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[flowerbug]

i have no idea of what a sheep's life span may be, but i hope you have a lot more years with all of them.

when you clear the older trees and let more sun in are you scattering a diverse mix of seeds to get the area going again?

i'm amazed at how well radishes and turnips do and so quickly. i love eating radish sprouts but not the radishes themselves. the deer mostly avoided eating the radishes and turnips here until i'd gotten rid of everything else within that garden but the comfrey and some other of the cover crops around the edges (thymes and a few others). once they started in on the radishes and turnips i pulled those and chopped them up and buried them as worm food so the deer took to munching on the comfrey. there's not much in there but i don't think they can kill it. they do seem to like it. i thought it would make a nice buttwipe plant if i ever needed one - like the mullien... lol no regret on my part to have a backup plant for that if the dark ages ever returneth...

 

[Beekissed]

when you clear the older trees and let more sun in are you scattering a diverse mix of seeds to get the area going again?

Nope. There are enough seeds in the seed bank to produce sprouts and browse that hair sheep love....around here you really don't have to do anything but let in the sunlight to get a flourishing understory growing. The adjacent grass pasture will provide the graze they need, so when I do the temporary paddocks, each one will provide them with some grass, legumes, etc., while also giving them a chance at browse. They will only be in each paddock for 2-5 days, depending on size of the paddock, before they are moved onward.


By bunching them into a smaller space they can more evenly distribute their manure and eating habits, then resting that area for 30-60 days while the chickens and wild turkeys, insects and other wild birds disperse their manure into the soils, should produce some healthier plant life altogether. I'll only be fencing part of our woodland so that the wildlife can have the rest. The introduction of more sunlight into those areas will produce abundant cover and browse for the deer, rabbits, wild turkey, etc.

The brush produced by the tree tops from selective timbering will help provide habitat for small animals and birds, which should help the local predator population as well. I'd like to keep our small coyote pack thriving and the foxes and bobcat too. Our black bear don't have much to eat either, so all of this should help them get more to eat also.

While we aren't using the area in the back of the land, the fence in that area will be turned off to allow easy flow of wildlife in that area. The thickets on either side of our ridge also provide good pass through, which they are currently using to move past our meadow. None of that should be too disturbed by any of this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The introduction of more sunlight into those areas will produce abundant cover and browse for the deer, rabbits, wild turkey, etc.

When I first saw this my thought was that Bee is getting ready for hunting and is legally baiting the area. Reading the rest, well maybe not. But they still sound tasty.

 

[Beekissed]

When I first saw this my thought was that Bee is getting ready for hunting and is legally baiting the area. Reading the rest, well maybe not. But they still sound tasty.

Nope....it's still for hunting too! All around us the neighbors dump out bushels and bushels of corn during hunting season and my boys simply cannot compete with that...it all comes down to who has more money and time to bait in the deer. I've never felt baiting was sporting, especially with foods that are not natural to the animal, but folks will still do it. The corn is really hard on the deer herd and merely weakens them....as a result they've gotten smaller and smaller and fewer in number over the years.

But, a natural game plot, not species of grasses that we THINK deer will like but those that actually grow in these areas, are already in the seed bank? That's only to their benefit, and to ours as well. Yes, this will improve the hunting, which also improves the herds...without the hunting, it will also weaken the herd.

Time to get back to basics and provide the deer with food they can actually use all year round to grow better and be healthier.

 

[flowerbug]

good acorn trees. in the older days there were also chestnut trees that were also a large part of a forest mast production. people would let their pigs out to forage for those and then have some great meat to put up for the winter.

one issue with current hunting that i have is that the hunters go for the trophies. which might be why you are seeing smaller animals in your herds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Nope....it's still for hunting too! All around us the neighbors dump out bushels and bushels of corn during hunting season and my boys simply cannot compete with that...it all comes down to who has more money and time to bait in the deer. I've never felt baiting was sporting, especially with foods that are not natural to the animal, but folks will still do it. The corn is really hard on the deer herd and merely weakens them....as a result they've gotten smaller and smaller and fewer in number over the years.

But, a natural game plot, not species of grasses that we THINK deer will like but those that actually grow in these areas, are already in the seed bank? That's only to their benefit, and to ours as well. Yes, this will improve the hunting, which also improves the herds...without the hunting, it will also weaken the herd.

Time to get back to basics and provide the deer with food they can actually use all year round to grow better and be healthier.

That's why I said "legally" baiting. I totally agree with you about baiting with corn or special plantings. And I agree hunting strengthens the herds, though I wish they would take more doe to better keep the numbers under control.

