Alright guys, I screwed up. We started a protein regiment this year for our deer on the lease at the end of January. After I read into things, it was already too late and we had protein out. Our deer are not used to protein or fences around the feeders so it has been a struggle for them coming and eating out of the plate. We primarily feed them corn in winter time. We have had more problems with raccoons and big hogs getting on their hind legs getting to the food eating everything. The deer that come by on camera don't really do much other than just pass through. For one, I know I need a fence around the feeder to keep the hogs out.... but I need your help. What are some good protein mixes that have corn mixed in with protein I can use that I can buy from regular sporting good places that would get the deer to come in a little better? Or should we just mix our feed ourselves 50/50 mixture ? This has been a flat out failure on our part.
Be my hunch as well...I don't feed but this sounds like to most deer is going to feel extremely unnatural...instincts would need broken which is possible.
Agree. Maybe a high corn/protein ratio in the feeder 90/10 or 80/20 to start, just to get the deer in the fence...but as someone said if they have ample food already outta gonna be an uphill battle. Also if you have a bad enough hog problem I'd also be trapping them.
I mean other than natural vegetation growing right now, no. We start feeding corn in late July/early August. When we do start feeding corn its off a spinning feeder and nothing is fenced in so everything is fair game to come eat. My protein feeder is a gravity style with a plate and would like to put up a fence about 30" high to keep the hogs out but not high enough a deer can not jump it. A lot of places do this with their deer here in texas to keep hogs out but just in my neck of the woods, no one around our lease does the protein or fenced in feeders so deer are not accustom to it.
Yeah some believe feed is like crack to deer that they can not resist it, that is not the case. Try this go drop some $ on expensive bare root pear and apple trees, plant them inside the fence close to the feeder. You won't be able to keep the damn deer from jumping the fence.
You can't trap out hogs in Texas...it'd be like trying to trap out mosquitoes. Everyone needs to lobby for the FDA, USDA to approve Nitrite baiting. What is your feed station and fence design? If deer are avoiding the feed, my guess is that your fence is too small around the feeder. Food abundance is possible but I'd say damn unlikely. It's hard to supply enough food plot and crop that can compete with high protein processed feed for a deer's attention.
I wish I had time to really trap on the lease or build one... We are so over run with hogs, I feel like its a losing battle.
I dont have the fence on there yet... We are talking about going this Sunday and putting the fence up. Its going to be about 30-40' in diameter by 30" tall with welded wire fencing. As far as the hogs go, I hate them with a passion but Idk about the nitrite baiting... I wouldn't want any other animals getting ahold of it and possibly killing off the other animals?
Do some research on it, they use it in Australia. Hogs are especially sensitive to it and not much else is so a hog that got a lethal dose isn't going to cause any secondary poisoning to anything. Also anything that gets the bait is going to be pretty hard pressed to get a large enough dose to hurt it. It would take a hellaciously bad secondary problem to compete with the damage hogs do anyway. We have one farm on the ranch that has a hog problem. USDA has been trying to trap them out for years and they just keep getting worse. The USDA is effing clueless. I have almost as much disdain for the USDA and FDA as I do hogs at this point.
Yeah, as long as you didn't have deer or squirrels or anything else really getting affected I would be all up for it. It's hard to keep the population down when they say one female pig could be responsible for up to 1000 pigs in a 5 yr period I believe is what I read. You trap one, 10 out of that litter are breeding somewhere else.
Exactly, that's why they will never get them trapped out. Our local population only covers a few square miles (supposedly) and they haven't even been successful in keeping their numbers in check. There is a way to do it but they won't listen to me and they don't want to spend the resources to do it. They would have to build several acres of hog proof fence in several locations, basically a five or ten acre hog trap and bait them into it. That way they could trap entire groups of the damn things at once. Then they'd have to stalk them in the enclosure and eradicate them in the enclosure. Hogs are smart and get weary of small traps but they can't very well get weary of roaming pasture sized traps, they'll just think they are walking through a fence if they can't see the back side of the trap. As far as the poison, it's generally a processed pellet and baited in special traps that only a hog can get in anyway.
Get your fence up. 30'-40' Squared should be ample space but i wouldn't go any smaller. Put a corn pile under the feeder to get them in the fence and then they will discover the Protein. Make sure you get them panels built strong. Horse high, Bull strong, Hog tight. Good luck
