When do fawns start jumping into feeder pens? I've got 1000's of pictures of deer so far, but no fawns inside my pen. 34" his my pen height.

I have seen them as young as 2 months jumping into feed pens but that is not common. I have watched fawns in La Salle county jump into an oats food plot that had a 39" net wire around it in late October. Those fawns were around 4 months old at the time. Fawns in my area start hitting the ground in late May to mid June. I have seen a few TC pics of fawns inside pens the first week of October.

I watched 3 last fall, 2 could jump a 39" goat wire fence barely, the other one ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off. All 3 still had a few spots on the rear hips, so probably around 4-5 months. We did find a button buck in a 42" fence about 3 years ago, he was maybe 3-4 months and had a lot of spots. Part of his problem was he jumped from a downhill slope trying to clear a 42" fence.

Going to cut down one section of panel to 28". Maybe this will make it a little easier. Thanks for the replies

If you do not have hogs then I would cut a small window instead of cutting the height down(if you have livestock).

Don't know at what age they loose their spots, but 2 years ago I walked into my parents back yard to get a closer look at a fawn that still had spots it spooked and jumped a 4' chain link fence to get away.

There's sheep on the place, but after 5000+ pictures I have yet to see one so much as on the perimeter of the pen.

It's normal to not get pics of fawns, I wouldn't worry too much. Lots of growth this year so no need for them to want in the pens that bad.

If you have protein feeders, how high off the ground is the feed port/plate?

34" high

Going to take a fawn with some age to reach that height.

Would section panels into 1/3 and cut the bottom 1/3 out. Deer will go under, but cattle will not. Works great to keep cattle out and will let deer in. Some will jump over some will go under.

I cut holes in bottom of my panels for fawns. just cut out the cross section of the 2nd and 3rd square.

If you are in heavy pig area you probably don't want to do that. Most of my areas I am not so I want the fawns in able to eat as soon as they are able.

You think sheep will go through that gap or worse yet get hung up in it?

Is getting them on protein 2 months earlier going to justify the trouble in cutting up the panels and lowering the feed plates? Especially this year with all the rain and good growth..

My feeder pens are 25" tall and no hogs have gotten in for two years. I'm sure a fawn could jump in mine. I've had packs of hogs on the outside and they never got in. If you don't have cattle you could cut your pens down in a few spots.