into the wood once the decorations come down. Hay is also a top choice. A local stable won't use the small bales if a barn cat has crapped on them and will give them away for the asking. Couple locals put out small amounts of corn, Basically a gallon or so a day. Too much corn can be a bad thing. If you are rural just buy a large round bale. Price of forage is down so these cost as much as 10 bags of corn and are healthier and will last all winter. Check your local laws.
Another consideration in choosing to feed deer is traffic. An elderly couple near our place fed deer for years. They live on a busy county highway and every year at least one or two deer died crossing the road, coming or going. A number of neighbors complained to the DNR and they finally stopped. The guy across the road from them said he tried to talk to them, saying "if you like deer, stopped feeding them". They claimed that the dead deer by their place were just a coincidence. Yeah, right. Deer crossing the road in the middle of the day. Just happen to be heading for your feed pile. |
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Posts: 9
| I feed foxes usually daily. They come to my back driveway every night so I started leaving geese for them after I clean them. The foxes usually work on them for a day or two then I toss em and give them fresh ones. I live on a couple fairly busy streets but haven't seen a dead fox yet so that's good. |
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| DaytonS - 2/4/2021 1:47 PM
I feed foxes usually daily. They come to my back driveway every night so I started leaving geese for them after I clean them. The foxes usually work on them for a day or two then I toss em and give them fresh ones. I live on a couple fairly busy streets but haven't seen a dead fox yet so that's good.
I think fox are smarter than deer. Only time I have come close to hitting a fox was at night when a female that has a den near my place had her young kits out. Fortunately, it is a 25 mph road and I saw them before I hit them. Three of the kits sat down in the road and stared at my truck when I stopped. Mom hustled out of the trees and shooed them into the woods. Pretty comical. |
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | DaytonS - 2/4/2021 1:47 PM
I feed foxes usually daily. They come to my back driveway every night so I started leaving geese for them after I clean them. The foxes usually work on them for a day or two then I toss em and give them fresh ones. I live on a couple fairly busy streets but haven't seen a dead fox yet so that's good.
Don't stop or they will set their sites on things you or others don't want them to eat. I am surprised you don't have coyotes raccoons, hawks and owls. Just had an owl kill my son's rooster which had already been attacked by a hawk that I thwarted and 2 lambs trampled to death from the commotion the owl caused in the barn. Had a fox problem but took care of that.
Edited by ToddM 2/4/2021 2:55 PM
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Posts: 1095
Location: Hayward, WI | Along with corn and alfalfa my deer love bread, apples, pumpkins, carrots and minerals. I have 11 this winter that come in every day. Some I have been feeding for 3 years. I do stop in spring if I have bears in the area, they can be a problem. |
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Posts: 213
| Coyote and Kitty out for dinner
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | Feral cats don't live long here. As far as alfalfa goes you want to make.good.friends with a plant eater feed that and don't get in their way they might run you right over to get to it.
Edited by ToddM 2/4/2021 4:12 PM
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Posts: 3907
| I suggest you give the deer a shot of .22 magnum right behind the ear.
Where I live (Ozarks) deer are the #1 distributers of ticks that infect people and dogs with Ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. They also drop ticks that infect cats with Bobcat fever. You wouldn't believe how many ****ing ticks we have around here, everybody has a story about having "tick fever". My gal has been infected once and my dog twice. The dog's vet bills from those two ehrlichiosis events cost $1,200. My gal was sick for 6 months and that cost way, way, way more. Deer around here have so many ticks their ears look like they are covered in small tumors.
My neighbor dumps a #*#*load of corn for deer year-round, they arrive in herds. I wish I could do something to stop it but he won't listen to me and I can't legally shoot those #*^@ deer. Here's how many semi-tame deer we have around here....every spring they eat all the flowers we plant in the window boxes of this single story ranch house. We can't walk in the yard without first hosing down with DEET and we still get ticks. Best possible flea/tick prevention for my dog costs $240/year and he still gets sick. A friend of mine has Rocky Mountain and apparently always will, his symptoms recur a couple times a year.
Don't do anything that bring deer near your house. |
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Posts: 38
Location: Central Illinois | My brother-in-law throws goose carcasses out behind his house. In addition to other scavengers some eagles showed up and were feeding on the goose carcasses. After goose season was over one of the eagles went after one of his cats - in fact his best mousing cat (a necessity living in the country). Fortunately the cat escaped with minimal injury. |
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Posts: 32922
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | DO NOT feed the deer just corn unless they've been eating corn all along. If they have not been eating corn all winter, it will kill them by screwing up the ability to digest food.
