Whitetail Winter Feeding/Baiting

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Thegouch

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Hello,

First off I'll mention I'm in NS where it is legal to hunt over a bait, just in case you're wondering. My question is, for those that do bait or feed over the winter months, what have you found to work best? Over the spring/summer I use mostly deer cane as they are looking for the salt content, and a little before season starts I will get the apples and/or carrots out. Both of those have gotten great results, but I can't seem to figure out the winter months.

I've read a little bit, and I do know that feeding too much can create population and dependency issues, depending on heard size in relation to the area you are in. My main goal is to just have a small area they can go too to get some extra nutrients to help them get through the winter a little bit easier.
 
Winter feeding can be a little tricky, and may not even be legal everywhere. You can give grain to a starving deer and it will starve anyway, with a belly full of grain. If you are going to winter feed start long before they need it and don't stop no matter what. A deer's digestion system depends on a microbe culture which can be very specific to the feed and takes time to develope.
 
If your in an area with limited crops cedar brows may work otherwise corn or apples or carrots a jug of molasses dumped over a stump or on you corn will keep them coming
 
Dogleg said:
Winter feeding can be a little tricky, and may not even be legal everywhere. You can give grain to a starving deer and it will starve anyway, with a belly full of grain. If you are going to winter feed start long before they need it and don't stop no matter what. A deer's digestion system depends on a microbe culture which can be very specific to the feed and takes time to develope.
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Yep! Circa 1980's, I was President of small town Sask Wildlife Federation branch. Was a big province wide initiative to feed deer. I think a plant in North East Sask donated or gave very good price on alfalfa pellets - members all over the province built or donated to build feeders - pellets hauled out by members. We killed thousands doing that - biologists who did the autopsies said they were constipated - full bellies, but died anyways. Not what OP intends by "feeding", but lots of deer gonna die in Prairie winter - have been doing so since Ice Ages, I think. Might be different in Maritimes.

Contrarily, speaking with several farmers - they simply set hay bales in bush or roll them down into ravines - seems that the deer can handle the hay - must be similar to what they would normally been feeding on.
 
There are not many wildlife biologists that recommend supplemental feeding.

The only real time supplemental feeding may be a required is during deep snow. And an issue of this is concentrating deer in one area which can be a buffet for predators.

If you really want to help the herd, hinge cut some cedars and if the snow is deep make some trails with a snowmobile.
 
Cutting firewood/hardwoods is always a good way to provide supplemental food. Deer feed almost exclusively on hardwood browse during the winter. Tree tops and end twigs. Chainsaws can be like a dinner bell to some deer. This works well if you have a woodlot. Otherwise I don't recommend any other type of feeding. Deer are, by design, used to winter in Atlantic Canada. Our mild winters allow them to forage for other food sources, such as ground vegetation when there isn't much snow. What we don't have in Atlantic Canada are actual deer yards (stands of mature softwoods), where deer can take refuge during those few and far between winters when we do have snow. Cold wet springs have a greater effect on deer herds in this part of the country than anything else.
 
I use thinning my woodlot as an excuse to cut down trees.

If hay killed deer there would be none left, they eat with the cows daily, but, I suppose they are accustomed to it.
 
Warden70 said:
Cutting firewood/hardwoods is always a good way to provide supplemental food. Deer feed almost exclusively on hardwood browse during the winter. Tree tops and end twigs. Chainsaws can be like a dinner bell to some deer. This works well if you have a woodlot. Otherwise I don't recommend any other type of feeding.
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Funny how that goes, I remember getting some late season firewood one year after the snow had started falling. The moment we were done limbing and bucking the deer were there. As soon as we loaded up the trucks and rolled out they came in for boughs and old man’s beard.

The only thing I’ll leave out over winter is mineral salt, they love it and it has encouraged them to stay in the area even more so than usual.
 
Butcherbill said:
Funny how that goes, I remember getting some late season firewood one year after the snow had started falling. The moment we were done limbing and bucking the deer were there. As soon as we loaded up the trucks and rolled out they came in for boughs and old man’s beard.

The only thing I’ll leave out over winter is mineral salt, they love it and it has encouraged them to stay in the area even more so than usual.
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Yep, deer are drawn to freshly fallen trees like flies to poop. It’s quite common to see them watching from a distance so they can move in as soon as humans leave the area.


As for winter feeding, it’s typically a horrible idea put into motion by those who mean well, but have zero idea they’re likely doing more harm than good. It’s hard on their guts suddenly being given so much corn/grain and unnaturally concentrate animals in a small area making it much easier for predators to eat and disease to spread.
 
I used to feed deer over the winter when I had access to grains and soybean. I would start midway in the fall and stop when the snow was melting. I would keep it to a small amount and spreed it out every day as I knew too much wasn't good for them. Around here they don't bother with any alfalfa bales for some reason. Even the ones in my field aren't touched.
We had a terrible winter a few years back and very little survived the winter except for in my area because of my feeding and my neighbour to the north with his silage corn pile. I have since stopped and my neighbour still has his silage corn. Drove by the other day and the deer are still at it with his corn.
 
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Couple years ago we didn't get a field of soy beans harvested as it didn't freeze early enough to ripen them and then get them dry enough to put through a combine . We had every deer in the country on that field all winter digging through a foot and half of snow or more. They survived very well and we have mega deer around now. If you feed corn and such you have to feed a bit with sugar to breed gut bacteria like we do with cows.
 
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