I have been doing a lot of research on habitat management lately and it made me realize that my property was seriously lacking good bedding areas. I have a several spots where the does bed but after the leaves fell and the rut was over I would never see any of the big bucks despite being the only person planting food plots in the area. I am sure that the big bucks leave my property due to lack of cover. This is a 1/2 acres bedding area that I made on the north side of my property. I'm not completely done with it yet I still have to cut a few more trees and clear trails. I am going to try and make 4-6 bedding areas this size in hopes that I can attract some of the big boys to live on my property. I am also going to experiment with making individual buck beds I have watched a few videos online so we'll see how it goes!
Obviously a comfy bed because your lab looks to be falling asleep in it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm just learning as well and will be doing a lot of habitat work at my new property this spring too. My advice is to be careful with the placement of these bedding areas. I don't know how much land you have, but if you scatter 5 bedding areas around your property it could be difficult for you to move about your property to access and hunt without your scent blowing into one or more bedding areas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks. My plan is to put those bedding areas close together with transition zones inbetween. I am new at this as well thanks for the feedback!
One thing I've learned over the years hinge cutting is cutting in the winter the deer pound them for food. All buds within reach are devoured. I now leave a few trees I intend to hinge until spring, even after the leaves pop. These will get much greener than the earlier hinged and improve the cover in the area that year. Looking good, should really help what youve done so far!
Nice work on hinging high enough on those large trees to get them to stay up off the ground. That can be hard to do with larger trees.
I'm going to be doing a bit of this on the property that we hunt. We are just learning about habitat improvement for deer - outside of food plots...
I have a small area on my property I want to do the same thing but I am hesitant to do it. The reason is my property is 15 acres and most of the deer bed on the ridge or somewhere on my neighbors between my 2 acre food plot and the ridge. I am afraid hinge cutting could cause the deer to bed closer thus when I go to either of 3 stands in the back of my property I will push any of the deer out. However the 2 stands at the front of the property would be better. Hard choices. Right now the property is very good but as time goes on the forest floor is thinning out, making for less brows to eat. Any ideas ?
I have been watching alot of videos on youtube about small property management. Jake Elhinger and Jim Brauker both have great ideas and specialize in manageing small propertys I would check out what they have to say. It made me think of things in a whole new way.
I don't publicize it on the forum...but that's what I do. I own a habitat consulting company. 90 percent of my clients are on smaller acreage. There are a ton of options for small properties
Jake does larger scale a lot of times but yeah Jim himself transformed bare ag fields and overtime they became awesome whitetail habitat honey holes! Lot of what I believe and share with my clients are things I've learned from these and many others as well as trial and error. Actually going to be visiting Jim later this spring/winter for property discussion.
Went back in the woods today and did some more cutting. Deer have been in there like crazy and also lots of beds on the edge of the cover. I think I made it a little thick and didn't have enough trails going through for them to feel comfortable. I went back through and buzzed a bunch of trails and also made an individual buck bed. I'm not sure if they will use it but figured I would try. I put a trail cam up on facing the bed so we'll see what happens. I have been reading a lot about making actual beds and thought why not. The pics show the bed itself and then escape routes from the bed one on each side from the back and front. I know you don't need logs for the bed but I had them close so I threw them in. Ill check my cam in a few weeks and hopefully have some pics.
Kyle, I'd love to see pictures of the deer tracks/beds since you made these hinge cuts. Can you take some for us?
I should have done it yesterday I didnt think about it. There were a ton of tracks and trails going through there with all the new browse on the ground. It will probably be a week or two before im back down there but I will for sure take some pics.
