Gasp!

I know it is easy to blame the deer when our trees and shrubs get eaten, but we must remember that we humans are the most to blame. We are destroying more and more of their natural habitat everyday by expanding suburbs. Yes, the deer population is increasing but so is ours. I surely don't know the answer to the problem but as humans and deer are forced to live closer together, it will only get worse. I read an article last week about an elderly man who was attacked and killed by a buck while going to his garden to pick tomatoes. And another incident when a buck tried to attack someones dog. I have had deer look at me like they wanted to charge me in my own backyard. Thank goodness they ran the other way.

Look at this site you will see that the dear deer were never where they thrive now. Especially in my area west of the applachians. http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=2120643 there were none here when Lewis and Clark traveled through here. They ate their horses because they went through DURING HUNTING SEASON NOW. Deer are a species who is adorable and passive until you consider their enviromental destruction.

Here where I live you are allowed to feed the deer but it is limited to one five gallon bucket a day. The hunters use it to bait their piles with to draw deer by their deer blinds. They sell deer feed everywhere.......gas stations, hardware stores........everywhere you look there are large bags of sugar beets, corn, carrots, apples etc.

We have 28 acres and 20 are in woods. My son is a hunter and invites a friend or two to hunt with him usually. They do buy food a couple weeks before hunting season to get the deer by their blinds. Once hunting season is over nobody buys the food much I don't think. I have 7 apple trees and had tons and tons more apples than I knew what to do with. I loaded them up in the RTV and drove out to the woods and dumped them around for the deer and other animals. I didn't really know what else to do with them and I didn't want the deer up by the house eating under the big old apple tree. It is outside my bedroom window and when they would come in at night to eat the apples on the ground my dogs would see them through the bedroom window and bark and have a fit and wake me up. So, I would go out daily and pick them all up and drive them into the woods and dump them. I found an old apple tree out in the woods that I'm sure they feed off of. I always thought it was a good idea to keep the deer healthy and well fed since some of them wind up on our dinner tables. Maybe I am wrong about this though.

I don't feed them during the winter. I do have great success with Liquid Fence as long as you reapply it about once a month. The DNR here manages the herds by changing the licenses around. If they want more does culled they issue more doe permits or sometimes lengthen gun season etc. You have to turn your deer in after you kill it so they can keep tract of it all.

I have enjoyed reading this thread and it has given me a lot to think about. Is there a lot of controversy about feeding birds too? Or should I ask?

Say Loon, there is some controversy associated with those who choose to feed birds such as Mute Swans, English House Sparrows, or European Starlings. Another controversy with feeding birds is there are those who stock feeders without clearing the area of feral and stray cats which others believe is unconscionable. Many believe that people who feed birds without ridding their property of ferals and strays are doing nothing more than providing a McKitty Happy Meal for Fluffies and Tiggers. Me, I call animal control and they come and pick up the feral cats.

I don't start feeding the birds until very late in the season when I feel relatively confident all those that should have migrated have done so. Once I start, I don't stop until around mid May and it is time consuming and costly keeping up as I go through hundreds of pounds of birdfeed. There are those who get upset with people who start feeding too early or with those who don't keep up through winter when resources are depleted. I try to go heavy on peanuts, safflower, and sunflower seeds which aren't preferred by House Sparrows or Starlings. We have several thistle feeders out too. The suet I make is peanut butter/beef suet/lard based and I toss in everything from safflower seed to raisins to oats to cornmeal. I like my suet best because it doesn't have the millet, cracked corn, or wheat in it that House Sparrows like.

Here are sites that may interest you-
http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/sparrow.htm
http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm#active
http://www.laneaudubon.org/library-sub/birdhouse-comp.htm
http://audubon-omaha.org/bbbox/ban/hsbyse.htm

What's your recipe for suet? Is there something better for my birds? My birds do need the fat calories which is why I've started offering the suet. I kept all the containers from the suet blocks I bought at WalMart and reuse them as forms for when I make suet.

I have a great recipe for birds ..it is half peanut butter, half solid crisco, and half cornmeal. Heat up the crisco and peanut butter and then add the cornmeal and put in the frig. until hard. They love it...you can also add anything else they like. i only feed my hummers in the summer ..the others are on their own.

My recipe is sort of like yours only I start with the beef suet and melt that down. From there I add a huge container of whatever peanut butter is on sale and toss in any lard or Crisco that I have left over from baking. Somehow it always ends up right around a 1:1:1 ratio before I toss in the cornmeal, raisins, oats, and safflower seed.

I only had my hummingbird feeder out last summer but maybe I need to put it out a little bit earlier this year.

It is tradition for us to put up the hummer food on Mother's Day. Last year I thought I would just switch them out with the oil seed winter feeders, you know it made sense, up with the new and down with the old; and I was starting to get some cool passersby. The night before switch out Bruno the bear came by, filled up on sun seed, and I still have not found all the "parts" to the feeders. I walk a fine line with the wildlife here.

I do not have a "Bruno" the bear to deal with. Better you than me. I do have more than my share of Thumpers and Bambis though. I think I'd prefer Brunos.

So you put your hummingbird feeder out early. Maybe that's what I did wrong. I didn't get the feeder until the summer so that's when I put it up. Maybe the hummers had already found sugar water sources in other people's yards by the time I got mine up.

Put it out when your aquilegia cnadensis starts to bloom....and when your cinnamon ferns have that soft stuff coming up...they use that for nesting.

Yep, I'd say maybe a week b4 Moms Day for you. 4 to1 water to sugar by measure. No red dye or food color needed.

Our hummer feeders go up in the same places each year. And we don't put them up until the day the little guys come back to look for them, buzzing around our window with scowls of impatience. They remember exactly where to look -- the same places as last year.

