Doe bedding

[mheichelbech]

Don’t see much about doe bedding on here, but curious as to what you all see in doe bedding during hunting season.

Do doe groups bed and move with the wind and thermals in mind similar to bucks?

Do they seem to bed strategically like bucks or are they just finding the most comfortable spot near food?

Do they change bedding based on current food sources? I.e., if acorns are dropping, will they bed by the best oak stands then or continue to bed based on security needs?

[backstraps]

I think does like to bed in areas to where they can see danger coming.Vantage points with long distance of view. I do think doe bedding will move with the available food sources as well... but still the bedding I see will have sight vantages and groupings. That being said, I have seen areas that hold the one or two older mature does that seems to bed outside the group of does and it seems like they seek cover security in bedding.

[Southern Man]

Doe bedding is important to me. I pay attention to it and when I scout doe bedding is just as important to me as buck bedding. The reason is the time period I hunt public land is about the the time bucks become interested in the does. Not just the rut, but early to mid October and on if you find where the does bed, feed, and travel, it's fairly easy to find where the bucks bed and travel.

The doe bedding I see is not as secluded as buck bedding. While bucks will tend to bed in the thicker areas, does not always will. Some of that has to do with pressure, but even in areas of light to no pressure does will most of the time bed in open area on the fingers of ridges, while bucks go to the thick stuff. I have found that they do bed with the wind & thermals in their favor and change if that changes also.

For the most part the doe groups I see will bed in relatively the same areas even when food changes. But around here there is alot of food and most of the time there is no need to change bedding, they'll just go in a different direction or stop somewhere else to eat on their nightly travels.

I got to know a particular doe group several years ago. They had a bedding area of about 2-3 acres. In the evening they would get up and travel the same trails to a crop field about 300 years away. When the white oaks started dropping, they would get up from their same bedding area walk about 50 yards down their trail and stop by the white oaks. They would feed there until sometime in the night and move on to the crop field. Same coming back in the morning. When the red oaks started dropping (2-3 weeks later), they would veer off their trail to the Red oaks, and again, feed until some time in the night, then go to the crop field. Same thing in the morning except the reverse. The whole time bedding never changed. That area was easy to hunt. As the bucks got interested, all I had to do was hunt around the bedding area, the bucks would be there.

Since that time I have found 3 other areas that is basically the same.

[jkelley1487]

Doe bedding is important to me. I pay attention to it and when I scout doe bedding is just as important to me as buck bedding. The reason is the time period I hunt public land is about the the time bucks become interested in the does. Not just the rut, but early to mid October and on if you find where the does bed, feed, and travel, it's fairly easy to find where the bucks bed and travel.

The doe bedding I see is not as secluded as buck bedding. While bucks will tend to bed in the thicker areas, does not always will. Some of that has to do with pressure, but even in areas of light to no pressure does will most of the time bed in open area on the fingers of ridges, while bucks go to the thick stuff. I have found that they do bed with the wind & thermals in their favor and change if that changes also.

For the most part the doe groups I see will bed in relatively the same areas even when food changes. But around here there is alot of food and most of the time there is no need to change bedding, they'll just go in a different direction or stop somewhere else to eat on their nightly travels.

I got to know a particular doe group several years ago. They had a bedding area of about 2-3 acres. In the evening they would get up and travel the same trails to a crop field about 300 years away. When the white oaks started dropping, they would get up from their same bedding area walk about 50 yards down their trail and stop by the white oaks. They would feed there until sometime in the night and move on to the crop field. Same coming back in the morning. When the red oaks started dropping (2-3 weeks later), they would veer off their trail to the Red oaks, and again, feed until some time in the night, then go to the crop field. Same thing in the morning except the reverse. The whole time bedding never changed. That area was easy to hunt. As the bucks got interested, all I had to do was hunt around the bedding area, the bucks would be there.

Since that time I have found 3 other areas that is basically the same.

Good post.