When do you start feeding?

Just curious about when most start their corn feeders? Is it to early or is it a good time to get them hooked on it? Early in the year do you add anything other than corn in the mix? The last few years I've hunted major agricultural land and now have a smaller place without those big drawing cards.

I feed corn and protein year around. They aren't eating much protein since there is plenty of natural browse right now but they do still seem to like the corn.

Last time we were out the world was green and growing! Lots of natural groceries around with all of this rain for sure.

Feed year round, have cut back on amount thrown from feeder. Lots of natural stuff there.

im not saying its critical you do so but we feed corn year round. just turn way down in off season.

I run mine year round. If the deer are eating the corn I give it to them. I have turned the feeders off some years when the deer just quite hitting the corn.

Corn gets filled up Labor Day weekend.

another for year around on corn spinners ... I do turn them down early spring when natural browse gets started good, the usually turn back up mid-late summer.

how long do you feed in season and off season?

Never stop!

We fill the feeders on the last weekend that we dove hunt, usually about 1 October. The feeders are close to the stock tanks we would probably be nailed with baiting charges if we started earlier.

This here.

Feed year round. We do turn the timers way down in spring and summer. Also feed protein year round.

all my feeders are different set ups, some 6vdc, some 12vdc, some with plan spinner plates, some with eliminator, etc. I usually run to where it puts out about 2-3 lbs twice a day of corn per feeding for the feeders I can check every month or so, about 1.5-2 lbs twice a day for those out west that I only get out every quarter during the spring/summer. All get bumped up 3-4 lbs twice a day around Labor day and then a bit higher during season when I am out every week or two.
All our feeders are 55 gallon barrels and hold about 300-350 lbs of corn/milo mix and the above keeps them running year around most of the time. I would love to transition to all 500-600 lb stand and fill feeders, but maintaining ~14 feeders is outside my financial budget to replace and maintain the feed supply.

We run all corn feeders year round twice a day.

I feed corn and protein year round. On the corn feeders I throw twice a day, about 3 lbs per throw. That puts me on a 6 week refill schedule for corn which works well with my 12 week protein refill schedule.

When do you start feeding?

Usually when they start knocking on the door.

Same here, but cut it down to 2-3 seconds, twice a day. In season usually 4-5 seconds twice per day.

Same on corn, protein year round.

Our piggy ones run year round and been running my penned deer one since March and they stop by every day to eat. They don't miss a beat. Just 2 seconds twice a day. Other four sometime in September. If not penned then it is very sporadic and mainly pigs. Mature bucks still never frequent ours.

Like others, I feed year round, but back off times in off-season. And instead of twice per day, I program mine to alternate days between morning and evening. For instance, they sling on Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning, etc. No idea if it helps or hurts, but I do not have corn piled up, and the deer still seem to stay patterned to regularly visit the feeders. I will go back to twice per day after Labor Day.

Ive gone back and forth on this, i used to feed year around and it seemed to pay off. I had more deer then most on my lease, but also had more pigs.

Didnt seem to matter to much until the last 2 years, my deer sightings have fallen off, while the pigs seemed to have taken over and not just at the feeders, the woods would be rooted up the roads, worse then any other years and not just my area but also my buddies who feed year around with me. We did a decent job shooting pigs in the off season but the whole area seemed to have changed.


On the other hand, another guy on the lease fills his up in late September, those years where mine was doing great with deer his suffered but these past 2 years his spot has been the best on the lease. Only thing i can figure is the hogs will take over areas and push the deer out.

This year i build a feeder pen, unfortunately its empty right now but any feeder that isnt penned up im waiting to fill till September, see if that makes a difference.

I run my corn feeders year round and my protein feeders year round also. I will back the corn feeders off in the spring if I see the corn piling up, if not then I keep them running twice per day till it rains or they back off with mast crops. Last year in June I was feeding more corn from those feeders than I did in the hunting season. This year they just now started to back off the corn with the good May rains and the greenup. The heat is not helping much either. Deer have needs for energy and corn gives them that when they need it. I will run some corn feeders 4 times per day in hunting season with a different amount of spin time on each feeding. I have run a feeding at midnight or just after in the off season when I know the bucks are hitting the protein feeders when it cools off. I checked my feeders today and all of them had corn on the ground from the 3-4 second morning feeding. If that does not improve by Saturday I will turn them down to 2 seconds or so or get the settings closing to darkness.

STx, I understand you turn them down if it starts piling up but if it doesnt pile up then about how much are you throwing per day(offseason.)

Good question. Stx can you give us the volume measurement?

On June 23, 2018 I took pics of two of my feed pens after a shower of rain to show all the tracks and how beat down the pens were from all the deer activity due to lack of rain. I was feeding 7-8 seconds twice per day at that time due to the lack of rain on top of all the free choice protein and what little food plots I had. On June 25th it started raining and rained 9"+ in the next 10 days and I had corn growing in the pens within 3 weeks. I had turned the feeders down to 2 seconds per day and corn was still not getting cleaned up. The hurricane hit in late Aug and it rained 9+" again and I had to turn them down to 1 second twice per day. This year I am feeding 3-4 seconds twice per day and it is not getting cleaned up like it was 3 weeks ago. With corn and protein feeders side by side I want the corn to draw the bachelor groups of bucks in to continue to train bucks to eat. I get new bucks that move in during hunting season that sometimes end up staying and using my place year round. Lot those deer do not know what a feed pen is or what protein is, so it seems like I am always trying to train a few deer to eat protein for some reason here. That is with 4 corn feeders in pens plus one more at the house on my place here I live on.

I love this forum.

That’s what I do too.

I feed corn year around and by far see more and better deer then anyone else on our place. They usually just feed during the season.

2 sacks approx 10 days before the first sat in November, works everytime

2009 is when I started. I feed twice a day every day.

Partner and his wife just went to the new lease today. Got 4 feeders up and running now, and filled them all today. Place hasn't been hunted for a long while, so just spinning a little in morning and evening to see what's there and get them used to noise and corn. Saw a nice buck out running around in the pasture at 1100, and a bunch of girls along the creek. Not much bothering them this time of the year.

Just planted a week ago...

I noticed you didnt misspell anything.

We do the same. I will say this, we feed red chain 20 % protein. It has peanut hulls and smells like a candy bar. They absolutely go nuts for this stuff around here. Never had good success with other brands.

I will start with corn in July.

r u's b hapy now ?

He posted before he turned off the auto-correct. Smart enough to bypass that feature plus post with all the emicons, fonts changes and quotations for all his posts on here. Does not do this on other forums.