Bedding and movement in thick, honeysuckle filled woods

[Scott/IL]

I don’t ever see much about this topic, but it covers nearly all of the hill ground at my disposal.

The private ground I hunt comprises of 371 acres with it being split into 50/50 tillable and timber. Most of the timber has been logged over the last 10 years leaving tree tops on the floor and non cash trees standing. Thus opening the canopy up to all kinds of new growth. The property lays out with the ag fields/access on top with timbered ridges leading down into hollers below.

Over time the invasive bush honeysuckle has absolutely choked out this area and even moved into the parts that haven’t been logged, creating a monoculture of this stuff where nothing else is growing.

I have always wondered how deer are utilizing this crap for bedding. You literally can’t see squat when you get into these jungles, and it also makes staying mobile and quiet very difficult to do unless pre cut paths are established. You generally cannot see further than 20-30 yards in most spots.

Rubs on the property are almost non existent, but it does hold some mature bucks every year it seems.

For anyone who hunts in the type of Midwest terrain, are you finding that bucks are still utilizing that upper 1/3 for the wind advantage and just foregoing being able to see anything and relying solely on smell and sound? How about cruising and movement from A to B? I have seen deer using paths I have cut which has helped funnel their movements in some ways.

[sir_tob]

Well, I'd start out by getting Dan's Hill Country video for sure. Knowledge of wind and whitetail habits for that geography is essential.

That said.. the absence of rubs is not essential, if there are no rub-able trees the bucks won't make rubs. Perhaps there is too much vine and covering the rub-able trees. Is it so thick that an antlered buck coulnd't walk in it. I know in our Texas brambles of yaupon and clearcut regrowth the mature bucks won't fight their antlers through it. They'll bed elsewhere and then run the open areas and roads through the clearcuts at night. If she (doe) is not receptive and ducks into vines where he can't penetrate (he he) he'll go find a more receptive doe, until that doe is ready.

How are the deer trails through the property? is there a crop on the tillable land?

Also, deer will eat honey suckle and its almost as good a forage as green briar. Protein content is relatively high for green forage 9-20%.

Perhaps you can manage some areas somehow to make it more usefull to the deer. If you can hold the does, the bucks will figure it out.

[Scott/IL]

This is an invasive form of bush honeysuckle. I’ve never seen a deer eat or browse it before, and everything I’ve heard says it offers zero nutritional value to a deer. It’s not a viney species but more of a bush that grows to 8’ tall with limbs dropping to ground level that stays green into December.

I have seen antlered bucks walk through it, I killed both my bucks this year on this property slipping through it, but it can’t be easy walking on them. Trails are nearly non existent. You’ll find them on creek crossings and where they enter fields, but where they used to be in the hills 10 years ago before this epidemic, they are no where to be found.

[Evanszach7]

I hunt the Midwest and watch deer eat this. It’s actually one of the preferred browse this time of year. They tend to bed where they have an advantage. A lot of public I hunt is like this. They’ll find a spot where they can see the best (maybe 50-60 yards) and use the wind or sound to monitor typical access.

[funderburk]

Find the best advantage to check sight, smell, sound. I don’t believe mature bucks will sacrifice any of those. Maybe try to find the best spots for each one (sight, smell, sound), then find where they overlap.

I’ve found that overthinking can often be blinding. Step back and make sure not to miss the obvious spot. If somebody was trying to stick you, where would you be?

Good luck, brother!

[brancher147]

Bush honeysuckle is not vine honeysuckle like people are used to. It is a bush that looks almost identical to autumn olive. Deer do not browse bush honeysuckle.

I have seen deer use it for bedding in the mountains but we don’t have much cover. Sounds like you have plenty of cover. I would still look for bedding upper 1/3 military crest wind to back looking into more open woods as expected. But they also may bed just in thickets.

[pewpewpew]

The most utilized bedding areas I’ve found are filled with honey suckle, mixed in with small trees, open canopy. Varying elevation.

[ghoasthunter]

the biggest bucks will probably bed on the edges with back too cover. sight smell ears. you might find does bedding in the interior in groups but the bucks will rather have more of a advantage in there bedding. bucks bedding on the edge is rule of thumb regardless of terrain. just like the pic shown in pew pew post.

[hambone]

We have bush honeysuckle everwhere around here. The deer bed in it, hide in it, stage in it and eat the heck out of it. Bush honey suckle holds its leaves well into the winter, so it is utilized heavily by the deer at this time of year. The deer like all it has to offer, but it is destroying the local flora. Under similar conditions as you describe, terrain normally trumps all else for buck bedding, from my experience.