Talk with your local farm and feed store. If there isn't one a mix with some corn will be acceptable.
From the Bone Collector:
'The Big Concern of Feeding Deer in the Winter
East to west, states across the country have restrictions or have outlawed baiting and feeding deer …as much as you hate to hear it. Why? A lot focuses around deer to deer transmission of diseases, such as Chronic Wasting Disease. However, in the winter, disease within a deer can develop. It’s called Acidosis, the fatal and ugly side of improper supplemental feeding! When ruminants (deer) get ahold of large quantities of carbohydrates that are low in fiber, not normally not found in their diet this time of year, they lack the microorganisms in their stomach to digest the food. Adjustments in the stomach are made within 6 hours of digesting large amounts of this food source (commonly corn) changing the makeup of the stomach entirely, leading to a flush of lactic acid. This results in a fall of pH, destruction of the digestion and absorption process, and eventual dehydration and death of the deer! This is the number one, big concern over feeding deer during the winter. Now before you comment with your opinions on the subject, and say that we are against feeding, finish this article through and get all the information.' |
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Posts: 46
| Wondered how long it would take for the corn experts to get exposed. Ruminants my friend, enzymes change for these critters. |
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Posts: 1371
| Unless the deer in your area are experiencing a particularly hard winter, and are becoming skinny, I wouldn't feed them. There are several reasons not to. Bringing several animals nose to nose at a feeding station is a recipe for CWD transmission. Many areas have too many deer, especially where there is no hunting (metro areas). Let nature take it's course. They don't need our help. If you like having the deer around (I do), simply provide good habitat (shelter, brush, browse). If you have a hospitable environment, they will come around, even just to hang out, knowing it's a safe place. If you want to treat them once in a while, throw your aging fruits and vegetables out in the yard, they won't last long. If I have carrots, celery, or apples, that are getting kind of rubbery, I just put them in the yard, and they disappear in less than a day. |
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| Interesting about the corn. I spent a couple summers after I got out of the Army working for Harvestore. The units produced a very high quality haylage (short chopped, high moisture alfafa), but the farmers were told they could not just feed the short chopped haylage which was very high in protein and corn to their cows, they had to include some dry hay in the feed. With cows, they need it or they get what the farmers called "twisted" stomach and sometimes died. Deer don't have the same digestive system as cows but can see where they could have issues with just corn.
In the Keweenaw Peninsula, snowiest area East of the Rockies, the locals feed deer alfalfa when the snow gets too deep for them to move and browse. Pretty amazing to see a big herd of deer feeding in the trees along the road right by Lake Superior. |
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Posts: 3907
| Don't feed the deer especially in places like the Keweenaw Peninsula. It's not natural that many deer survive the winter only because people feed them.
If you do get up there be sure to have dinner at the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor. And, there's a supper club/tavern on 41 in Houghton, with tons of old pictures on the walls. In some of those pictures there are northern pike that are 60" long, pics of pike accidently netted in Superior way, way back in the day.
Edited by Ranger 2/8/2021 4:04 PM
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| Ranger - 2/8/2021 3:39 PM
Don't feed the deer especially in places like the Keweenaw Peninsula. It's not natural that many deer survive the winter only because people feed them.
If you do get up there be sure to have dinner at the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor. And, there's a supper club/tavern on 41 in Houghton, with tons of old pictures on the walls. In some of those pictures there are northern pike that are 60" long, pics of pike accidently netted in Superior way, way back in the day.
Well, I lived in the snow belt of the U.P. for 20 years and one thing I learned about Yoopers. They don't tell people how to live their lives and don't much appreciate having anyone tell them how to live theirs. They have been feeding deer in Eagle Harbor area for something like 50 years. And these are real Yoopers, not summer people.
The woods in the Keweenaw be "dark and deep" and Superior within rowing distance of the area where they feed deer is 400 feet deep. And so cold, year round, it truly does not give up its dead. |
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Posts: 1371
| North of 8 - 2/8/2021 4:24 PM
They don't tell people how to live their lives and don't much appreciate having anyone tell them how to live theirs. They have been feeding deer in Eagle Harbor area for something like 50 years. And these are real Yoopers, not summer people.
The woods in the Keweenaw be "dark and deep" and Superior within rowing distance of the area where they feed deer is 400 feet deep. And so cold, year round, it truly does not give up its dead.
Sounds like the area around Bay de Noc twshp., as well as another area of the UP that I regularly visit. |
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| TCESOX - 2/8/2021 5:06 PM
North of 8 - 2/8/2021 4:24 PM
They don't tell people how to live their lives and don't much appreciate having anyone tell them how to live theirs. They have been feeding deer in Eagle Harbor area for something like 50 years. And these are real Yoopers, not summer people.
