This works really well. You can also try mixing with pig fat, which turns out great. If you have a cheap source of bacon ends, grind it and mix that with your ground venison for delicious bacon burger.
Our small local meat locker would often save their excess pig and beef fat for me. No charge. Haven’t picked up any for several years though.
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Dang CWD has been detected in my County now.
It has been in west TN for years… but has made it over into middle now.
Not currently deer hunting… hate it.
Wish there was a quick, accurate, test you could do in the field.
Squirrels are looking much better to me now.
yeah, no need to freak out, but you definitely wouldn’t want to find out the hard way. What a miserable way to go.
We have plenty of deer, neighbors feed them. I kept two, they are my pets. I feed them during the winter months, then they be on their own. I only see those two 2 or 3 times a day. Then they are gone the rest of the day.
I got 3 fenced gardens, one strictly for citrus and figs. Fence is only 60” tall. One is just for veggies, third one, the biggest is for larger persimmons, all 60”tall.No fancy gates. Don’t have much problems with deer. Use to line figs inside the fence, they would,t jump over. Raccoons, possums,squirrels always have problems with them. Take care of them my way.
You think a deer would jump over this fig? This little plate of corn for two causes over population . Sounds like the States wants to shift the blame . Deer season should be longer, hunters be more happy. We have a lot of poor counties that could benefit.
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I can’t speak to your home area, but in many places feeding wildlife such as raccoon, bear, and deer is illegal. I sure know if my next door neighbor was putting out food for dangerous/destructive species I’d be extremely pissed.
Ummmm…yeah, we have cops here feeding bears and showing the photos from their trail cameras!
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Do they even screen the cops they hire down there, or does the job just automatically go to the “Boss” Hogg’s nephews Jethro and Billy Bob?
This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in your local law enforcement in my books.
Actually, its legal to feed the deer in all the states (to my knowledge). It’s not considered to have made pets out of the deer unless they are confined to a small enclosure or tied up. I’m a deer hunter and I have feed the deer by placing mineral blocks in the woods. There are restrictions however such as not hunting within a specified yardage and not feeding deer in a CWD zone.
Fear of humans among deer is mostly a learned trait. I have personally had a small doe walk up to me within about 5 yards while I was hunting with the doe not showing any fear. The young doe had simply not learned to fear humans. The doe looked at me and I looked at the doe. Eyeball to eyeball. Then I just walked away. True story.
I have heard of fawns following hunters out of woods to their vehicles. Again, these fawns that exhibit this behavior have not learned to fear humans.
How do deer learn to fear humans? The deer’s mother is the principal teacher (sometimes I think that the fawns instinctively know but not always). How well the fawn is taught depends on the experiences. In some cases, the fawn can be really spooky. Again, depends on the experiences. Also, shooting at the deer teaches the deer really fast.
Of course, in some areas there is very limited interaction between humans and deer while in other areas it is very common for humans and deer to be in close proximity.
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Where I live:
Taken from B.C. Laws, Clause 33.1 in the Wildlife Act states that:
(1) A person must not (a) intentionally feed or attempt to feed dangerous wildlife or, (b) provide, leave or place an attractant in, on or about any land or premises with the intent of attracting dangerous wildlife.
(2) A person must not leave or place an attractant in, on or about any land or premises where there are or where there are likely to be people, in a manner in which the attractant could (a) attract dangerous wildlife to the land or premises, and (b) be accessible to dangerous wildlife”.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/wildlifefeeding/the-law/
I’m not a lawyer, but I would personally interpret that to mean “dangerous to humans, pets, or livestock”. IMO that would include our local carnivorous species such as coyotes, wolves, raccoons, cougars, and bears.
Some districts even ban feeding birds. North Vancouver has restrictions on how early you can put your trash out to avoid feeding/attracting bears:
Carts set out at the curb before 5:30 am – including the night before – are now subject to a $100 fine for the first offence and $500 for repeat offences.
While it is not strictly illegal to feed deer, feeding wildlife is generally frowned upon in Canada,
Feeding deer is illegal in Virginia from Sept-Jan. Outside of then it is STRONGLY discouraged. One big reason is to prevent the spread of CWD and TB. The state even hires sharpshooters to cull the deer because they have no good predators here and spread disease (tick bourne) and cause problems with roads and cars.
