A food source that many species of wildlife find very attractive is fruit! Most species of fruit are full of sugar and deer and other critters certainly have a sweet tooth! For example, ripe mullberry fruit is very sweet and usually ripens during June throughout most of the whitetail’s range. Mullberry, like most fruit trees, does best when they receive full sun. Hence, mulllberry trees are often found on field edges or near other openings.
The Reconyx UltraFire video clip shown below was taken beneath a mulberry tree that was dropping ripe fruit. After watching this video, imagine the attractive power of having a small plot of trees that produce ripe fruit during hunting season! That’s why we created tree plots with fruit trees from the Flatwood Natives wildlife tree nursery.
Watch these Reconyx clips taken at The Proving Grounds during early June and count the number of species attracted to the fruit!
Young soybeans are one of the most attractive plants to deer. In areas with a high deer population or in small food plots it can be difficult to maintain a healthy stand of soybeans due to heavy browse pressure. This problem can be solved with trigger finger management (shooting more deer) or using a small electric fence and protecting your soybeans.
Assembling the Hot Zone fence within bow range of the Redneck Blind will create a great late season hunting spot!
Recently we assembled a Non Typical Hot Zone electric fence around one of our food plots to help protect a section of our soybeans, while also ensuring a late season hunting hot spot! Our plan is to feed the deer all summer with the soybeans outside of the fence and then drill Eagle Seed Broadside through the browsed beans in August. This will provide green forage for deer through the fall and winter. During the colder months of deer season when the deer are in search of a high energy food source we’ll open up the fence. With this process we’ll be feeding the deer year around with a very high quality food source .
Using a small electric fence like the Non Typical Hot Zone fence gives hunters the ability to protect soybeans until they’ve matured and produced pods. During the late winter there aren’t many food sources more attractive the standing soybeans!
From spring until early summer, many hunters and farmers are hard at work planting food plots and agricultural fields either to hunt over or to harvest for income.
Groundhogs can damage food plot crops quickly, depriving deer and turkey access to quality forage.
Most hunters and farmers focus on the needs of the plants, such as fertilizer, ample rainfall, and lack of competing vegetation, but they fail to identify one major threat to young crop fields. Consumption of young plants by pest animals such as groundhogs can wipe out large sections of a field to the point that they may need to be re-planted.
This can be costly to the landowner as well as reduce the amount of quality forage available to the desired game animals. If no action is taken, groundhogs can remove the forage from several acres rapidly! This can be devastating to deer and turkeys that depend on that food source during the growing and late season!
Where legal, trapping and shooting of groundhogs soon after the seeds germinate might be what’s needed to allow the crops to be productive.
Intern Nick Halchin found this fawn recently. At this stage in life, fawns aren’t as aware of danger as mature deer and can fall to predators very easily.
Throughout most of the whitetail’s range fawns are being born. Predators, weather conditions, etc., can substantially reduce the odds of fawns surviving. In addition, well-meaning humans often also reduce fawns chances for survival.
New born fawns spend about the first ten days of their life in cover, hidden, and almost motionless. Research shows that they are bedded about 95% of the time during this period. Every spring I hear stories of people finding fawns and carrying them home because they didn’t see a doe. A fawn’s chance of survival almost always decreases significantly if removed from where it was placed by a doe.
Predation that occurs on fawns happens the most during these first few days of their life. Human disturbance to where a doe left a fawn adds scent, etc. and can actually attract predators to the fawn. That’s why it’s extremely important people don’t pick up and remove fawns from their hiding place. The doe is most likely close by and chances of survival rapidly decrease if the fawn is taken out of hiding.
Remember, fawns may seem extremely cute and adorable but they belong in the wild. Never pick up a fawn found in the wild. As conservationists it’s our duty to ensure a healthy life for the fawns, and the best way for us to do so is leaving them alone.
Deer love soybeans! They are attracted to them from when they come out of the ground to the last pods available during late winter! Unfortunately, deer can damage and even kill soybeans if they browse them too much when they first start to grow.
Knowing this I often plant soybeans at twice the normal rate in small plots. This allows deer to feed but there are simply too many young soybean plants for all of them to be damaged.
Planting at a higher density doesn’t hurt the beans as the young plants are not competing for water and nutrients like more mature plants. By the time the soybeans mature deer have usually thinned the plant population enough that the remaining stems can mature without too much competition.
If you are planting small plots with soybeans, trying increasing the planting rate if deer are wiping out the crop before hunting season.
Now that turkey season has wrapped up here in Missouri, it’s time to get back to management projects! As we work to improve the habitat, the next generation of critters is being born and trying to survive and for some it can be very difficult.
We’ve had a very interesting spring so far. April came in dry, went out with a couple rainstorms, then May came in dumping rain. We’ve had a lot of rain, with even more rain coming this weekend. For turkey nests and poults this is troubling. There has been a lot of research studying the connection between hatch success rates with precipitation amounts. The higher amounts of rain we receive in May, the lower hatch rate and ultimately a lower population of turkeys.
The “wet hen theory” suggests that hen turkeys with wet feathers sitting on their nest release a higher amount of scent than a hen with dry feathers. Releasing more scent makes them more susceptible to predators, and even if they survive the predator encounter, there is a good chance the eggs won’t survive.
While planting my Eagle Seed soybeans, I’m happy to see the coming rainfalls, but as a turkey hunter I get a little uneasy knowing the potential harm for the turkeys.
Antlers are growing and the GrowingDeer Team is excited! As Missouri’s turkey season closes, checking our Reconyx cameras keeps a smile on our faces.
Many bucks have started growing antlers and it is thrilling to see who made it through the winter. It is another enjoyable season. Young bucks will be expressing their potential, making our mouths water, hoping they make it to maturity. New bucks (3.5 years old last year) will be added to the “hit list”. The mature bucks we have hunted year after year will again be fun to watch and pattern, but don’t expect the same antlers as last year.
Antlers can change year to year. It is always exciting to see what a new year will bring. Will a mature buck’s antlers begin to decline with age? Will a young buck’s antlers explode, expressing great potential? As you watch antlers develop this summer, enjoy the time getting to know each individual deer. You will begin to learn their habits, tendencies, and preferences. Each antler is unique, as is each deer.
One deer the GrowingDeer Team looks forward to watching is Two Face. Two Face is at least 10 years old and the relationship we have built over time is incredible. Each encounter, whether hunting (watch episode #269 here) or seeing a new picture, is a special moment.
So, grab your Reconyx cameras and a Trophy Rock! You will not want to miss the next few months. Antlers are growing bigger every day. Will you be watching?
If you’ve been blessed with a successful turkey hunt and have a recently harvested turkey in your freezer, you now have a great meal for your mother this Sunday! Treat her to a home cooked meal of the best kind – natural, free-range wild turkey nuggets!
Marinate the turkey nuggets in your favorite BBQ sauce for a minimum of 30 minutes before breading (Grant likes a mustard base!).
If you like a heavier breading, add 1 egg and ½ cup milk to the flour mixture (it should be roughly the consistency of pancake batter).
Use this same batter recipe to cook fish, onion rings, mushrooms, etc. (And since you’ve tagged your turkey, what better reason to enjoy this beautiful spring weather than adding some fish to the menu!)
If using it for cooking fish I recommend Old Bay or a cajun seasoning to replace the garlic and basil.
If you haven’t filled your tag yet (and the season is still open in your state) this recipe will give you a good reason (or excuse) to get out in the woods on Saturday. After all – it’s all for you, Mom!
