Sorry if this post gets a little long winded. But A few years back I wrote a post on here asking if anyone had actually witnessed deer eating the pods from a honey locust tree. I had been told that deer love them, yet at that time I had never observed whitetails eating them. I like to think I am a relatively observant deer hunter but was astounded by the number of people who told me that they had witnessed deer eating them. I mean how could I miss something like that?
Since then I have paid much more careful attention to when and if deer eat them. I love this kind of stuff. Here is what I have observed about them here in the midwest since that post.
I think it was last year or the year before. It was late december or January. The farm fields had been taken out early that year and most of them had also been disked leaving little or no waste grain for deer to feed on. In fact where I live there was not a field that had not been plowed under for miles and miles. Anyway, I was driving home from work right at dark one night and I noticed some deer that live in a nature preserve walking single file out across a tilled bean field to get to small patch of trees out in the middle of the field. I pulled the truck over to see what the deal was. There ended up being like 30 deer and they were all standing there feeding under this patch of trees. I couldnt figure it out so I pulled out my binoculars and was astounded to watch the deer feeding voraciously on honey locust pods! I though it was interesting the way they ate the entire pod, not just the seeds on the inside! It was quite a sight as one of the bucks was very large and he could not get enough of the pods.
Now fast forward to this year. We have had a terrible drought. I was at lake of the ozarks for a few days during the summer drought. I was sitting in the boat back in a cove having a couple drinks when I see two deer come down to the water. I did not think much of it at the time. I mean we were in a drought. I figured they just needed a drink. But they did not drink. Instead they were eating something on the bank of the lake. I drifted up closer to see that they were absolutely inhaling honey locust pods! And this was in September!
Fast forward to the current deer season. The droubt had taken a toll on natural browse and the crop fields did terrible. Acorn production was still quite good in my area and the deer were all over them when they hit the ground but they ate them all quite quickly. By mid to late October even the red ones had been eaten. The fields were once again taken out early and most were again tilled over.
I only have access to 20 acres of private land this year so my hunting has been done on public ground. Obviously there are no food plots or anything like that for the deer.
In early November I noticed that alot of deer were already keying in on locust pods yet again!
I guess I am not a fast learner sometimes but I think I have now realized when to consider locust pods as a primary food source at least here in the midwest.
From what I gather they are not normally a preffered food source. But when you have a situation where the farm fields are all plowed under, the acorns are gone, and there are no food plots anywhere around the deer do indeed flock to them like they do a white Oak in October. I mean I have watched alot of deer eating the pods in my area this year. And to think I had never seen this until just a few years ago.
I think that in the midwest if you have untilled corn fields, standing corn, food plots etc. that you will be better off near those areas in the late season, but if not, it may be worth a look at honey locust pods especially when it gets really cold and there is snow on the ground. My little twenty acre private land area is loaded with them as well as honeysuckle. In fact there is a narrow ridge of honey suckle with Honey locust trees growing amonst it. Since there is really not much else for food in that area this year, I will be giving a few of those honey locust trees a shot. It's amazing what you can learn out there if you simply pay attention to what is going on around you!
Topic: Deer and Honey locust pods revisited (Read 491 times)
