Browsing of honeysuckle

[String Music]

I have, in my opinion, moderate to high deer habitat. We have several acres of food plots and a good amount of browse. All of our honeysuckle has been browsed as high as the deer can reach. Is this because there is more deer than our habitat can support? Or is it simply because deer love honeysuckle?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

That would be hard to say without knowing your current population and your land's carrying capacity. Many times though deer will heavily target certain food sources at times during the year. I have noticed heavy browse on my honeysuckle within the last month and I know that my property is not over-populated. I would recommend growing some honeysuckle with wire mesh over the plants so the deer can only eat what grows out of the mesh, this will keep them from eating the plant down to nothing.

 

[RKenney]

Honeysuckle is a deer magnet, as most hunters know. It is not
only great forage, but it offers very good cover also. If I were
managing some deer property, I would grow as much of that stuff
as I could. I don't know a lot about honeysuckle varieties, but
I do know Japanese honeysuckle is the most common.

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

I have, in my opinion, moderate to high deer habitat. We have several acres of food plots and a good amount of browse. All of our honeysuckle has been browsed as high as the deer can reach. Is this because there is more deer than our habitat can support? Or is it simply because deer love honeysuckle?

They always hit the Honeysuckle.This year it saved alot of deer from starving. With the lack of mast in most areas it was a major part of most deer's diet.

 

[BSK]

I have, in my opinion, moderate to high deer habitat. We have several acres of food plots and a good amount of browse. All of our honeysuckle has been browsed as high as the deer can reach. Is this because there is more deer than our habitat can support? Or is it simply because deer love honeysuckle?

Honeysuckle is one of the best browse pressure "indicator" plants. If your honeysuckle displays an intense browseline at this time of year, your property does not have enough food sources for the deer to maximize their potential. That doesn't necessarily mean the property is over-populated, but you don't want to see the best winter food resources being completely consumed like that.

Just remember that deer are picky eaters even when a considerable amount of a high-quality single food source is available. Research indicates that even when deer have high-value food plots available, their food resources needs still have them eating more natural browse than food plot plants. No amount of food plots are going to reduce their need for natural forages.

What I'm getting at is food plots alone are not the answer to meeting the nutritional needs of a deer herd. You must have natural browse for deer to perform well, even if you have great food plots.

 

[Chaneylake]

I have, in my opinion, moderate to high deer habitat. We have several acres of food plots and a good amount of browse. All of our honeysuckle has been browsed as high as the deer can reach. Is this because there is more deer than our habitat can support? Or is it simply because deer love honeysuckle?

Honeysuckle is one of the best browse pressure "indicator" plants. If your honeysuckle displays an intense borwseline at this time of year, your property does not have enough food sources for the deer to maximize their potential. That doesn't necessarily mean the property is over-populated, but you don't want to see the best winter food resources being completely consumed like that.

Just remember that deer are picky eaters even when a considerable amount of a single food source is available. Research indicates that even when deer have high-value food plots available, their food resources needs still have them eating more natural browse than food plot plants. No amount of food plots are going to reduce their need for natural forages.

What I'm getting at is food plots alone are not the answer to meeting the nutritional needs of a deer herd. You must have natural browse for deer to perform well, even if you have great food plots.

with all of the above statements, i agree 100%, as to the answer as to why we at Chaney do not put much faith into food plots, all of the above is basically what i was told by TWRA back around 1989 or 1990, especially when we have to factor in that we are in a flood zone, the only year that food plots would have benefited the deer at Chaney was 2007, and that was all freeze and drought related, i/we know that different areas of the state are not similar as to food sources, does the idea of bushogging and fertilizing your natural food sources seem to make better sense

 

[eightpoint]

Honeysuckle response extremely well to fertilizing. A little 34-0-0 and some 0-0-60 will jump start the stuff. You might fertilizing some and then pulling it down where the deer can reach it easily if there are spots where it's up in trees, or hinge cutting some of the smaller trees it is growing up. I'm have a couple acres of new clearcut that I'm about to set up with an ^ type honeysuckle enclosure that I'm transplanting honeysuckle into. Hope to have at least a couple 50' long enclosures by next season. With the enclosure, they can't eat it down to the roots as they can only reach what grows up thru the wire. I'm also transplanting a lot of it around the brush piles left from the logging. It's a deer magnet.