I’ve got a low spot that has gotten worse and is holding water under one of my feeders. It’s gotten pretty big and while I enjoy that the deer/hogs and coons can get a drink, a lot of corn is going into the water. Once it dries up is there a good (easy) method to fill this in and at least mitigate so I don’t have 6 inch of water there? Fill it with small rocks, then cover with soil? I don’t want to go the bagged concrete route either, the area is too big for that. Thanks in advance.

Wait for feeder to empty then move it to the dry spot

Unfortunately where this one is at it isn’t an option, it would require moving to an entire new spot (blind included)....that and it’s got 8-9 years of producing great hunting so honestly I’d leave it and deal with the water before moving it. It would be nice to mitigate that puddle in some way though.

15-20 bags of sacrete and a cattle panel or two.

I meant just move the feeder to the left about 5 ft where it’s dry.

Can you dig a trench from the standing water downhill? Maybe just enough to keep it from puddling up? That or dig a trench to keep the water from draining Into that low spot.

Put a sign up that say's "Seasonal Spa" and see if your traffic picks up.

Gotcha, I should have been more clear. Part of the reason I can’t move the feeder is there is a wet weather creek directly in front of, and basically around the entire front side of the feeder pen. I can’t move those panels any further out since this pen is basically on a peninsula where it is. There also isn’t much room to move it back any further without doing some serious landscaping. I’m wondering now if digging out one side of the pen a little lower would allow it to drain better to that creek.

Lol, funny thing is, every animal that swings by is drinking from it. It is making me rethink how effective a water station would be at each feeder.

See my above post, that is where I’m at with it now. Maybe a redneck French drain off the right hand side and try to fill in the low spot with a little dirt as well. Hogs will take advantage of it then but I can deal with them.

Only downside I see to putting in a trench is that it will eventually erode under your fence and give the hogs a way in. (at least the little ones)

It doesn't look like the water bothers the deer any. I guess it's a pain when you go to fill the feeder though.

But if you just haul in enough dirt and rock to fill the low spot that should fix it. At least until the critter dig it back down again.

Here is what I came up with.

fill in mud hole with available dirt from the surrounding area. Use a tamper to tamp the dirt compact so it will erode slower. Then use more dirt to make a small berm maybe 10 inches high around the top perimeter of the pen where the water is coming from to reroute and block the water from going into the pen.

Digging out one side of the pen will only make it worse. It will cause the water to run off after every rain allowing the newly sloped area to erode away quicker.
Concrete or concrete blocks/stepping stones is a good solution.

Every once in a while I take the front end loader out and fill holes under feeders.

This is a recurring problem for me as well. Even in the pens, where hogs can't get in, the coons and deer will eventually create a low spot. I've tried taking the tractor and dumping a bucket of dirt in, but then you just get deeper mud. Moving the feeder works for the next 3 months and then you eventually end up with 5 craters in the pen instead of 1. In one spot I just keep moving the t-post/barbed wire enclosure back each time, but I'm running out of room. I may have to try sakrete but that is a pain...

moving might be an idea but maybe just filling it in once it drys out with top soil?

While wet, go dump a few bags of concrete into the pool. Create your own hard pan.

I would leave it alone. It doesnt seem to bother the deer coming in. We have water under ours sometimes also.

As you have proof, it you build it-they will come. Heck I've seen feeder with deer under them regular in much deeper water. However, as the water goes down, I'd start with spreading a few secrete bags and add more each time I serviced the feeder

why would it require moving to a new spot ? Fill in low spot, with some sod, let take hold. Missing something in picture of things.

I keep a dump truck load of caliche on hand, for a number of reasons, one being this task. I don't like water collecting as moldy corn can be a problem. When needed, I take out a load with a bucket or a small dump trailer behind my Mule and drop it off. I don't bother with spreading or leveling as the deer and hogs take care of that in short order. I know not everyone has a tractor with FEL, but that dump trailer was less than $100 at Lowes and it does just fine.

Just did it not too long ago. The game cameras caught it!









I dumped it intentionally a day before rain and by the next clear day, after all the hoof action, it dried as was hard as a rock. I won't need to do it again for at least a year.

fill it up with soil and cement then stake down some old panels or chain link fence to keep them from rooting

fill it up with soil and cement then stake down some old panels or chain link fence to keep them from rooting

caliche is your friend, do work.

A heck of a lot cheaper than concrete!

You reminded I need to do this to one of mine but just lay a cattle panel down under the feeder and set a couple legs on it. It makes it where the hogs can't dig under the feeder and they can't turn your feeder over with the legs stuck in the panel. Once it is down cover it back up with dirt. won't happen again.

dig a small trench to a lower spot.

not a bad idea.

Pigs love the puddle under one of our feeders. I have seen 12 at a time just laying in it like a mud bath. My wife won't let me do anything with it, see calls it her "piggy puddle". It seems like every time she shoots a pig, it kicks around enough the flop over into the puddle, then I get to wade into the mud and the blood and get it out.

Duh!

Try 3 to 5 sacks of cement ans till it into the soil to harden it

I switched to stand and fill feeders. They don’t get mud holes under them.

I don't get rain so I don't have that problem.

I think Don's comment has a lot of validty for most of Texas.

This response is a little late, but may help someone.

I use crushed granite. Works great. Fills the hole. No more digging by the hogs. All the corn goes to the deer, nothing left. Easy to top off the crushed granite as it settles or is spread by the critters.

It is also cheap in bulk, only drawback in it is heavy to haul. But, a few buckets at a time and eventually--no more mud or holes. Rain just runs off.

I can provide pictures if anyone requests.

TM

Nah. 'Glad to have another San Antonio boy on here.

Pea gravel.

Used central A/C pad

Rubber stall mats under feeder. (TSC ) Won't fill the hole now, but protects after filling...

Fill hole with dirt, cover area with a couple of cattle panels, take 6' 4x4 and lay them flat on cattle panels, set bottom of feeder on 4x4's and secure with wire or drill hole and screw to 4x4.

I have filled them in with all sized rocks and concrete only to have the hogs root that all out. Best practice we have found is to build a solid pen around them with hog panel. Enough corn throws outside hogs still show up, but they don't dig a hole under the feeder. We have since cut small holes in them to open after deer season for some hog hunting fun. Let all hogs enter the pen then shoot the last one going in while it's in the hole and clean up the rest.

Fill the hole with dirt and then just lay half a hog panel over it secured with a few rebar stakes so they can’t slide it out of the way and be done with it.

Fill in with FEL. At my home feeder the ground is very loose sand, I have covered the area the feed hits in old carpet. Deer were back on it day one and seem to be more active on it after.