Originally posted by Yolk Sac:
Originally posted by Catmandoo:
I've tried putting corn out on several of their favorite trails, but the deer always seem to get it before they do
You've broken my heart with the saga of the catfish. If you decide you need to get rid of the overeating deer, I don't want to read about it!
Sorry, D.I.E.D, now back to the turkeys. The deer . . . I always have some in the freezer, but it is very seldom that I am the one who shot it. We have way too many on our property. In the fall, I tell the neighbors to give me a call if they get a small one, and they don't want it. Sometimes we'll see as many as 40 at a time. Yesterday morning, as we were getting ready to head out to church, I looked out the window. A really big one was looking back at me! It took a break from munching my lettuce -- just outside the perimeter of my electric fence.
The place we live in now was owned by "city people" for several years before we bought it. I'm slowly rebuilding habitat for the critters. I took about 90 pine trees off my pond dam (the previous owner proudly told me about how they prevented erosion). Most of the trees have gone to build hideaways at a forest/meadow edge.
There aren't many local and migrating critters that don't pass our way. But, just like the garden and the pond, we do thin them out when they get overcrowded. However, until they become over populated, we try to make them as welcome as possible.
Turkeys (and maybe 12-inch bluegill) are probably the only critters we wish we had more of.
D.I.E.D -- I'll gladly swap you two dozen deer, a timid and fat papa bear, a half-dozen fox squirrels, a red fox, a gray fox, and two coyotes for a well adjusted family of wild turkeys.
Thanks again for the posting.
