Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Anybody use black eyed peas for deer feed?

I found black eyed peas for deer feed at the local D&L store. Anybody ever used them? Works in the normal spin feeders I have and aflatoxin does not occur with them. I have trouble getting deer into the feeders when acorns are on the ground and they claim it will draw them in over anything else. It is called Peas Plus by Alternative Wildlife Nutrition.

Can't bait in Illinois..

Our deer prefer classic rock over hip hop.

Did you say Black-eyed Peas ? Which ones ?

These




Or these

Well, I picked up a few bags to try out. If doesn't work any better then I will pick up a speaker and pipe in the other kind

What a predicament. A beaver wrecking your pond, deer not coming around and a bunch of clowns that you thought were pals.

Hey, I watched a small buck walk under a feeder last weekend and ignore the corn on the ground. He kept walking until he came to our stand. That's when my Grandson waved Hi to him.

Let me know how the peas work. How much did they cost?

I found them for ~$10 per 50# bag close to my house. The store recommended them mixed with corn, sort of dinner and dessert all in one. The bag says 22% protein and may be a good feed for a managed deer place. That is higher than most of the commercial deer feeds, and cheaper. I just want something to get them off the acorns and where I can see them.

Really, just the second one from the left, thank you.

I have yet to find anything the deer like more than corn... If corn isn't bringing them in, I am not sure anything will. Soybeans and black eyed peas would be use similarly. I have never used black eyed peas, but with soybeans, you generally have to start the mix out with a low percentage of beans and then work your way up until they make up 75% or so of the mixture. You need at least some corn in the mix for them to eat it. Perhaps peas are a bit difference?

Yeah, it's hard to beat corn as the deers favorite, but another thing they really love is sunflower seeds, but the cost would kill you.

Lots of info on what deer eat. Peas , beans , corn , mast , woody vines (honeysuckle , jasmine etc) , clovers , just about any garden veg type plant , grains (oats , wheat , rye).

There isn't much deer won't eat... They certainly have preferences. When winter has been tough, they will really eat just about anything. White oak species of acorn are certainly about as high on the list of their preferred foods. Trying to get them to leave white oak acorns alone and focus on something else can be a challenge. You can't bait deer in VA or PA where I hunt the most, so I don't have much experience in baiting deer to hunt them. You can bait them in MD where I hunt occasionally.

We can't bait either. We have CWD in our county.

For two reasons, I think not being able to bait is not a problem. Not feeding helps to minimize the spread of CWD, and it helps minimize the far more regulatory inspections of what we harvest.

But secondly, I also don't think these big vermin care. They eat our vegetables, our flowers, our bushes, and they get most of our apples, peaches, and pears. They dare us to run over them when they block our driveway like defiant protesters.



I'm at the point where I won't feed these moochers anything but lead! It is too bad that Todd3138 isn't here this weekend, instead of one week ago. The back of my truck is filled with legally tagged venison waiting for final butchering and packing.

I wouldn't want to see them eliminated or extinct, but they sure have become a problem.

As for black-eyed peas vs. most any other grain or vegetable or bush -- if you've got at least a few acres, these critters are going to flourish.

I work in an urban environment, and I live in a very rural environment. Although we have no shortage of deer in the rural environment, I believe there even more more white tailed deer in the urban environment.

I don't envy our good friend CJBS (Travis) who must deal with these issues in his everyday work as an urban police officer, in an area with an extreme over abundance of deer that cannot be controlled.

My deer stands are within 40 yards of white oaks.. I hunt on 40 acres that is loaded with oaks only 2 white oaks on te whole property though. Needless to say under the white oaks it looks like a feed troph with all the tracks and bare dirt. Although every other year about a1/4 mile down the way is cornfields so the deer mainly only hit the white oaks as a dessert it seems. So corn seems to be #1 acorns #2 in my neck of the woods

We can't bait in the Missouri Ozarks ....yet spotlighting over the non-existant bait is expected...

The Ozark area counties always have the highest reported deer harvest numbers, yet has a limit of 1 buck and a 1 bonus "any deer" tag (supposedly due to low census numbers)....the rest of the state gives unlimited bonus tags. I would conservatively estimate there are 4-5 deer unreported deer taken for every deer that gets reported in the Ozarks every season.

Interesting. Our property is about 70% oak. Of that, about 50% is chestnut oak, 30% is red oak, and 20% is white oak. The deer and turkey like them all.

We are surrounded, for many miles, by apple orchards and farmland planted in alfalfa, corn, and soybeans. This time of year, when a deer is cleaned, the stomach is pretty well packed with alfalfa and apples.

Deer taken about 20 miles east of here are packed with corn.

Around here the oaks often drop at different times so while the white oaks are dropping look there. When the red oaks start look there. Find a place with both and add a food plot. That should cover all the bases.

Well, hey, that's great to hear, Ken! Yeah, I wish I could have been around for that, but maybe next year we'll see some different results.

There is also an apple tree on the property, they love it. I'm sure they eat the other acorns but not like they do the white oaks.. These 2 white oaks are also the first trees on the entire property to have scrapes too

Red oak species(southern, nothern, scarlett, pin, etc) have higher tannin levels(makes them bitter), while white oaks species(chestnut, rock, basket, willow, overcup, post, turkey, etc) have lower levels of tannin and some are actually sweet enough you can eat them right out of hand if you pull the meat out of the shell. Deer will eat both species, but certainly prefer white oaks species.

There is a large corn field about .75 of a mile from our land in PA. Even though the hillside our land is on is covered in white oak and red oak acorns, the doe I shot up there back in early October was packed with corn. She had obviously spent the night gorging on corn and was coming up the mountain to chew her cud and take cover for the day and maybe grab an acorn or too to eat.

An interesting example of deer food preference are brassics(turnips, kale, radishes, etc). I've planted them in some areas where the deer destroy them even before first frost. Then in other areas, even where deer densities are low, the deer wont even touch them after several frosts. It's almost like they have to learn to eat some new foods?

Well, they did not draw them in any different than corn which is to say almost nill. The birds sure like it though, gave me something to watch until the deer came out. I filled back up with the 50/50 mix as I still had some left. There were quite a few peas left on the ground, but only that mornings corn left overs. The game camera is finally up; so I will see what is actually coming in to it. Looks like I can save my money and just hunt like most of the country without the feeder with what little activity it draws.