BUT... Need some thoughts opinions; This spring Im going to make what Im calling a "Buck-sicle". Basically, I want to take a 5 gallon bucket, and layer in corn, buck jam, bb2, maple syrup/molasses, and repeat until its full, that way I have a lick that lasts for a month or two and will allow me enough time to have it out there, getting pictures, all while getting married in June and not having time to get to my land for the month. Im not sure how to go about doing this though. My thoughts were that I would take buck jam, and pour it in the bucket and then layering the rest in. But Im not sure if the buck jam and syrup is enough to form the glue to hold it all together. What I don't want is to mix this all together and then this spring/summer set them out and just have them melt, I want it to actually be a solid block of lick. Any tips thoughts etc etc etc welcome. Good luck to you guys this season too. -Mike
Funny you mentioned this as I was reading an article on deer licks and was thinking about putting some of these out on my lease this spring, would be curious to see how your ideal works also,... HOMEMADE DEER MINERAL RECIPE [Archive] - QDMA Forums
I don't know if it would work for deer, but it sure works on horses and cows. Blackstrap molasses. It might be the right kind of gooey you're looking for and it also has vitamins and minerals in it that will help keep the deer healthy. But I don't know if they'll eat it. It's also strong enough smelling that they'll smell it from a long way off. Combine it and compact it with corn and some other goodies and you just might be on to something. I could bring my horse in from on the other side of the pasture with 2 teaspoons in a bucket of oats, and that horse was a total idiot. :p Personally, I was thinking of burying a bottle of buck jam with a straw sticking out of it so the aroma would waft through the air. They wouldn't be able to get to it (I don't think) and on my land at least, I can have a deer come in on that stuff in about 20 minutes. It's really the only type of lure that I've had luck with...and I've tried quite a few this year.
I would look up how to make hard candy and work it from there. Pretty simple process on the stove. I don't know if you could use the molasses for that or if you'd actually have to use sugar. Since molasses is the waste product from the process of making sugar I don't know if molasses has the same hardening attributes. But it's very interesting what you're trying to do.
