Winter stress on whitetail

[buckshot_09]

for my area (Central Ontario), this winter has been one of the worse we've had in a long time as far as snow, roughly 4-5ft in some places. this is extremely stressful on deer, limiting their yarding areas and exhausting the food supply. but around my house, there are several volunteers, including myself, who practice winter supplemental and emergency feeding (corn, oats & alfalfa). and over the years, although numbers aren't available, this seems to really benifit the deer population and they seem to be growing in numbers. just curious as to know how severe this winter has been in other regions/provinces and if/what you think about winter deer feeding?

[Shaun_300]

Welcome to the forums! Nice to see another Ontario guy in here.

We don't have that much snow here, well in some areas in the valley maybe, but most areas has around 2 feet. I don't think it has had a major effect on the deer, we still feed them in the winter with corn and oats mixed. We like seeing the deer around and giving them a good snack that's not as difficult to find as pawing through the snow looking for acorns and other stuff to feed on.

[buckshot_09]

yeah, i'm actually studying at the University of Ottawa, and when i went home last week for Spring Break, i was blown away by the amount of snow we have back home compared to here in Ottawa. hey Shaun_300, any turkeys in surrounding areas of Ottawa?

[Shaun_300]

Oh cool! I live in Arnprior, you probably went through the town on your way home to North Bay. It's about 25 minutes west of Ottawa. I'd be about 30-35 minutes from the University of Ottawa.

Yeah there's turkeys in this area, there are only seasons in some WMU's though. And you need that course to be able to hunt them unfortunately. Since there is currently no season in the WMU's that I hunt, I haven't taken the course yet. But I will when we do get seasons!

Hey shoot me a PM if you want my phone number, maybe I can meet up with you somewhere in the city and we could chill out and talk some huntin'. Maybe we could head to Le Baron and check out some hunting and fishing stuff too!

[Muff]

I think they did great here this year....not much snow all year.

[Master_Chief]

Sounds like great weather.

Shaun I used to go through Arnprior as a kid going to White Lake. Beautiful country.

[Master_Chief]

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when i went home last week for Spring Break, i was blown away by the amount of snow we have back home compared to here in Ottawa.

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Now that's funny right there. Spring Break and that much snow. Wonder what the bikini wearers in Daytona would think......

[Shaun_300]

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Sounds like great weather.

Shaun I used to go through Arnprior as a kid going to White Lake. Beautiful country.

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Wow! What a small world... I live about 5 mintues from White Lake... You're right, the country is awesome up here.

[Cutter]

Our deer were having a pretty easy year until last week . Between then and now weve got close to 2 feet of snow.

[camelNS]

This winter has been great here this year.First one since 1999.The last five winters have been DEADLY here.Hopfully our herd will start to rebound a bit.I think the only winter feeding should be natural browse.If anything else is used it has to be started in hunting season and continued till well into spring.It takes alot of time money and dedication to do it right.Then when you attract a whole wintering herd to your feed you have to worry about the spread of desease.(not just CWD)Infections,sickness can be spread at feeding stations.Any sickness is a bad sickness to spread around in the winter,even if its minor.Natural browse is best and its what the are living off of during the winter.Cut some trees and leave the tops.When it snows go cut some more.

[manny]

Here in southern Newbrunswick, we had no winter at all never seen it like this. At the most we had about 5inches of snow in the deep woods, As long as we git a warm dry spring i think the deer herd should explode.

[Mathews XT Man]

WINTER......????? Is that what we had this year?? Man, I thought we just had a cold snap....heck, we didnt even have anysnow till Feb....even then it never got over 15" deep...our does will be looking at twins and triplets here..I know of one fawn that was we lost here..

[rutbuster]

We had no winter in North Dakota.

not in my area.

[doughboy1956]

I live in Cape Breton, NS, Canada and as winters go, the 2005-2006 winter has been relatively mild. The deer herd is not very good and it will take many more winters like this to bring them back. I blame the DNR for the state the deer herd is in down here.

Back in the 60,s and 70,s we were allowed to bag two whitetail deer. After a few bad winters the herd took a beating and they dropped it to one deer of any sex. The deer population grew and by the 90,s the herd was as big if not bigger than in the 60,s and 70,s down here. Now this was the time i was butting heads with the DNR. I wrote them and attented many meetings and joined a wildlife club to try to get my point accross.

The DNR did not listen and the wildlife clubs seem to turn the other ear. The wildlife clubs had lots of members because of the big deer herds. Cape Breton has lost over 95% of the wildlife clubs do to a decline in membership as the deer herd declined. I think it was all do to the following, and i will go to my grave thinking this. Myself and a few of the older hunters tryed in vain to stop what has occured. Here are my thoughts on what happened.

As i said there were plenty of deer in the 90,s, in fact there were to many. I tryed (and a few others) to get the DNR to allow each hunter to bag two deer again. They would not and did not allow this to happen. We had about five of the mildest winters in a row. The deer did not have to herd up and so generations of deer, lost the knowledge on how to herd up. The coyotes moved into Cape Breton. This was a problem the deer did not have to deal with in the 60,s and 70,s. Then all heck broke loose.We are alowed only one deer now and it has to be a buck. It never should have came to this.

We had four of the hardest winters on record as snowfall goes. The older deer made it to their wintering yards and were followed by so many other deer that the yards could not support them. They ran out of food and the snow was to high for them to move. Whole herds were wiped out. Other deer that did not know how to herd up, made it to small pockets and were soon snowed in. The coyotes moved in and picked them off one by one. That,s my 2 cents of why we have such a small deer population today, and it will take many years of mild winters to recover.

The really bad winters for deer are those that begin in late October or early November, and snow continues to fall through Christmas. And then, after the new year kicks off, we have occasional storms that seem to seal whitetails in heavy cover for the rest of the winter.

Deer that can't make it out, and are confined to deer yards, are fighting a losing battle. If cold temperatures set in, and then it warms up just long enough for a freezing rain to fall, the winter severity index takes a heavy toll on deer.

The other way where deer could still be hurt would be if we were really dumped on, the snow piles up, and then winter works its way clean into April. There are times with whitetails when they are stretched pretty thin with bad weather conditions, and too little food, and a late-season storm or two can be devastating.IMUO

[NS_HUNTER]

No winter here on the South Shore of Nova Scotia,very mild.