Texas Hunting Forum

To pen or not to pen

Posted By: esnow74

To pen or not to pen - 01/24/16 03:17 AM

I know it has been debated before but for the record, I do not pen my corn feeders. I will be putting up protein in the next two weeks and wonder is it really necessary to pen these in? How high should the feed tubes be from the ground especially if not penned in. Yes we do have hogs but no cattle. I've been on places with hogs that guys didn't pen in protein feeders but they were commercially built where as mine will be built in house. Is it really necessary or is it just to not feed the pigs any protein? By the way all pigs are shot on sight when I'm out there and compared to where I hunted in Refugio there is not a big pig problem but they are around. Also curios if I should put the protein away from the corn feeders and basically keep them off limits for hunting if I have it available year round. Let's hear all the varying opinions and reasoning.
Posted By: stxranchman

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/24/16 03:29 AM

I pen all my feeders so hogs will not be hanging around. If you have hogs and it gets dry, they will hit your feeders. If they can rub against a protein feeder they will shake feed out. If they shake feed out they will continue to show up till it is empty. I prefer not to hunt protein feeders, but sometimes it is okay when you are not shooting a lot around them. I also do not set my protein tubes height more than 33" in my pens. That way any deer that can get into my pen can eat. I know feeders at 39" height on feed tubes will keep 99% of the hogs from eating. It will not stop them from showing up and keeping the deer off the feeder. The more the hogs hang around the less deer you will see.
Posted By: Texas buckeye

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/24/16 04:16 PM

Pen it up, the hogs will eventually tear it up if you don't. And as stx mentioned above, the more hogs you have coming the less deer you will see.
Posted By: 4Weight

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/24/16 06:04 PM

Pen em all, protein and spinner.
Posted By: bigjoe8565

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/24/16 09:22 PM

I have three feeders at my primary blind. The two feeders south of my blind are in a pen and the one north of my blind is open. I use two feeders in my pen to increase the odds I'll have at least one thrower working. The pen feeders throw in the AM and PM while the open feeder throws in the PM only. The pen feeders and open feeders are roughly two hundred yards apart. This setup has allowed me to have the best of both worlds. Deer hit the feeder pen, and hogs as well as deer hit the open feeder. I literally have times where deer are in my pen and pigs are at my open feeder.

The ability to shoot as many pigs as possible helps to ease the pain of paying for a lease.
Posted By: esnow74

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/25/16 02:37 PM

i still wont pen the spin feeders until I feel like the hogs keep the deer away. With a pen for the protein, what is minimum number of panels to use? I want them to feel comfortable going in and out and not feel like they are jumping into a "trap" would rather them feel like they are just crossing another fence with room to move around. I will also be doing water troughs and thinking they should be inside the pen as well?
Posted By: bigjoe8565

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/25/16 04:31 PM

I would make the pen as big as you can afford. Mine is 17 panels and to make it easier for the deer to get in and out I cut/lowered sections on each panel. I also made my own round vs. square.
Posted By: TexasKC

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/25/16 04:56 PM

Pen them all. I use 34" tall hog panels. I prefer a separate, secluded place for a protein feeder.
Posted By: GLC

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/28/16 03:05 PM

I had to pen 2 out of my 8. The ones that are not penned have very few deer come to them cause the hogs keep them run off.
Posted By: esnow74

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/28/16 08:03 PM

My corn feeders have never been penned except when hunting with cattle. Based on reports from the others on the lease it seemed as I saw many more deer at my corn feeder than most and they all have theirs penned. If hogs get to be too big of a problem the I will pen but was more concerned about the protein feeders getting messed up by hogs.
Posted By: Hunter Daddy

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/29/16 06:37 PM

I have had hogs learn to stand on their hind legs and empty a pellet feeder over night. Pellets are expensive, so definitely fence your protein feeders. I have one protein pellet feeder and one spin-cast corn feeder in my pen. Both are surrounded by 6 hog panels 16' long. This is would be the minimum number of panels to put around a feeder or two. Cattle panels are taller and I would use a minimum of 8 panels. One thing about hog panels, you can step over them to fill your feeders. I have had as many as 8 deer (all bucks) inside of my 6 hog panel feeder setup. If adding extra feeders or water to your setup, then definitely add more panels. I have my pellet feeders, which are inside my pen, set right at 36" above the ground.
Posted By: esnow74

