Do deer consume hickory nuts?
Filed under: Habitat Management
#1 are hickory’s beneficial to deer in any way
#2 ive been trying to start Oaks from acorns just because its cheapest but most of the acorns ive been able to find are post oaks and water oak
so my question for the oaks is which one do deer like more on a scale 1-10 and over all compared to all the other oaks how do post oaks and water oaks crank on a deers desirable list to eat
Connor,
Deer rarely eat hickory nuts.
Deer tend to prefer pure white oaks over all other acorns. Post Oaks are in the white oak family and tend be a bit more drought resistant that white oaks. Water oaks tend to drop over a longer period of time. Each has advantages and disadvantages. There’s often a very high failure rate of planting acorns. In the long run it may be less expensive to plant high quality nursery stock (check out http://www.FlatwoodNatives.com). I often prefer soft mass trees more than oaks. Usually there are way fewer soft mass trees than oaks in most areas. Therefore it’s easier to pattern deer using fruit trees than oaks. It addition fruit trees often mature to fruit producing age much quicker than oaks.
Enjoy creation,
grant
November 16, 2015