Guy S.

When my Ohio Buckeye(Aesculus glabra) and Red Buckeye(Aesculus pavia) start to flower,the Baltimore and Orchard Orioles come in to feed on the blooms.This is a sure sign to put up the hummer feeders and Oriole orange and grape jelly feeders here!...Dave

I don't have a grape jelly feeder. That sounds like something I might like.

Hi! You can buy a combo feeder for Orioles.They have two spikes for holding oranges with a small terra cotta pot in the bottom flat for jelly.Or you can make your own using small bowls for jelly.They have Oriole feeders like a hummer feeder,too,the difference being in the feeding hole size and using orange flavored sugar water.The robins eat from jelly feeders here!.....(to tell the truth,after awhile,the hummers go to the orange feeders and the orioles go to the hummer feeders!)....Dave

Pretty funny that they are swapping at feeders. I have these little hangers thingies that have stakes that secure apples and oranges in place. Jelly feeders would have to be hung from the trees or I'd have coons and skunks here looking for a free hand out.

I have never heard of them...I adore Orioles and living in Baltimore have only seen one in 66 years!

Lauren,I hang several feeders from the trees using 1/4 inch dia.copper wire that I twist looking like a bed spring.Most of the critters can't get a grip on the wire.Hi Nancy! I'll try to show you a pic of the feeder as soon as I can.....just bear with this camera challenged fella!....Dave

Lauren and Nancy,here is a pic taken this past Fall.Apples were being used at this time,but,in the Spring and Summer,oranges are used.The center feeder has a jelly bowl in the base.On the left is one of my "bird gongs".The birds will land on the hoop and "ring the bell",driving everyone bonkers!lol!Hope it is ok to show some of my work in here.....Dave

How much does the one on the left cost? That's way cool!

They are fabulous...Do you sell them?

Thanks for the compliments,Lauren and Nancy! I'm so glad you like them!Yes,I have sold.I need to take a roadtrip up your way and dump a load of stuff!lol!......Dave

Well how much...I will send you a check.

D-Mail me a price list Davers baby! Have you any other photos of goodies?

Lauren and Nancy,I would be more than happy to d-mail both of you!But first,check out this link and type orioles or any thing else that you might like in the search-box. www.wildbirdsforever.com

Nice neighbor aggravator! I'm going to use a cow bell on a ring roost for my pileated woodpecker. CaGong

I would like the oriole feeder and the nesting material thing>>>>>Is this YOUR site?

Wow,Nancy!Up at the crack of dawn!I don't have a site,but,I thought you would like this one.I think they do a great job providing information and prices seem reasonable.There are several out there to check out!All of my "stuff" is just too hard to package and ship (size and weight)and maybe three times a year I'll have a wine and cheese yard art sale here.Lotsa fun!I have some items that you might like that are smaller and will show you as soon as I can get pics and a d-mail to you...Dave

Hey Steve! Are you home,now?Hope you had a good trip and brought back some fresh salmon for the grill!Here is my "Ca-gong".I took down the hammers that the plate would swing into and now it "hums"in the wind.This is 10 ft.x5ft and hope to install a waterfall with more pines and the gong topping off the whole thing...Mail me some boulders.....lol!.....Dave

Umm, I'll stick to your oriole feeders. That's a little too big for me ;)

Me too....that's quite a contraption.

I wonder what tune it hums?

I dunno for sure,Ken,but,I think it's in the key of r...(rust)..lol!Hope you are doing good.....Dave

Hey Ken, I don't think that thing hums. Looks more to me as if your whole body would be vibrating if that went off when you were standing anywhere near it. Oh boy! A new toy for my kids. Talk about the dinner bell from H E double hockey sticks if that was over here. The thought of the kids playing with that isn't exactly leaving me with warm and fuzzy feelings. You try one first Ken. Tell me how it goes once the kids from the neighborhood find out you own something like that. Lends new definition to the term "shattering the silence of the night". I could see every kid for miles around learning that you had something like that tucked away on your property and making of game of donging it without getting caught.

Does make you want to sidle up and tap it once or twice, doesn't it? Sofa needs one or two for his " down in the dirt druming baying at the moon getting in touch with his inner self" sessions.

That's it! Let's get sofer to buy one. He needs one! Let him test it in the "field" for us and then we can decide after he reports back.

Yes I am home from Alaska and it is over 60F so I soon will no longer hear from you all cause this is the year for garden expansion. Oh boy oh boy. I dropped two ponderosa pines today and cut them in 16" length and plan to build a Banya (Alaskan Sauna) It is a log laid on side so ends show on inside and outside. The logs are fastened by Motar and the roof is dirt and sod. Wood stove inside heats it to the max and pour on the water wow! It is going to be covered with annuals in my garden cause it is below grade. This is what it looks like.
OK now Dave I think that is your creation of the perfect woman in the garden. What is her name? Nice curves and all those twists and turns on the centerpiece can only be a metaphor for all the complexities of woman. I couldn't bring this one to my garden cause my DW would wonder when I went over and pounded it with my shovel. Hee Hee

This message was edited Mar 23, 2006 8:09 PM

It was raining the other day and when I looked across the cul de sac there were ten deer of all shapes and sizes running across a field and back into the woods. When I moved here eight years ago the area was new to homes and there were just a couple of deer. I don't feed them and hope they thin down some. A few of the babies looked to be about the size of a great dane and were the same size. I guess there are some twins there.
I think the neighbor behind me is feeding them also.

Interesting wall construction, Sofer. How long are the wood sections? Seems like a whole lot of mortar being used. And the hot/cold, moist/dry doesn't wreak havoc with the wood's integrety relative to the mortar?

Confusious (aka Leftwood)