Re: To pen or not to pen - 01/30/16 06:13 AM

All good input, thanks everyone. I'm thinking of setting the protein away from corn feeder but definitely using a pen and adding water station to those set ups. For now will keep corn without pen, until forced otherwise.
Posted By: STXHO

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/01/16 04:23 AM

I pen all my protein feeders. On my larger ranches 3,000acres+ I run 1 lamco timed feeders and 1 free choice per pen. If you are serious about feeding protein it will be a major investment in your herd each year. Adding a pen is only protection for your investment. My pens are 15-20 panels. Give the deer plenty of room.
Posted By: rabbit_jack

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/02/16 03:08 PM

48' x 48' square works fine for me.

Posted By: Texmel

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/28/16 02:04 PM

Will pen all my feeders as the hogs population is exploding at lease. Have 2 feeders left to put up the pens. What surprises me is that turkey will not get in the pen to eat the corn. Have watched them come in to feeder area and just walk around the pen but will not fly over it to the corn.
Posted By: TexasKC

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/28/16 04:08 PM

Originally Posted By: Texmel
Will pen all my feeders as the hogs population is exploding at lease. Have 2 feeders left to put up the pens. What surprises me is that turkey will not get in the pen to eat the corn. Have watched them come in to feeder area and just walk around the pen but will not fly over it to the corn.


Turkeys will eventually get in the pen. It took several months before we finally got pics of them inside our pen. Don't know if it matters but our pen is made from 34" tall hog panels.
Posted By: stxranchman

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/29/16 12:59 AM

Originally Posted By: TexasKC
Originally Posted By: Texmel
Will pen all my feeders as the hogs population is exploding at lease. Have 2 feeders left to put up the pens. What surprises me is that turkey will not get in the pen to eat the corn. Have watched them come in to feeder area and just walk around the pen but will not fly over it to the corn.


Turkeys will eventually get in the pen. It took several months before we finally got pics of them inside our pen. Don't know if it matters but our pen is made from 34" tall hog panels.

I have had pens up for 3.5 yrs and only had about two pics of turkeys in mine. I hope they never figure it out.
Posted By: STXHO

Re: To pen or not to pen - 02/29/16 09:23 PM

I pen all mine as well. I use 12-15 20' panels for each pen. I have found that a circular pen works best, it is harder for cattle and hogs to tear up a circular pen. On a square pen I have experienced them pushing on the corners which causes a gap then leads to them tearing down one side. Remember deer are like people in a sense that they like their personal space. The bigger the pen the better IMHO. I put a lamco in each feed pen with my corn feeder. I recommend having as many protein stations as you can afford so having a couple outside your hunting area would be beneficial to your herd. I cut my protein back Oct- December then start feeding protein heavy again Jan 1. That helps bring deer back into shape after the rut.

Posted By: hoof n wings

Re: To pen or not to pen - 03/01/16 04:03 AM

Pen 48 x 48
Posted By: Erich

Re: To pen or not to pen - 04/13/16 03:47 PM

we never penned any of ours either. just shot the hogs when they showed up. Eventually though they will get to be a problem. Some of our best deer stands were so over-run with hog activity that it really crippled the amount of deer we saw. And to boot, we shot so many hogs out of them that the hogs got gun shy and didn't show up as much in the daylight either.

we put our first feed pen up last year on one of these stands. deer and buck activity returned dramatically. Shot a new ranch record buck out of that stand the first year of the pen. We will be penning other feed sites this year.
Posted By: MathMan

Re: To pen or not to pen - 04/20/16 02:38 AM

I use half of a $20 cattle panel. Cut it in half height wise and that cuts down on cost. That way I can buy 5 and have 10. We don't have cattle. I've had it for two years and no hogs have ever gotten in. I do have javelina go through the holes though but they don't come often.

A place I had years ago I had 7 cattle panels and one hog panel. A bull jumped in and out over the hog panel, tore up my feeder, and was in there 12 hours in August. I'm glad he got out. Having only 8 tall panels the deer did not like to go in.

I have a half cattle panel pen that is 6 panels in size and deer don't like to come in. We will make it larger soon.
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