They are starting to show up pretty regular at home on my trail cams. Have a group of about 10-15 hens and jakes and then a group of 3 longbeards showing up at least every other day. Even had one strutting on a cam in video mode 
You mean like this?
Visited farm yesterday. Turkeys all over by the deer feeders.
And before someone gets their undies in a bundle, the feeders will be shut off per regulations before hunting season.
Grouse
Strut2018_001.jpg
I am going to need visual evidence of them being shut down 10 days before season and every day of season. Pictures don’t lie 
and don’t worry about MY undies, there are plenty of people at the Lillydale ramp already doing that….
Awesome!! Saw a bunch of Toms strutting yesterday….really gets the blood pumping.
You mean like this?
Visited farm yesterday. Turkeys all over by the deer feeders.
And before someone gets their undies in a bundle, the feeders will be shut off per regulations before hunting season.
Grouse
Talked to a CO a couple years ago who stopped by as we were cutting some trees down in December who feeds deer all year till the legal shutoff before the hunting season.
Use to think it was terrible, now I’m looking at feeders. More for supplemental feeding late winter than anything and tcams.
Funny how someone from Texas wouldn’t even have to explain or be worried about being attacked for a pic of a feeder.
Use to think it was terrible, now I’m looking at feeders. More for supplemental feeding late winter.
I use my feeders to help ensure winter survival and health. I think a little bit of high protein food goes a long way in the winter. After the disastrous winters of 2012 and 2013 when late snow killed off deer by the hundreds, I decided no way was I going to let that happen on my property again for the price of a hundred dollars worth of corn.
Should the winter get really bad, I can dial up the feed rate as high as is needed.
I have used the Moultrie rotary feeders so I can meter out the feed and make it last. If I allowed the deer just to eat out of gravity feeders, the corn would be gone in a week.
Because Moultrie is in Mississippi, unsurprisingly, their products need to be completely re-engineered to work up here in the tundra. Out of the box, all the models I’ve owned have been next to useless as soon as the temps get below 30. To make them work, I’ve added:
– 6 volt solar panel to keep the battery at 100% all the time.
– High capacity 6 volt rechargeable batteries.
– A second battery box to house the second battery for more amperage in the cold. Wire in parallel to first battery.
– Varmint cage. Absolute necessity to keep deer and squirrels from chewing the feeder to nothing.
– All wires must be encased in metal flex conduit or every bird and rodent will eat the wire until it’s gone.
After a few hours of work on each feeder, they are winter-proof and work prett well.
Grouse
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>basseyes wrote:</div>
Use to think it was terrible, now I’m looking at feeders. More for supplemental feeding late winter.I use my feeders to help ensure winter survival and health. I think a little bit of high protein food goes a long way in the winter. After the disastrous winters of 2012 and 2013 when late snow killed off deer by the hundreds, I decided no way was I going to let that happen on my property again for the price of a hundred dollars worth of corn.
Should the winter get really bad, I can dial up the feed rate as high as is needed.
I have used the Moultrie rotary feeders so I can meter out the feed and make it last. If I allowed the deer just to eat out of gravity feeders, the corn would be gone in a week.
Because Moultrie is in Mississippi, unsurprisingly, their products need to be completely re-engineered to work up here in the tundra. Out of the box, all the models I’ve owned have been next to useless as soon as the temps get below 30. To make them work, I’ve added:
– 6 volt solar panel to keep the battery at 100% all the time.
– High capacity 6 volt rechargeable batteries.
– A second battery box to house the second battery for more amperage in the cold. Wire in parallel to first battery.
– Varmint cage. Absolute necessity to keep deer and squirrels from chewing the feeder to nothing.
– All wires must be encased in metal flex conduit or every bird and rodent will eat the wire until it’s gone.After a few hours of work on each feeder, they are winter-proof and work prett well.
Grouse
Great information!
Have been leary of feeders and have thought about gravity feeders, but feed deer in my backyard and go through a bag of corn a week only giving them a small amount every evening. Up at the frozen tundra by the sax/zim bog the idea of a gravity feeder seems utterly pointless. Have learned the hard way the value of solar panels with tcams over the year’s and have had more problems with bear’s destroying tcams and everything attached to them, wires, tripods, etc. How do you keep bear’s, coons, skunks, etc from taking a feeder down? How do deer get to feed in deep snow that’s spread like that? Any issues with predation at the feeders? How big are the feeders capacity and how often do they need filling? Sorry for all the questions, but there’s not much info for us northerners on the subject.
How do you keep bear’s, coons, skunks, etc from taking a feeder down? How do deer get to feed in deep snow that’s spread like that? Any issues with predation at the feeders? How big are the feeders capacity and how often do they need filling? Sorry for all the questions, but there’s not much info for us northerners on the subject.
I put the feeders out after I’m done late bowhunting in December, so bears are not an issue. But there is no way to “bearproof” a feeder, if they are active they will find the feeder and destroy it, so I stop feeding well before they come out of hibernation. The feeders feet freeze into the ground, so they are not easy to tip over as long as the ground is frozen.
The steel cage you can see on the bottom of the feeder in the pic is heavy enough to keep coons, skunks, and other critters out. They are a necessity or the critters chew up the spreader mechanism.
I have 2 of the Moultrie units you see in the picture. They hold 30 gallons or about 3.3 bushels. So weight is roughly 180-190 pounds of corn when full.
I set the timers so each feeder goes off twice per day for 12 seconds each time. So about 7 pounds of feed comes out of each feeder (14 pounds total) per day. At that pace, that gives the regular deer visitors 2 pounds of corn per day each. At that feeding pace, I can go up to 4 weeks before they are empty. I usually visit my poperty at least that often just to check on it in the winter.
The snow does not stay “deep” around the feeders. It’s packed like a tar road from all the deer traffic. They also have trails running into the feeders and I put the feeders out in open areas so they can’t be ambushed by predators.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d get the jumbo Mountrie 55 gallon feeder. The problem is these are higher off the ground and therefore harder to fill, so a ladder would be needed. Also, I’ve heard these units are more top heavy and are prone to blowing over so I think it would be necessary to stake them down.
Getting feed in through the deep snow would be an issue, so I haul all my feed in before winter. I bought 5 of these 55 gallon drums off of Craigslist with these nifty lever lock removeable lids. They are waterproof and bear proof. I haul them in to town and get them filled in the early winter and then unload them right by the feeders so I don’t have to haul corn through the snow.
IMO, this is the only way to go because hauling bags of corn through deep snow would be a major drag unless you already have a snow machine, sled, trailer, etc. With each feeder requiring 4 bags of corn when empty, it’s a lot of weight to haul without a snow machine.
Grouse
Great, great information, really appreciate it! I just learned a ton and feel way better about attempting doing it now.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