I would also be very unhappy with neighbors who fed deer in my area. Feeding deer here could cause the population to increase. The deer already cause habitat damage from overgrazing, property damage (eating my fruit trees and running into the road), and are dangerous for drivers (who swerve to avoid them).
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Just curious, does your local Walmart sell bags of corn and/or does your local Bass Pro sell mineral blocks?
I had to laugh to myself after my county was declared a CWD zone and the local Walmart and Bass Pro continued to sell these. Of course, I realize that stores are free to sell these items even though feeding deer is prohibited. Feeding restrictions do not apply if the feed or minerals are placed in such a manner to reasonably exclude access by deer (I’m quoting straight from the TN hunting & trapping guide here). Of course, this may be different in the state of Virginia.
Has anyone ever been successfully prosecuted for intentionally feeding deer in the state of Virginia to your knowledge?
My guess is the deer hunters in Virginia is not happy with that.
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Gulf Island deer cull underway because of their devastating effect on the local ecology:
Areas not protected by fencing have seen little growth in native plants, and tree regeneration on the island is struggling, she said.
“None of those tree seedlings reach more than a couple of inches in height. They don’t grow past a couple of years before they are nipped by deer and die,”
https://globalnews.ca/news/9995370/sidney-island-deer-cull/
Sure wish they’d thin the herd on my island as well.
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Yeah, by the game warden. But I’m pretty sure the real risk in my area is the neighborhood being unhappy with you.
We also have a local bear who everyone is very attached to. He (or maybe she?) is a black bear and everyone has either seen the bear or caught it on security/game cameras. I am not interested in deterring the bear fyi! I just am happy to talk about the bear.
The bear has not caused any problems because the neighbors (so far) have all been very good about securing trash, extra livestock feed, etc. I am in an area with many people who produce chickens or turkeys for a living - but they are still into our bear.
Several of us showed the game warden on our cameras and he was so happy to see the bear did not have mange, which is apparently a major problem for bears right now on the east coast.
I lived in rural CA and seeing bears was an everyday sort of thing. But here it’s so special. Also, our bear is obviously young, but soooo little when compared to the west coast juvie black bears! All should cross their fingers for my neighborhood bear’s winter survival.
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If you’re worried about deer damage on fruit trees, the good news is they do nothing compared to bears 
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Do you get bears in MN? I am lucky, I suppose, that we have only one tiny juvenile black bear to worry about. And that little bear may not make it through winter.
All this is absurd, of course, because I do not even like bears!!! I grew up with them eating trash and being all over and eating our chickens and causing problems!
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Wild bears are not cute and cuddly, they are dangerous. Any bear that is frequenting a residential neighborhood should be trapped and relocated to a remote wilderness area far from peoples homes. That is what the wildlife dept in BC does. If the bear repeatedly returns to the same residential area after being relocated it is usually shot by wildlife officers. Bears and people don’t mix.
Very tragic attack not long ago in BC:
Even small bears are extremely dangerous. On the west coast of Vancouver Island I would see many bears while fishing. Most of the black bears on the southern island are small and scrawny. I never had much fear of them until I saw three scrawny bears foraging at the beach one day while fishing. I guess the bears were foraging for beach crabs by flipping over rocks on the beach to eat the crabs hiding beneath. I never had much respect for them because of their small size, until I saw them flip boulders over with one paw that likely weighed hundreds of pounds as if they were pebbles. They are amazingly strong creatures, and should be feared. You don’t want to mess with a bear, even a small one could shred a human in the blink of an eye.
Bears don’t belong in residential neighborhoods, that’s simply a tragedy waiting to happen.
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Plenty of bears in MN, yes.
I’m fine with bears as long they stay somewhere else.
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Do they eat dead animals? Or rattlesnakes? If not, I can’t think of any benefit of a bear if you’re not going to eat him (and I’m not).
Maybe to scatter seeds? (And plant more autumn olives all over his territory!)
Bears eat pretty much any and every thing.
They make a good sausage
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I don’t live in a residential neighborhood.
They wouldn’t remove a bear here unless it got acclimated to people or was killing livestock or something.
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