I'd be more worried about a whole herd of deer that would starve to death because they can't fend for themselves.
Just a couple of points to ponder. Deer metabolism natrually slows down during winter weather. They don't move anywhere near as much during that period. If you feed them hay, they gain very little nutritionally from it. If you feed them grains their metabolism speeds up to summer rates and stays there. So, once you start feeding, if you stop, they are screwed. They will actually starve alot quicker. Another point is that CWD (chronic wasting disease) is spread deer to deer via saliva. If they feed in a common area, the spread of any infected saliva residue can be rampant. Nature has been taking care of the deer herd for thousands of years. When man intervenes, it can throw thw balance all out of wack, While we think we are helping them, in fact, we may actually enhancing their dilemma.
Good point.... Only thing they eat here on the farm are all my apple drops from my 65 trees...must be 4000 apples on the ground... Hope they clean them all up by spring... Not to far in my woods I found like a 150ft circle where the snow was all dug up from the deer,,looks to be an acorn haven...I have lots of hickory nuts of the ground as well.. Do deer eat hickory nuts, maybe only as a last resort? Two springs ago we counted 60 plus deer herded up in a field adjacent to my farm property.. Amazing to see that amount of deer here...
I cut down a small Maple in the fall, and left the branches just off the path. They've stripped most of the bark from those. They've also stripped some of the branches of the burning bush and another right next to the house, and started on the Apple trees a little bit too.
I have about a 2 cord brush pile in my woods, all apple tree pruning's. I use it for kindling, cooking on my wood cooker, and the deer eat some too.
