Deer Herd

[MK-M-GOBL]

I bet we won't be hearing F&G patting themselves on the back about the deer numbers now or how good they've (F&G) has been doing. Well at least not until Mother Nature hands us two or three mild winters again!

This snow sucks

[soccerref]

I am not sure this winter has been that bad on them, we've had TONS of snow, but they are built for that. What gets them is ice covered snow and I don't think that has been much of an issue YET. The next month could be make or break, storms like yesterday that start as snow, then rain, then turning cold like tomorrow, are what will kill them, they can't get through it to eat or move.

Let's just hope for a run of warm days that give us a look at the ground to happen VERY soon.

[MK-M-GOBL]

I saw a few Monday and those too were looking in good shape. However, I've been hearing from others that the deer their seeing, aren't doing to good. Actually had this conversation last night with Mike.

I hope they doing OK and not taking the hit everyone's talking about.

[soccerref]

Maybe its an area by area thing, alot depends on the food and browse was spotty this year. I have a bunch of pictures from early Feb and they all looked fat and healthy, just hope for a quick warm up and hopefully they make it into fawn season in decent shape.

[5wt]

I'm not sure what to make of it. I've had deer as recently as last weekend run out in front of the truck and looked great. On the other hand, I walked into a yard (by mistake, I didn't know it was there) and found eight dead deer all skin and bones. We cut a leg to see what the marrow looked liked, there wasn't any. We've had a large snow load here and I'm guessing the health of the herd is going to be spotty, good or bad depending on where they picked to yard up this year. Just a guess though.

[soccerref]

Just spotty evidence, but I drove to Ithaca NY and back Thurs/Fri to visit a college, saw lots of deer in NY that look fat and healthy. Sunday AM saw 5 in my home town all together, 4 looked healthy, one had ribs showing. Not sure what to make of it.

[troutpro]

The deer seem healthy here in Chenango County, New York. We have had a mild winter without any snow remaining on the ground for extended periods of time. Today there were tons of deer out feeding as the snow melted away, not to mention some nice long beards in our corn field. I don't know how much farm land there is in New Hampshire, but our area is covered by small farms including our own, which should help the deer make it through the year.

[regnar]

I still dont think the winter is a bad winter for the deer. Yes we have had ALOT of snow but not all at once. I have been up north (groveton area) to camp a few time and although there is alot of snow the deer seem to be getting around in it. It is not crusty at all.

Down hear there in the south eastern and central part the deer seem to be doing just fine as far as I can tell. What will hurt the deer is if we get a big snow at the end of March begining of April. That is when a deer need to start eating green stuff ASAP!! That is what happened a few years back when we had a high herd mortality. We had a big snow in April and we lost a lot of deer because of it.

[troutpro]

any farmland we have (not as much as you have) is literally covered by 3.5 feet of snow. Up north where farmland is more prevalent, has even more snow than we have here in the central part of the state. If you haven't heard troutpro, another foot and a half of snow and we will be setting the all time record for snowfall in one winter...we have already had 102"

That does seem like a lot of snow for the deer to deal with. In our area of NY I don't think the winters harm the deer population as much because the deer don't have to travel far for food. We have a pretty ample supply of food sources off the ground, such as berry bushes and standing corn. I think some of the worst things our deer population have to deal with are the coyotes and farm equipment. With the number of coyotes we have, the fawns take a beating . I know that a lot of fawns get killed because their instincts tell them to stay still when in danger, but that doesn't help when farmers are mowing their fields. I can not remember the last time I saw an unhealthy looking deer. We do have some rough winters that may damage the population but overall I think the deer handle it pretty well.