The woods in the Keweenaw be "dark and deep" and Superior within rowing distance of the area where they feed deer is 400 feet deep. And so cold, year round, it truly does not give up its dead.
Sounds like the area around Bay de Noc twshp., as well as another area of the UP that I regularly visit.
Only more so. Don't get me wrong, they are also the kind of folks that when you slide off the road and bury your vehicle will wade through waist deep snow to attach a tow strap and pull you out after helping you shovel a path back to the road. When you try and give them some money, "no, hey, just help out the next guy, Ok?". That was the first place I heard pay it forward.
Edited by North of 8 2/8/2021 6:16 PM
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Posts: 1371
| North of 8 - 2/8/2021 6:08 PM
TCESOX - 2/8/2021 5:06 PM
North of 8 - 2/8/2021 4:24 PM
They don't tell people how to live their lives and don't much appreciate having anyone tell them how to live theirs. They have been feeding deer in Eagle Harbor area for something like 50 years. And these are real Yoopers, not summer people.
The woods in the Keweenaw be "dark and deep" and Superior within rowing distance of the area where they feed deer is 400 feet deep. And so cold, year round, it truly does not give up its dead.
Sounds like the area around Bay de Noc twshp., as well as another area of the UP that I regularly visit.
Only more so. Don't get me wrong, they are also the kind of folks that when you slide off the road and bury your vehicle will wade through waist deep snow to attach a tow strap and pull you out after helping you shovel a path back to the road. When you try and give them some money, "no, hey, just help out the next guy, Ok?". That was the first place I heard pay it forward.
Totally agree. No value judgement there, just what I would call a cultural similarity. I've made a number of good friends there. That's why I keep visiting. |
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Posts: 793
Location: North Central IL USA | I feed the birds. |
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| gregk9 - 2/8/2021 6:35 PM
I feed the birds.
Me too. Got into it after I retired. But only in the cold months. Lots of food around the lake the rest of the year, plus, darn bears are a nuisance if you leave the feeder up when they are about. Never could figure out why they want a few cups of seed when the woods are full of berries, etc., but they do. |
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Posts: 1783
| TCESOX - 2/5/2021 6:22 PM
Unless the deer in your area are experiencing a particularly hard winter, and are becoming skinny, I wouldn't feed them. There are several reasons not to. Bringing several animals nose to nose at a feeding station is a recipe for CWD transmission. Many areas have too many deer, especially where there is no hunting (metro areas). Let nature take it's course. They don't need our help. If you like having the deer around (I do), simply provide good habitat (shelter, brush, browse). If you have a hospitable environment, they will come around, even just to hang out, knowing it's a safe place. If you want to treat them once in a while, throw your aging fruits and vegetables out in the yard, they won't last long. If I have carrots, celery, or apples, that are getting kind of rubbery, I just put them in the yard, and they disappear in less than a day.
I have a sign up requiring the Deer to wear a mask to prevent the spread of CWD. Seems to be working so far. |
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Posts: 1371
| Brian Hoffies - 2/8/2021 6:57 PM
TCESOX - 2/5/2021 6:22 PM
Unless the deer in your area are experiencing a particularly hard winter, and are becoming skinny, I wouldn't feed them. There are several reasons not to. Bringing several animals nose to nose at a feeding station is a recipe for CWD transmission. Many areas have too many deer, especially where there is no hunting (metro areas). Let nature take it's course. They don't need our help. If you like having the deer around (I do), simply provide good habitat (shelter, brush, browse). If you have a hospitable environment, they will come around, even just to hang out, knowing it's a safe place. If you want to treat them once in a while, throw your aging fruits and vegetables out in the yard, they won't last long. If I have carrots, celery, or apples, that are getting kind of rubbery, I just put them in the yard, and they disappear in less than a day.
I have a sign up requiring the Deer to wear a mask to prevent the spread of CWD. Seems to be working so far.
Ironic that they are able to comply with a simple request to save lives, better than many people. |
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Posts: 20248
Location: oswego, il | North of 8 - 2/8/2021 6:47 PM
gregk9 - 2/8/2021 6:35 PM
I feed the birds.
Me too. Got into it after I retired. But only in the cold months. Lots of food around the lake the rest of the year, plus, darn bears are a nuisance if you leave the feeder up when they are about. Never could figure out why they want a few cups of seed when the woods are full of berries, etc., but they do.
Pretty cool seeing the colorful finches but feeding the birds invites the bushy tailed rat and they like chewing holes in the roof. |
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