I have a piece of land that is about a half mile away from seasonal water, but seems to be several miles away from continuous year-round water. I have seen deer on the property several times.

The deer seem to be permanent, but the water situation has me wondering. If I want to have a regular, healthy deer population for hunting or to admire should I provide a water tank for the deer? How far do deer go to get water? Are deer okay with walking several miles regularly to get water? How far away from water will a deer live? Does anyone else out there provide water for wildlife?

-- Rick7 (rick7@postmark.net), July 06, 2001

Answers

Deer being wild animals, learn to forage in their environment. The herd will take care of itself in its conditions. When you begin hunting them, that will become one of the seasonal environmental conditions. This is why most hunting clubs choose hunting areas that provide ample feed and water for the game. Take care with altering any environmental conditions to ensure that the alterations you are initiating conform to any wildlife and game regulations in your area. There are differences between optimizing a hunting range and "baiting" a hunting range , which can carry a hefty fine. The game and wildlife dept can tell you what is acceptable in your range area. I heard of a landowner near a wildlife preserve that was fined for having three cows and nearly 50 salt blocks in a pasture when it was decided that it was a baited field. Addition of a water source MAY be considered the same type of situation. Check it out to make sure.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

I have about 60-70 deer in my immediate vicinity with a lake at my back door. The deer are not hunted in this area as there are restrictions against it. Even though there is water available, there is no undergrowth by the lake to provide them with the adequate cover they prefer to feel safe, so they never go there in the light of day. Originally I provided them with a 5 gal bucket of water in the area where I feed them and they polish that off in 2-3 hours, especially now that they are fawning. This upcoming weekend I am setting up a system that has a float mechanism in it that will keep them supplied with fresh water at all times in an area they feel safe in. We have major droughts in Texas with temps reaching 105 degrees, so I feel better providing a water source they can access as needed. It is my understanding that deer will not roam any further than about 2 miles from whereever they were born to start with. I also put out a mineral block. Be careful ... they can be contankerous, espcially the bucks during rutting season... keep a safe distance from moms with their fawns. Two does charged my dog recently....she got too close to their fawns, and they actually chased her onto the gang plank of my dock, and in my fear of being trampled, I jumped in the boat and thought for a split second they were going to follow me right in and I am the hand that feeds them! Carole

-- Carole in Texas (carle@earthlink.net), July 06, 2001.

The only time a deer really needs a watering hole is when it is really hot and dry both night and day. If there is a lot of dew on the grass and tree leaves a deer will get enough water off of them to sustain them for the rest of the day. Pay attention to the amount of dew when deciding if you want to hunt over a waterhole.

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), July 07, 2001.

Rick, you don't say if you have a garden or shrubs by your house. Be careful about "inviting" the deer around. My father used to say "I'd love to see the deer hopping through the yard." And I used to say "I want to hear you when they come hopping through your garden." Well, over the years the deer population has expanded, and I've got one big "I told you so." He had planted creeping junipers in the rock garden, they've wiped those out, along with some cedars and other plants. This spring they wiped out a trillium bed. I had tidied it up before the flowers came into bloom, was looking forward to taking pictures of this mass of trillium flowers. Went up there with the camera and was met with the sight of nothing but stems. Our neighbours have had their vegetable gardens raided, one neighbour put in a double fence around his. Seems like deer don't like to get inside of two fences. So....if you're going to attract them, make it an area away from the things they like to munch on.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), July 08, 2001.