DEER

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....Hi, this is Lindsay. If you want to get deer to come to your yard you have to live in a location were deer live and you have to ask your parents before you do anything. Deer are browsers, this means they like to eat a lot of different plants. If you live in a populated, suburb type area it may not be a good idea for you to attract deer to your yard. You should also consider your neighbors before you try to attract deer. People do not like deer eating their bushes, trees and other plants .

....The deer really are able to get along just fine on their own and they don't need any help from us, even in winter. Ok, so if you still want to attract deer here is what you can do. First you put apples, corn, carrots and a mineral lick in the spot you would like the deer to come to. A mineral lick is a block of salt with minerals added, you can get in your feed store. You must put the food in lots of different locations so the deer can find it.Then every day at various times check and see if deer are there.If they ate anything keep on putting out food in the location they have found. Don't forget it takes a few days , so don't get disappointed if you don't see a deer on the first day.

......If you would like the deer to find the food you have been putting out faster, go into the woods or where ever you seen deer, find a deer trail, and scatter some corn on the trail. Make a trail of corn kernels back to the spot where you want the deer to come, then put a lot more corn and apples and whatever else you are feeding the deer at this spot.

....It is usually pretty easy to spot a deer trail . The area will look just like a little narrow path, with the grass, leaves, etc, matted down and you will probably see deer tracks. The best spots are where two or more trails meet and form an intersection. This way you can get deer coming from different directions.This method has worked for me.

....Deer usually have plenty to eat in the spring and summer. They eat a lot of different plants and twigs and will even eat poison ivy. They also eat, acorns, grass, weeds, apples, pears, strawberries, corn and leaves from soybean plants. At my house we have a large backyard with a small meadow after the yard. We planted clover in the meadow and the deer really like it.

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  Deer Facts

.....Some interesting facts about whitetail deer is that they usually have twins or even triplets. If you would like to see a fawn, which are spotted ,you have to begin attracting them in late winter. And did you know that a 1 week old fawn can outrun a person. Fawns are usually born the first week of May . They remain spotted for about five months. The spots help to camouflage them . If they get scared they usually just lay down in the grass and hide

.... More facts. Deer antlers are shed ever year . They are the fastest growing tissue in the animal kingdom. They are covered with "velvet" in the spring and summer while they are growing.

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Deer Feeders

Build a square box out of  2 by 6 inch lumber . The box size should be 3 foot by 3 foot  with  a 3/4"   plywood bottom. Drill a  few small holes  into the bottom for water drainage. Get a very  large  size  plastic garbage can  or plastic drum. Cut out 6 large  semi-circular holes on the sides of the can  at the bottom. Turn the can upside down and place the bottom base on top of it and bolt the base to the bottom of can with nuts and bolts and washers. Predrill the base bottom to your bolt size.

Turn over your feeder  and fill your can with corn place the lid to keep corn dry  and  bait the feeder with corn trails until the deer are using it readily.

We have tried many models of home made deer feeders and found this works best so far

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Nature Eye Notes

    These are easy to spot in the woods. If you look at a forest  almost everything is going to the sky all the tree lines go up. You can spot a deer by looking in the distance for lines that are horizontal . This being the deer's back. It is hard to see a complete deer in the forest you should look for any movement too. Like the flick of an ear or movement of a leg. 

Also deer make noise. They make a sound called a snort which sounds almost like a sneeze. They make this sound to warn other deer of danger.

     Also there is a lot of deer sign in the woods . You can look for scrapes and rubs. A rub is a small tree or sapling that the deer rubs his horns on to remove the velvet and to mark their territory.   When he is doing this he removes the bark all around it. About 1-2 feet length of bark will be bare from the tree. A scrape is during mating season the male deer will scrape away all the leaves and sticks from a circular area usually with a branch above it. The circle can be several feet around. Look for deer hair to if you think you have found one of these and deer footprints.

to see the Deer Tracks  larger just click on them

Here is a deer rub click on it to see it bigger

It is the small sapling in the center