For many hunters putting out piles of corn or protein pellets for deer makes perfect sense. After all it's legal to do so for most of the year here in Virginia. Not only that, many hunter's either dont own the land on which they hunt or have the extra money to invest in expensive food plots.
Therefore putting out some store bought deer food in order to make our hunting area more favorable to the deer herd seems to make good hunting sense...right?
Well, not so fast....Here are some things to consider.
I'm sure you have all heard of CWD-chroninc waste disease, which is a rare, fatal, neurological disease that is found in members of the deer family. Although this disease isn't tremendously prevalent in Virginia, it does exist.
Research indicates that one of the ways this disease can be spread is by the transmission of saliva and waste from deer to deer when feeding on supplemental food in a concentrated area where the deer are in close proximity to each other.
Supplemental feeding can also alter the deer's natural travel patterns. Deer tend to travel many miles in order to take advantage of supplemental feeding areas. This can expose them to things such as vehicle collisions, dogs as well as competition with other deer.
In natural feeding areas, deer are spread out over a much broader area, if not several miles. In supplemental feeding areas the deer are concentrated. In the wild the deer will nip off the end of fresh browse or pick up an acorn on the forest floor and move on. This action gives very little chance for waste and saliva to be shared with other deer.
Some folks believe that supplemental feeding helps the deer survive through the winter. The whitetail deer is a tremendously adaptable animal and survives our winter's here in Virginia just fine eating what mother nature provides them.
Like most things in life, moderation is the key. A little corn thrown down on the ground in front of a trail camera once in a while in order to get some pics, isn't going to be the end of the world. But any long term concentrated supplemental feeding of whitetail deer is simply a bad idea.
In case feeding/baiting is something that you do, make sure that you review the information below before you go hunting.
Legal feeding dates for 2014:
January 5th - September 1
**Unless you hunt in a locality that permits Urban Archery. If you hunt one of these localities (see complete list of localities below) you must wait till the late Urban Archery Season comes to a close on March 29th, 2014.
To see the rules and regulations for each locality, CLICK HERE.
According to the DGIF... a site where bait has been placed is considered to be baited for 10 days after the bait has been removed, so make sure you do this in accordance with the start of hunting season (depending on where you hunt and when the season starts)
Jeff Phillips