Bill Winke says that deer love Osage leaves. I saw one episode of his show where he says he's seen deer walk past beans to get to them.
If I remember right he says that as soon as they start to hit the ground, that's when the deer like them. You're right though....what does he know??? He probably hasn't broken the 5,000 post mark in this forum yet, so he's word doesn't count for much with me.
I laughed... I hunt many farms infested by Osage Orange. I have never to date seen a single deer touch them. These are nasty trees and I would trade them out for almost any other tree. Most land owners around here would be delighted for someone to offer to cut them down in exchange for free wood. Not only do they require a lot of trimming but cutting through them with anything other then a chainsaw is a real PITA!
As soon as they hit the ground? You mean the leaves or the fruit? Either way deer don't touch them at all. A deer wouldn't eat either if they were starving to death. I know because I live in the heart of Osage Orange (hedge tree) country and have all my life....posts on a forum have nothing to do with it. If Winke said that then he's just throwing out complete idiocy.
My property is probably about 50 percent Hedge, 45 percent Honey Locust. The other 5 percent is Maple, Walnut and a couple oak trees. Total crap timber, but the deer don't seem to mind. I've seen deer browsing the leaves on the low hanging branches on several occasions. If you can find one with a straight truck, they make for pretty well concealed stand locations. Heckler is right though, takes a ton of trimming and will dull anything you are using to cut it.
Here's another forum where they are discussing the osage/winke comment. Seems other guys agree with Winke. http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2870709&page=all
Deer do tend to have a very diverse diet. Like I said, I have seen them browsing on the leaves of Hedge trees on several occasions. I have also watched them walk right out of my soybean plot to pickup and eat honey locust pods.
Well, I've never seen deer so much as touch a hedge leaf (to eat it) in my life. Maybe they pick at them now an again but they aren't going to walk past beans and a food plots to eat hedge leaves. Briars are actually good browse and locust pods are also desirable. Some plants also have medicinal uses for animals, like a dog eating grass, cattle will nibble some weeds that are not a typical food source to self medicate, that may have something to do with them occasionally nibbling hedge leaves. No way will I ever buy the BS that they will walk past beans or clover to eat them as a food source...utter BS. If he saw them doing that they are likely using them as a supplement roughage. I've still never seen a deer so much as touch hedge leaf. To say deer like to eat them because they tend to make scrapes near them and that they must like them because guys kill deer in the vicinity of them is another matter. They like them for cover and they often have symbiotic plants around them that deer will pluck out that are desirable. Personally I'd say these symbiotic plants are what guys are seeing them eat and mistakenly thinking they are eating the hedge leaves. The deer in his video isn't eating hedge leaves, he's picking through them and browsing on other stuff. If that deer was intentionally seeking out those hedge leaves as a food source he wouldn't have been being so selective as he went along because the ground was literally covered with them, he had a veritable smorgasbord 360 degrees around him yet he was actively nosing through them and picking a nibble here and there.
In other news I saw an article over the weekend about some guy in Iowa paying by the ton for them. He was making some kind of oil if I recall correctly, a face product or something. Anyway the math on it was pretty crazy. Worked out to pay better than a bushel of corn in comparison.
I have made bows, both selfbows and laminated glass backed bows, from Osage. It is awesome bow wood. There are none anywhere near where I hunt so I have no opinion on whether deer will eat them or no.
You're the expert....so I guess it's settled. But, I think it's a safe bet to say that you probably know less than you think you do when it comes to the nature of whitetails. You ever seen one eat a bird? http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/field-notes/researchers-document-deer-eating-birds "You may have seen this video before of a whitetail catching and eating a bird, but bird-eating whitetails are back in the news. Researchers keep on finding evidence that deer like a protein snack of bird from time to time. Deer eating birds opportunistically seems to be a wider-spread phenomenon than we previously thought"
Don't know about the leaves or the fruit but the wood makes nice traditional bows. My dad has 2 or 3 from Osage Orange trees taken from his land. A buddy of his makes bows and they went out and got some wood. He let it age for a year or so and made my dad some bows. Beautiful bows.
