On one of the places I hunt, there is a ton of horse apples. I have never seen a deer eat them but watched cows and squirrels eat the snot out of them. They grow on what I call bodark trees. I read they are also called hedge apples and osage oranges. So have any of you ever seen a deer eat a horse apple or know if a deer will eat them?? Here is what I am talking about:
osage orange tree is what native americans made bows from. also made fence cornerpost here in the midwest the wood will hardly rot in a 100 years i have never seen a deer eat these, although i have came across the them looking like something stomped on them.. so maybe.. how about buckeye nuts??? hard to find. i thick i will put up a deer cam next fall for fun.
The buck I killed this year had a belly full of osage balls. (well, chewed up ones... ) They seem to eat them after they've laid around and frozen at least once and then softened up. Before that, they hit the osage leaves pretty good.
Thanks guys and girls! A place I hunt has a ton of these things and there is no crops around so I didn't know if they were eating these or just natural grasses and browse stuff.
I found these fruits to be a "last resort" source. I've seen them lying around chewed up on by deer, but I don't think it's a must have. It's bitter to humans and toxic...from what I've read.
As Christine and JM said, deer will absolutely eat them. A good friend of mine has killed his two largest deer under the same Osage Orange tree.
I've watched them pass 'em by for corn/acorns. Doesn't mean they won't eat them, just appears they would prefer corn or acorns.
After 30 years in the woods I watched the first one I ever eat one,it had been chewed up by a tree rat first but this little doe came by and ate on it for 5 minutes.I wouldn't sit over a pile of hedge balls though
My experience as well. They are a good late season food source on a couple of the properties I hunt where there is little left by mid-Jan. But my buddy killed a spike (first archery deer ever, and less than 3") early in '08 that had a belly full!!! And I'm pretty sure that was what it was because I don't know of anything else that would have been that color in that area. As other's said, if you ever desire to build a self-bow, that is the tree to get your wood from!!!
I don't know if deer would eat them or not. I suspect they would. I do know that they can hurt if they hbit you when they fall from the tree. My aunt's Scottish Terrier got hit by one in their yard when it fell from the tree and it broke the dogs back.
