Plants and features to attract Blacktail to my property

[IslandHunter]

There are good blacktail populations around my 5 acre property. Property is 80% cleared with a house / shop on and maintained lawn on one end and a chicken coup, small fenced in garden and taller grass that gets mowed once a year on the other end with some areas of un maintained and forest around the perimeter.

I am looking for some ways to have blacktail naturally attracted to my property. They currently come through randomly at night and keep the one apple tree and peach tree trimmed up and clean underneath as fruit starts to fall, I have rarely seen them on the property in the daylight. I am wondering what kind of things I can do to help improve my chances of taking a deer off my property?

I will add more fruit trees for sure, but other than that is there any type of grass or other relatively low maintenance plants or things I could do?

Also I have dogs that chase everything and anything out of the yard. I know the deer are pretty smart and seem like they have somewhat figured out when they are safe to be on the property. I don't want to fence off part of my property but I was thinking about putting in some bushes in or something that gives them more cover while on the property and would help conceal them from my dogs when I put them out. 

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Twispriver]

My experience is that you can have deer or you can have dogs that chase deer but not both. Five acres is too small to hold deer but you can do things that attract them. Creating an environment that offers feed not limited to seasonal dropping fruit in addition to good cover and security that is better than what they have available elsewhere is where I would probably start.

[MADMAX]

I prune blackberries back and they make a hedge along my northern yard boundary
Blacktail love them

I also had a locust wood tree that blew over so I cut the stump flush
The next year it sprouted out of the stump
The deer love it

Also plant some rose bushes they eat em like candy

I see more nice blacktail bucks in my yard than the woods
I just cant bring myself to shoot yard deer

[MADMAX]

And a bear on the deer block as well

[JakeLand]

Rose bushes !!!


Apple trees

[Mallardmasher]

Clover and Apple trees, and sweet cob🤪

[Fidelk]

Flowering red currant......deer and hummingbirds.

[nwwanderer]

Many good ideas, try lightly fertilizing strips, the more nutritious browse draws a bunch of interest.

[boneaddict]

Don’t know about black tails, but the muleys that lived in my yard loved the Apple trees, rose bushes, clover, phlox, blackberries and they absolutely devoured my beets and service berry bushes. 

[bearpaw]

The first thing I would do is either kennel the dogs or fence the yard to keep them in. I have hounds and deer on the same property, but the dogs are limited to a small area and the deer all feed just out of reach. Then as has been mentioned, you need to plant some cover and food sources. If neighboring properties have cover, plant cover next to it on your property so the deer feel safe on your property too. It's a lot of fun working on it all, good luck!

[mcrawfordaf]

Blacktail have really tickled me lately. I found this over the weekend and have been thumbing through - its a bit of a broader look at Blacktail habitat but it should help with some of the feed they naturally like as well as identifying invasives to remove off the property. https://wafwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/HabitatGuidelines_BlacktailedDeer_CACoastal_Rainforest.pdf

[IslandHunter]

Blacktail have really tickled me lately. I found this over the weekend and have been thumbing through - its a bit of a broader look at Blacktail habitat but it should help with some of the feed they naturally like as well as identifying invasives to remove off the property. https://wafwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/HabitatGuidelines_BlacktailedDeer_CACoastal_Rainforest.pdf

Thanks for the link. Looks like a good read.

The first thing I would do is either kennel the dogs or fence the yard to keep them in. I have hounds and deer on the same property, but the dogs are limited to a small area and the deer all feed just out of reach. Then as has been mentioned, you need to plant some cover and food sources. If neighboring properties have cover, plant cover next to it on your property so the deer feel safe on your property too. It's a lot of fun working on it all, good luck!

I agree on the dogs, however I do like giving the dogs the freedom to roam and protect the entire property but I see how this is in direct conflict with trying to attract deer. We currently use an invisible fence so I could maybe change the perimeter to exclude a few key areas and plant some more plants for food and cover.

What I am really trying to do is buy the 5 acre plot next to my property so I can keep the majority of that forested and focus on adding food sources and keeping the dogs away. This would be ideal but also very expensive.

[pd]

Rose bushes !!!


Apple trees

Roses x 1,000%. 

I live in an area with a bazillion feral apple trees, you could not plant another one to gain some interest from deer.  But roses, oh my, they love roses.

[npaull]

Good article.

I really wish we could make herbicides illegal on leased timberlands. Sucks that forestry companies found a way to make clear cuts WORSE for habitat instead of improving it.

[MeepDog]

I just cant bring myself to shoot yard deer

First arrow yard deer, then arrow hard deer.

[Mallardmasher]

Roses deer love when in the Bud/bloom stage, just like apples, they have a time they gorge on them, clover is a year around food source and beets are a good fall source along with apples. Roses hold their attention during the spring/summer, as does all the new growth foliage.  Come late Oct until Spring, the food sources dry up or go dormant, dropping their protein content, below what is needed to survive, and they have you use fat reserves along with dormant browse to survive, very hard on mature rutting bucks. During the winter until green up, I will supplement 80% sweet cob, 10% black oil sunflower seeds, 10% soy beans. Bringing it to about an 18-20% protein mixture, bucks recover very fast from the rut, horn growth starts a few weeks earlier, does and fawns are super healthy, and the bears are sleeping, so I do not get raided. I only do this once a week, two five gallon buckets each feeder.

[Bareback]

There’s no shortage of browse on the islands, wether it be native, non-natve or the plethora of decorative trees and shrubs. Until you provide security the deer won’t frequent the property during daylight hours. As mentioned, your dogs are the major deterrent.

We were gone for two weeks with our dogs, the person house sitting said the deer were around all day long, the day after we returned with the dogs they all went nocturnal.

[Mallardmasher]

Deer live dogs, you will see beds close to a house In A secure area. Because the dog is an alarm system. Good food, cover and security