A couple of friends of mine were invited to a hunt in Southeast Texas in the Victoria area several years ago. The host got them real excited about the number of big bucks they had down there. When they got back they refused to talk about the trip. It took a while but I finally found out they were releasing the pretty tame deer from cages to be shot. Both those guys were actually hunters and were disgusted.

 

[Beekissed]

good acorn trees. in the older days there were also chestnut trees that were also a large part of a forest mast production. people would let their pigs out to forage for those and then have some great meat to put up for the winter.

one issue with current hunting that i have is that the hunters go for the trophies. which might be why you are seeing smaller animals in your herds.

That's what I'm trying to free up...we have plenty of oak but they produce very little acorns, as they are overshadowed by HUGE, veneer quality oak that have grown past production and are blocking the light and taking nutrients from the others. Going to thin all that out and, by running the sheep under them for fertilization, the increase in sunlight to their leaves, the retention of moisture due to having more ground cover, they should produce more.

There will always be the trophy hunters. Fortunately, my boys and my brother have the attitude that you can't eat horns. Big bucks are good breeders for the herd, those smaller 3 and 4 pts, spikes, etc. are targeted here. Our doe population is also very small, so I don't let the guys kill a doe unless she's older and not producing. Our herd is so small we actually recognize deer from year to year, know if they produced fawns, etc. That's how sad it is....this place was overhunted for years, then we got coyotes and they've got to eat something, which I don't mind, but you have neighbors importing hunters into the area as we are backed by thousands of acres of woodland that can't be hunted....privately owned by timber companies.

So, hunters line that area to get the deer that venture out. It's pretty pitiful when you understand that most of these people won't even process the deer they get...they'll often just give them away to people and even those people barely eat the meat. Too much like work. I know people who will kill the deer and just cut a haunch off it, leaving the rest on the ground. And not just once, you understand, it's a common occurrence. Now they've made checking in deer an online process, which means it's a free for all out there and no one checking in anything.

We encourage bowhunting only here on our place, so that limits our take of the deer to only those who put in the wrench time and have the skill...just two of my boys only and only one gets any time to hunt.

That's why I said "legally" baiting. I totally agree with you about baiting with corn or special plantings. And I agree hunting strengthens the herds, though I wish they would take more doe to better keep the numbers under control.

A couple of friends of mine were invited to a hunt in Southeast Texas in the Victoria area several years ago. The host got them real excited about the number of big bucks they had down there. When they got back they refused to talk about the trip. It took a while but I finally found out they were releasing the pretty tame deer from cages to be shot. Both those guys were actually hunters and were disgusted.

And that's what it's all come down to nowadays, which is not hunting at all. There seriously is no sport in it at all any longer. We have a whole generation that are not being taught to hunt responsibly or to hunt at all, which has driven down revennue that help the DNR funding in each state, which then hurts the whole conservation of game and it's a steamroller effect. Add to that urban sprawl and you have whole populations of deer living in towns that need thinning but can't be thinned due to PETA folks and similar attitudes.

Everyone in their own little corner can only do what they can do, which is what I'm doing...raising my own "deer" meat, while also improving food supplies for the wild deer, in hopes that all things will have a trickle down effect around this land.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[flowerbug]

wish we could send some deer your way! @Beekissed MI has 50,000 - 55,000 deer/car accidents each year. i'm sure we wouldn't miss some... unfortunately now there is deer TB in the herd (which can be transmitted to people). coyotes around here may only get a few deer - i've rarely seen the coyotes here (twice in 23+yrs). they are around but shy creatures and for good reason - mostly they are in the woods and along the river and not around here where it is more open land. sometimes we can hear them yipping at night.

 

[Beekissed]

wish we could send some deer your way! @Beekissed MI has 50,000 - 55,000 deer/car accidents each year. i'm sure we wouldn't miss some... unfortunately now there is deer TB in the herd (which can be transmitted to people). coyotes around here may only get a few deer - i've rarely seen the coyotes here (twice in 23+yrs). they are around but shy creatures and for good reason - mostly they are in the woods and along the river and not around here where it is more open land. sometimes we can hear them yipping at night.

Some areas of WV are like you describe....fields of deer and many hit on the road. Just not in our particular area, which used to be heavily hunted due to a few very large record breaking deer being taken back in the 50s-60s.

Heard our coyote pack just last night, calling not 100 yds from our front porch....it's a beautiful, wild sound. I'd love to be able to see them in their pack, but they are like ghosts. Both Mom and I have only seen them once and not in a pack but in singles. And they were both within sight of our house when we happened upon them....and they were gone so quick no dog could have kept up with them.

Around here, men are convinced the coyotes are hitting the deer herds too hard, so they will shoot them on sight. It's no surprise to me our 'yotes are shy.