Surviving Minnesota!

[Bogtown Chick]

The caliber is a little big for the mousies though...and hard on the tin roof....

 

[Bogtown Chick]

It's illegal to bait here too. I think you can feed yet... ? but you need to stop during a certain time before the season. With the CWD issue though they might have changed it.

Edited to add that certain counties are prohibited to feed. As a proactive stance on CWD. In cass County you can still feed (as in wild life watching feeding) North of HWY 200. Being that we're south of that line it is illegal now. Huh. Didn't know that...

I had that one little guy in that Polar vortex last year I went and bought sunflower seeds for. The snow was so deep for them (past their backs in the woods. The deer were struggling last year for sure. They were like pavlov's dogs running down the roads whenever snow plows would go through. Checking for rustle up oak leaves, etc.

I do think that once you start on corn for them that does change how they process and deal with winter. Up here anyways as we're not ag too much around here. So that's why I went with the seeds (fats and protein) vs corn (carbohydrates) Those deer are processing their own fat reserves in the starving months of winter too. Amazing creatures, really.
But plenty of people feeding corn around here so IDK if what I did matters. And then...we have them set up with the chicken bowls around here too.

 

[gtaus]

If I get a new feeder I'm going to get one of those Grandpa Peddle ones--where it opens when they step on the peddle. Gosh Grandpa wants an arm and leg for it though...Plus I'll have to train chickens.

If you are handy with tools, there are some videos on YouTube on homemade treadle feeders.

This one shows how it is made:

Like anything, you have to weigh the cost of purchasing versus building one yourself if that is even an option.

 

[hmarg06]

It's illegal in my area (Winona, and Houston counties for sure) because of CWD. It's been a couple years now, but I was hearing of people getting busted quite a bit at first. Old habits die hard I guess.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

That article was dated 2017 I read. I'm behind on this news.

Well whatever it takes . I would start with the deer farms personally. But I guess we need doe pee more than wild deer without CWD. Ask me what I think of it...Ha! DH thinks the deer farms need to go. Not sure what the hold up is there. Is the doe pee Lobby really that big?

 

[hmarg06]

I know someone with some elk, and they are proposing some new fencing rules, and I'm pretty sure they are just going to sell. I think the farms are where this started, or perpetuated, as far as I understand. We have a deer park in my town and they are talking of euthing all the deer and closing it. There is quite the uproar over it since the park has been there for a long time. People don't seem to understand you can't just let them out either. There was a heated discussion on the article from the paper.

 

[duluthralphie]

The caliber is a little big for the mousies though...and hard on the tin roof....

Tin can be replaced.

 

[duluthralphie]

I know someone with some elk, and they are proposing some new fencing rules, and I'm pretty sure they are just going to sell. I think the farms are where this started, or perpetuated, as far as I understand. We have a deer park in my town and they are talking of euthing all the deer and closing it. There is quite the uproar over it since the park has been there for a long time. People don't seem to understand you can't just let them out either. There was a heated discussion on the article from the paper.

I think it’s hard to say how CWD was introduced into the state. It could be farms, but I am more inclined to believe it rode into the state on some guys hood, bumper or trailer from a trip someplace that had it.

The game farms most likely have laws against importing deer that have not been tested or proven clean of disease much like NPIP for poultry.

however, we all see daily here how those laws are ignored by the majority of people selling eggs and birds...

Maybe a bird of prey ate a CWD deer and migrated here.... only to crap out the virus which landed on the grass a deer was eating!!

 

[R2elk]

Wyoming only has one big game farm that was allowed to continue because it existed before the current laws which prohibit these type of game farms.

Wyoming has CWD and it did not come from the game farm.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

They say it is saliva to saliva transfer and people that feed out of containers or troughs and don't broadcast the feed helps with the spread of the disease.