What time do you feed your Protein? Same time corn feeder goes off? I want a healthy deer herd but would like the bucks to get first choice and was wondering if you have tried any tactics to help this. I currently feed corn and protein at the same time morning and evening and all the deer eat it. I was thinking about moving my protein feed time to late night, say midnight, and seeing if I would have more bucks than does and fawns. Free choice feeding, on a different ranch, seamed to produce more mature deer feeding during the night than the daylight. I also have cotton seed in the pen. Pen is 5 hog panels wide by 7 panels long, so they plenty of space to mill around and get along. Any tips or advice is appreciated.
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This time of year, we have ours open at 6:30am and close at 7:15am and open at 4:30pm and close at 5pm. From late December through September we have them open most of the time alongside our cottonseed feeders and free-choice protein feeders. -
I have mine open from approximately 30 mins before sunrise until approximately one hour after sunset. They can eat all they want during shooting light. I give them a little bonus time in the evening just because.Comment
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I have a separate feed pen for my Lamco timed protein feeder. It dispenses once a day at 7:00 am. The most mature bucks in the area are in that pen every morning at 6:55am waiting for it to go off. Once they are full, the younger bucks get to eat. The does hang around in the corn feeder pens.Comment
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Originally posted by bgleaton View Post
Why bother with a timed feeder if there is free choice next to it?
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The tactic I use is I feed them anytime they want to eat.Comment
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[QUOTE=Dale Moser;15988211]Why bother with a timed feeder if there is free choice next to it?
The free choice isn't next to the timed protein feeder. The free choice feeders are by themselves and not hunted. The timed protein feeders are next to the corn feeders and run around the same time. We wanted to provide protein at all of our feed stations just to provide more quality feed and make sure they aren't feeding at night to make them easier to hunt. I just looked back at what I wrote and i can see how that was confusing. Sorry about that!Comment
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The feeders I am running are timed spinners that fall into a large plate. Trough opening sounds nice but I don't have that option. Might have helped if I had explained that a little better.Comment
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I have my Hammer set to open at 7 AM and close 15 minutes later. The protein head holds 10#. Numbers and consumption don't empty it right now, may adjust later.Comment
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I feed for 25-30seconds (depending on time of year ) at 7am. Deer show up early and aren’t nocturnal.Comment
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Originally posted by Dale Moser View Post
The reason I do this is to keep something there when the free choice feeder runs out.Comment
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Mine goes off around same time as corn feeder. Adjustments depending how much they eat. Deer line up 30/45 min before it goes off waiting. Lots less coons and they eat all they like. Goes 365 days a year and keeps them on a schedule. During season it gets more corn than protein and they love it.
Consistency is the game I think. Free choice always seems to run out. Timed I adjust so it always has something.Comment
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