Feeding deer

tikka 3006

Well-Known Member
Just wondering what if anything you can put down for deer. I was told apples are a good option. Just curious as I have salt licks in another area already
 
If you can wait a couple of months get some sugar beet. Cut that up and spread it around. They are rather partial to it and its cheapish.
 
Not tried so cannot say for sure. Apples are good but I find beet, cheap, readily available and both reds and sika love it. Not sure about other species but cant see why they wouldn't be the same. Another good thing is that the size means that they will take quite a while to eat it.
 
It depend's if your using a feeder etc ... I had good success just spilling a sack of wheat / barley onto an old tree stump that had fallen over, I found if on the ground they only ate the piled stuff and left the stuff on the dirt.

I am trying to get a tube feeder of some sort knocked up atm. I also have a big drum of rolled oats mixed with wheat, going to give that a go soon :) also brings in all sorts of things like squirrels and birds too.
 
fallow love horse carrots big time i put bags and bags down each winter
 
I have seen Fallow really getting stuck into Hay but i have no idea if it is good for other species or even a good idea in the first place. Maybe Forum members can comment please.

Yorkie.
 
cut bag and throw on floor simples, you watch they will soon dissappear
 
A lot depends on why you want to feed. Is it to act as a bait ? Another aspect is - is your feeding regime sustainable ? Are the deer going to turn up one winter's day, after becoming dependent on this handout to find nothing there because the finances have dried up or the grub source is no longer available ?

I suppose that a lot depends on in what part of the UK you intend feeding. If you feed in areas which are already fairly well stocked with nature's foodstuffs then the deer can readily change back to working for their living.

In many parts of the highlands, however, the deer can become habituated to being fed and this is OK if the finance to do it is assured. Deer can be made more liable to stay there instead of travelling away and it might help stags to retain a bit of condition in readiness to give them a better start in the next spring.

It was found on Letterewe estate that the 'feeder' stags were so hooked on supplementary feeding that they hung about waiting for the next handout and were coming in to the larder at lower weights than comparable stags which lived wild further out in the hills. So it was decided that those habituated stags should be shot out. Whether or not this actually happened I don't know.

I suppose that what I'm saying here - is different parts of the country will produce different results and for different reasons. Inadequately fenced fields of turnip have been planted adjacent to hillsides in the past in order to lure deer in, in order that they can be shot as marauders by the so-called 'victims' and the money pocketed.
'Nice for those who like lamping for 'shooting fish in a barrel' and making a profit afterwards.

By the same token, there are few places really private these days no matter where you live or stalk. Just be sure that you are not habituating your deer into congregating in handy corners for others who might not have your good intentions and poach them.

'Sorry if this sounds a bit sour - but it is the downside of the matter for those who have good intentions.

Ken.
 
I'm not in the uk the reason I was thinking of it was if weather gets hard and food is scarce. In the woods they are there is loads of natural food for them anyway. Just wanted to keep something there in the harder weather
 
What a sensible post by Ecoman. I agree wholehearted with it. As I have posted myself I SUPPORT the deer here in winter with Rumavite Deer blocks strung from trees in quiet, sheltered areas. They are designed to help the deer get the best out of what they are foraging naturally as well as some extra energy. They are not a substitute for what is available. I do feel my deer have benefited from this but to give a wild animal a total ration outwith an extreme weather emergency would be wrong for all the reasons given by the poster. David
 
As a matter of interest - a parcel of hinds found weaknesses in a hill fence and began to live on the field flats adjacent to the hill. Cattle were being fed in there, with the usual big round bales of unwrapped silage whuch were not put in cages.
In a couple of weeks the hinds began nibbling at the silage, and after several more weeks the rascals were even lying on top of the bale as it collapsed and spread out.
This all ended when the fences were re-newed, but I would have been interested to see what the venison tasted like. As Huckleberry Finn said to his friend - or words to that effect - "If you want to try something, first try it out on the dog".
tikka 3006 - I think that it's admirable that minds are bent towards furthering the well-being of wild animals, especially with the ever increasing pressures being brought to bear on habitat these days. The downside is that there ARE downsides which need to be considered, but then - it would be a bit sad if the downsides made us do nothing.
 
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