Fawn Recruitment

[deerwatcher51]

We did our aerial survey yesterday and my fawn to doe ratio was 73%. My biologist told me it was the highest % he has seen in San Saba County. Almost all of my fawns were born in a Deer Management Pen (DMP). Two of my neighbors, also high fenced, had less than 30% each, no DMP. Just wondering what everyone else is seeing out there.

[sasqy]

Talked to a guy yesterday, said their crop was prob 20% now.
Said does dried up and left babies to starve due to the drought. Their ranch in Thurber.

[TKRanch]

We have 8 yard does that come up everyday. I watched them all spring and summer getting fatter and fatter, then watched them "bag up" and was expecting them all to fawn and see the little ones everywhere. Well, we ended up only having 2 successful mothers, one with twins and one single. The others just went skinny again and nothing. This is on 400 LF acres...... have not paid much attention to the non yard deer, but have only seen a few fawns otherwise.....

[Low Fence]

I run cameras year around. On and off bait sites and cover a lot of habitat all year. I’ve seen 2 fawns all year from probably close to 20-25 different doe of breeding age

It ain’t good in my area

[adam_p]

I've had 0 fawn pics this year on our place in Cooke County.

[Sika]

Statewide average will be below 30% this year.
On the Llano ranch we observed 13% fawn production. The South Texas ranch did better @ 59% because I let the DMP does raise their fawns in the pen and held them as long possible.

[brokeno]

I have seen no fawns on my place this year in Gonzales county

[Drycreek3189]

Only 85 acres at my house, but only one fawn on camera. We have lots of coyotes to add to the drought. We have a least one set of twins as of a week ago on a 350 acre lease 15/20 miles away. That’s fairly normal for where I hunt, lots of coyotes both places.

[Strummer]

We have a group of 7 does that hang out at the house . I seen 4 fawns to start with . Now that ya mention it I haven’t seen any fawns in the last 3 or 4 weeks .

[Bowtechshooter]

We haven’t flewn yet but talking to some pilot buddies, they haven’t seen much good this year.

[elhefe]

I've got a group of 7-10 does in the backyard and I've got 5 fawns I see fairly regularly. We have some coyotes but these are very non pressured deer so I'm sure my small sampling size is not typical at all.

[DUKFVR]

Had 1 pic early spring. None since in western young county.

[barnag]

Originally Posted by Strummer

We have a group of 7 does that hang out at the house . I seen 4 fawns to start with . Now that ya mention it I haven’t seen any fawns in the last 3 or 4 weeks .

I had seen 3 fawns but haven't seen them in the last 4 weeks or so as well. At what point are they able to live on their own? What's the danger zone? Like I said, I was seeing them thrive a month ago, but haven't seen them since.

[TexasTK]

I have yet to see a fawn this year at my place in Dimmit County. It is all natural deer with no pens or any kind of breeding facility.

[buck_wild]

We are estimating 25% survival in San Pat/Refugio Co.

[CyTxCazador]

Natives are 100%
HF is under 10% - I’m attributing this to a since-solved yote problem.

[Brute Killer]

I have fawns everywhere. Don't know the ratio.
The rain came in the nick of time.

[Big pig]

Originally Posted by TKRanch

We have 8 yard does that come up everyday. I watched them all spring and summer getting fatter and fatter, then watched them "bag up" and was expecting them all to fawn and see the little ones everywhere. Well, we ended up only having 2 successful mothers, one with twins and one single. The others just went skinny again and nothing. This is on 400 LF acres...... have not paid much attention to the non yard deer, but have only seen a few fawns otherwise.....

Almost exactly what I have seen here in Brown Coubty. 300 acres low fence.
Only fawns I see are the house fawns. And I am out in the field everyday.
Between coyotes, bobcats and drought fawn survival
is approx 15-20% overall. Thanks to a couple sets of twins.

BP

[bgleaton]

Our survey showed 0.7 fawns per doe in our survey. We were also told that we had a very high fawn survival and almost 2.5x better than the average fawn crop this year. I'm sure a lot of it has to be attributed to us not grazing our place this year to allow grasses to be high, feeding a LOT, and providing plenty of water.

[toledo]

How much water do they actually need? We had crazy bad drought. But, I have multiple ponds that the deer seem to totally ignore no matter how hot it is.

[Brute Killer]

Originally Posted by Brute Killer

I have fawns everywhere. Don't know the ratio.
The rain came in the nick of time.

Between my brother and myself, we killed 14 coyotes this year, too, on 500 acres.
10 were right before fawning.

[lanceodom]

Did our helicopter survey yesterday and we had 45%. High fence in LaSalle county. I think the rains were about a month late.

[Texashookset]

Our biologist is saying 4-11% is what he’s seen on the surrounding ranches by us, all lf as well. Hasn’t flown ours since February but not looking good from what we’ve seen either.

[txtimetravler]

Will this help get deer numbers in check?…for overpopulated areas like central texas?

Who will be killing does next month?

[Texashookset]

Originally Posted by txtimetravler

Will this help get deer numbers in check?…for overpopulated areas like central texas?

Who will be killing does next month?

We’re looking at 30 does total, had 90 last year and 120 the year before. 14 hunters.

[deerwatcher51]

Originally Posted by Sika

Statewide average will be below 30% this year.
On the Llano ranch we observed 13% fawn production. The South Texas ranch did better @ 59% because I let the DMP does raise their fawns in the pen and held them as long possible.

That is what I did with the DMP. I did not let mine out until August 31st.

[KactusKiller]

Navarro Co TX had great crop in my area and Seminole CO Ok also seemed to be great. Had good rain in spring at both but got really dry in summer. Was still good enough to carry fawns thru.

[Sippy]

10-30% on central and west tx clients. East tx 18-45% both fed and unfed, all HF but 2.

[webb09]

We fly this coming weekend. I don’t expect anything over 7%

[Big pig]

Originally Posted by txtimetravler

Will this help get deer numbers in check?…for overpopulated areas like central texas?

Who will be killing does next month?

We don’t have an over population.
Zero. I have already seen 7 dead dead this year from various causes.

[M16]

I haven’t done my other places yet. But one of my places in Colorado County came in at 12.5%.

[BrandonF]

I’ve noticed lots of singles this year compared to twins in the past few years on a few different properties in Smith County. All low fence.

[coldtrail]

Low where Im at too

[kyle1974]

Originally Posted by webb09

We fly this coming weekend. I don’t expect anything over 7%

that's rough. I am thinking about the same for our place, maybe worse due to the grazing. the one aspect I try to remain hopeful on is the area around the tanks is really thick, and the does like to bed down there. we will see. So far in about 8 trips to the lease, I've seen 2 fawns.

I guess the positive side when you have to debate if a deer is 7 or not in 2029, you can be pretty sure it's not since an entire age class just disappeared

[Clearfork51]

My place is in Parker county. Have seen 3 fawns just this morning. Seem to be in good numbers here.

[webb09]

Originally Posted by kyle1974

that's rough. I am thinking about the same for our place, maybe worse due to the grazing. the one aspect I try to remain hopeful on is the area around the tanks is really thick, and the does like to bed down there. we will see. So far in about 8 trips to the lease, I've seen 2 fawns.

I guess the positive side when you have to debate if a deer is 7 or not in 2029, you can be pretty sure it's not since an entire age class just disappeared

Exactly. Ours was 3%, but after problems w chopper, didn’t get in the air till after 10:30

[RMW]

Haven’t seen a fawn in Rufugio/Bee county, big rains came way to late.

[Texashookset]

This weekends blind counts had us around 18% so above what the biologist thought but it was just a sporadic count with only about six of us. No one saw a set of twins.

[Big pig]

Originally Posted by lanceodom

Did our helicopter survey yesterday and we had 45%. High fence in LaSalle county. I think the rains were about a month late.

What’s “Normal” on your place ?
Any cattle on that place ?

Thanks

[kyle1974]

Originally Posted by webb09

Exactly. Ours was 3%, but after problems w chopper, didn’t get in the air till after 10:30

ugh, that sucks. hopefully they missed some that were bedded down.

one of the guys watched a solo doe come out a couple hundred yards north of a blind, walk about 200 yards to the west of the blind, and when she came back out, she had a fawn with her.

so there was the 1 fawn we saw this weekend