Tracy, the 18 month old deal is not my observation ON MY PLACE. The Mamas on my place are more interested in finding a boy friend than taking care of the kids. However, I have seen different age classes of does do things differently.

A friend has a weekend place on Possum Kingdom Lake. It is loaded with yard deer and no hunting. They are all but tame and he hand feeds corn in his yard. He tells me that some does keep them for a longer time but about 50% breed every year. That can only mean that those that keep them around don't go into estrus on an annual basis. I asked him which age classes had twins. He said that the first year does had singles and older does often twins. However he said none of "his" does seem to have twins on a consistent basis. But he isn't sure whether it could be to fawn mortality.

Due to 5 years of drought and seriously declining deer population we aren't shooting does this year. That's convenient because we have another year of heavy acorn drop and don't see that many deer. Recent rains have brought up a lot of wild rye. The 4 months of drought kept me from planting wheat and, with the abundance of rye as natural browse they would have ignored it. According to game cams, hogs are getting the corn at night. I have Kids filling feeders today and told them to only feed in the morning.

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP