Seems the rut is just beginning in my area. My question is how do you think these above avg temps for the next few days will affect things.? I don’t think it’ll affect it too much. Just wondering what you all think.

Just as cool temperatures help intensify the rut by making deer move more to find something to eat and stay warm, warmer temperatures have just the opposite effect. Also, the reduced activity during the first rut may result in fewer does getting bred since both they and the bucks have a lesser chance of being together during the brief time a doe is in estrus. Fewer does bred during the first rut means more of them coming back into estrus some 28 days later, which some hunters call the second rut. And likewise, more does being bred during a cooler initial rut would have the opposite effect. Still, some biologists will tell you the vast majority of does will be bred during the first rut no matter what the weather is like. Like so many topics often discussed within the deer hunting community, it's up to you to decide what rings true in the area you hunt based on your own observations.

One topic where hunters and biologists agree most is that weather has nothing to do with the timing of the rut, that it's changes in the length of daylight and not the weather that triggers deer to go into rut.

They are still going to rut no matter what the weather is.

While we're on the subject, a topic where opinions often vary is what causes deer to go into rut at different times? The general consensus is that as you move north of the equator where the winters become worse, deer go into rut earlier so fawns will be born earlier in the Spring. This give them more time to grow before the next Winter when they'll need the increased body mass to survive. However, anyone who has hunted different areas across Texas and the Southeast knows that deer than live is the same relative climate can go into rut at different times. Personally, I attribute this to the fact that deer in many of these regions are descendants of deer that were transplanted decades ago during restocking efforts. These transplanted deer obviously carried their genetic dispositions with them once they arrived at their new home range. The timing of the rut for deer that are more native to their area will be more in line with the climate factor. For example, deer in most of East Texas go into rut in late October and early November, which follows the timing of deer in more northern regions. It was evidently deer from these regions that were used in restocking efforts in East Texas back many decades ago. Now I know it's hard to believe there was a time when East Texas had very few deer but believe me when I say it's true.

There are pockets in every region of the state that deer rut earlier or even later than deer in the rest of the region. Kendall/Blanco/Gillespie county corner is an example of this where the deer rut in early to mid October and the rest of the Hill Country will be 2-4 weeks later. Take the Avery Island whitetail and the rest of the WT in that coastal plains region along the coast that rut in Sept-Nov. Deep South Texas can have a rut from early Dec to early Jan depending on what part of the region you are hunting in. Most of any region will have a uniform rut, but there are pockets that are different.

Good point. I attribute this to deer that are descendants of native deer that survived those times when their numbers were extremely low. I also theorize these deer survived because they lived in areas where it was more difficult to hunt them, or their numbers have always been greater. For example, the deer in the area of East Mississippi where I first learned to hunt will go into rut in mid to late January. These deer live in a climate that is practically identical to that of the East Texas Piney Woods where deer rut in late October and early November. I believe these Mississippi deer descended from deer that survived near depletion by living in the thick river bottoms in East Mississippi and Western Alabama. Again, it's just my own personal theory but I believe that when you find deer that go into rut later than other deer in a given area of the South, it's because they are deer that carry more native genetics. The rule that deer rut earlier the farther you move north seems to fall in line with Mother Nature's design and is something that evolved over thousands of years. For that reason, genetics will remain the same for thousands of years after you begin moving deer around different parts of the country.