[Robert501st]

The invasive species of honeysuckle is the bane of my deer hunting existence. It’s literally everywhere in the suburban Missouri areas I hunt. The only native wildlife I have observed that eat the red berries are robins. I’ve never seen a deer eat or any other herbivore eat the leaves or berries. Deer bed in the crap because they have to where it has taken over. Honeysuckle roots poison the ground so nothing else grows. Bucks don’t like to rub their antlers on it either.

I don’t see many antlered bucks in honeysuckle thickets but I do see a lot of does and young deer. Big antlered deer can’t get through it. The only good thing I see is that it creates a definite transition. Every big buck I’ve seen while hunting has been along the outside edges.

[Scott/IL]

I bring this topic up after kicking a buck out of his bed in mid October. The buck was bedding in a big bottom, next to an ag field and a creek. He had steep ridges on 3 sides of him, but instead elected to lay in an area where he had a good visual of the bottom and could smell from the ag behind him on a N wind. I killed him a week later out of this bed.

The 2nd buck I killed was utilizing an old hog pasture with a path mowed through it for access into his bedding area. Where he exactly bedded I’m not positive, but the ridges he was on is absolutely chocked full of this stuff. I killed him working a narrow path I trimmed along a leeward ridge this past summer that connects to bedding.

It’s all got me thinking though. I have been targeting areas on the upper 3rds in this area. I too have seen the does and little bucks bobbing around through here, but most of these areas are literally too thick to go hunt without some heavily manicured habitat clearing prior to the year. So thick that you are on hands and knees crawling through it. Once you get down into the swirling winds of the bottoms it’ll open up a little, which is where you will find trails crossing dried up creeks in the usual looking funnels and pinches that only the young deer are utilizing in daylight.

The area holds some good deer. Pressure and disease has put a hurt in the overall age structure over the years, but it still pumps out a few good bucks. I am starting to think a majority of the mature bucks may be seeking refuge elsewhere or in more unconventional areas where they are better able to see what’s around them.

I’ll also concur that bucks do not like to rub their antlers, but they will use the low hanging branches for scrapes in areas where it meets a transition, generally field edges or creek bottoms.

For those of you that are seeing deer eat this as browse, I’m curious what other food sources you have prevalent in your areas? From everything I’ve seen and what the biologists I’ve talked to about this horrific plant, all point towards deer only wanting to eat it when all else is gone (which can quickly happen to natural browse in an area this has taken over).

Meanwhile, 20 minutes away on the public I hunt, the honeysuckle is present but 80% less as thick. Here more traditional bedding and transitions are found, and I dare say the plant actually helps with thickening up an otherwise barren canopy from a much more mature timbered land.

[brancher147]

We have bush honeysuckle everwhere around here. The deer bed in it, hide in it, stage in it and eat the heck out of it. Bush honey suckle holds its leaves well into the winter, so it is utilized heavily by the deer at this time of year. The deer like all it has to offer, but it is destroying the local flora. Under similar conditions as you describe, terrain normally trumps all else for buck bedding, from my experience.

Is there no other browse available where deer are browsing honeysuckle bushes? We have it in completely mature forest with virtually no other browse and deer still do not browse it at all. I have never seen a deer browsed honeysuckle bush, even in a really harsh winter above 4000 ft when everything else is below snow for months. Just wondering what is the habitat where you see deer browsing it.

[hambone]

We have bush honeysuckle everwhere around here. The deer bed in it, hide in it, stage in it and eat the heck out of it. Bush honey suckle holds its leaves well into the winter, so it is utilized heavily by the deer at this time of year. The deer like all it has to offer, but it is destroying the local flora. Under similar conditions as you describe, terrain normally trumps all else for buck bedding, from my experience.

Is there no other browse available where deer are browsing honeysuckle bushes? We have it in completely mature forest with virtually no other browse and deer still do not browse it at all. I have never seen a deer browsed honeysuckle bush, even in a really harsh winter above 4000 ft when everything else is below snow for months. Just wondering what is the habitat where you see deer browsing it.

In a balanced MO woods there is plenty of diverse browse. But once the bush honeysuckle takes over it becomes a monoculture. Even so, there is still a variety of browse (as well as ag) for the deer to eat, anywhere bush honeysuckle is prevalent in the state. Where you are at, you would think that they would be all over the stuff, under the conditions you describe! Maybe it's a regional thing? I've heard people say that deer eat hedge apples. I've got plenty here, but have never seen a deer eat one. The deer around here, eat bush honeysuckle during all phases of its growth. I've seen them eat the ripe berries and the tips of the bushes, as well. Some bucks leave rubs on the bushes too, btw.