Sorry if this post gets a little long winded. But A few years back I wrote a post on here asking if anyone had actually witnessed deer eating the pods from a honey locust tree. I had been told that deer love them, yet at that time I had never observed whitetails eating them. I like to think I am a relatively observant deer hunter but was astounded by the number of people who told me that they had witnessed deer eating them. I mean how could I miss something like that?
Since then I have paid much more careful attention to when and if deer eat them. I love this kind of stuff. Here is what I have observed about them here in the midwest since that post.
I think it was last year or the year before. It was late december or January. The farm fields had been taken out early that year and most of them had also been disked leaving little or no waste grain for deer to feed on. In fact where I live there was not a field that had not been plowed under for miles and miles. Anyway, I was driving home from work right at dark one night and I noticed some deer that live in a nature preserve walking single file out across a tilled bean field to get to small patch of trees out in the middle of the field. I pulled the truck over to see what the deal was. There ended up being like 30 deer and they were all standing there feeding under this patch of trees. I couldnt figure it out so I pulled out my binoculars and was astounded to watch the deer feeding voraciously on honey locust pods! I though it was interesting the way they ate the entire pod, not just the seeds on the inside! It was quite a sight as one of the bucks was very large and he could not get enough of the pods.
Now fast forward to this year. We have had a terrible drought. I was at lake of the ozarks for a few days during the summer drought. I was sitting in the boat back in a cove having a couple drinks when I see two deer come down to the water. I did not think much of it at the time. I mean we were in a drought. I figured they just needed a drink. But they did not drink. Instead they were eating something on the bank of the lake. I drifted up closer to see that they were absolutely inhaling honey locust pods! And this was in September!
Fast forward to the current deer season. The droubt had taken a toll on natural browse and the crop fields did terrible. Acorn production was still quite good in my area and the deer were all over them when they hit the ground but they ate them all quite quickly. By mid to late October even the red ones had been eaten. The fields were once again taken out early and most were again tilled over.
I only have access to 20 acres of private land this year so my hunting has been done on public ground. Obviously there are no food plots or anything like that for the deer.
In early November I noticed that alot of deer were already keying in on locust pods yet again!
I guess I am not a fast learner sometimes but I think I have now realized when to consider locust pods as a primary food source at least here in the midwest.
From what I gather they are not normally a preffered food source. But when you have a situation where the farm fields are all plowed under, the acorns are gone, and there are no food plots anywhere around the deer do indeed flock to them like they do a white Oak in October. I mean I have watched alot of deer eating the pods in my area this year. And to think I had never seen this until just a few years ago.
I think that in the midwest if you have untilled corn fields, standing corn, food plots etc. that you will be better off near those areas in the late season, but if not, it may be worth a look at honey locust pods especially when it gets really cold and there is snow on the ground. My little twenty acre private land area is loaded with them as well as honeysuckle. In fact there is a narrow ridge of honey suckle with Honey locust trees growing amonst it. Since there is really not much else for food in that area this year, I will be giving a few of those honey locust trees a shot. It's amazing what you can learn out there if you simply pay attention to what is going on around you!
You are absolutely correct. Most years deer eat all the locust pods. One year there was a bumper crop of acorns, deer ate very few of the locust pods. Many rotted on the ground.
JS-I learned about this food source this year from some hunters in SE Ohio! I never knew the deer liked them so much, as they say. I personally never seen this, cause I just found out about this a couple of weeks ago. They mentioned if you find a few honey locusts you need to put your stand nearby! Thanks for the scoop!
Kenny :readit:
They eat them on my farm every year. Usually it's late in the year but they eat em' up. A biologist told me once that they were like a wild soybean. If you look on some wildlife tree sites, they actually sell the honey locust trees. Big trade off as even though the deer will eat them, the thorns they produce will do a number on tractor tires,boots,leather gloves, just about anything. The thorns hurt like crazy when you get stuck with one too.
Yea I have just realized that there are preferred food sources and available food sources. If you look at a list of preferred food sources in order of preference you will not find honey locust pods at the top. However when the other food sources are not available on your property many deer will leave your property for a neighbors property where the food source they want is available. But when that food source is not available even on the neighbors ground then food sources that are less desirable now rise to the top of the list. It's common sense. Like I said. It is amazing what we can learn out there if we simply open our eyes and our minds and pay attention.
The deer must have plenty of other food sources around me this year, because the ground around the area I hunt is still thick with locust pods. I'm crunching through them as I walk in and out almost all the way.
The raccoons eat most of the locust pods on my property, but I always keep my eyes out for deer targeting them in the winter. There are still a few acorns falling here, and I don't think that they would start targeting them till later anyway.
Jon, I too have just learned this. Watched a couple of young deer feeding on these locust pods on an afternoon hunt a few weeks ago. Didn't give it alot of thought until while hunting the same stand I witnessed more deer feeding under the same tree! I'm like you it took me a few times of watching this but I'm on it now! Gonna make a mental note of these trees and use them as a food source, ambush site! Thanks for posting. I was wondering if anyone else had witnessed this myself!
Jon- Up here we have a lot of black locust trees. The only honey locus I see are ornamental in peoples yards or parks. Deer will go after our black locust, but not sure if you are refering to the same trees that I am thinking of. Good luck with the rest of your season.
Mike
We have both, single thorn Black locust and cluster thorn Honey Locust. Sadly a blight or something is killing our large Locust trees but i will rather hunt late season over a black locust than anything. Their pod reaks with a sugary smell. We call them bean trees. One guy i know has killed 5 P and Y over his bean tree. We killed deer routinely in Ga over them too. good luck
Hmm mike. You have me thinking. I'm pretty sure I've got honey locust here. The pods are really big. Like a foot long. I was thinking the black locust trees had small pods? Am I correct on this or do I have it backwards?
I do most of my hunting in a big Honey Locust grove..thicket or whatever you call it. Bout 1/4mile wide and 3 mile long saddle where I hunt it. Has white oak ridges on both sides and one end with corn or soybeans on the other end.
It's just about the only area this time of yr with any cover..has lots of greenbrair also.
I got down this morning at 11:30am after seeing nothing but squirrels and while I was getting my things together I hear what sounded like air brakes going off in an empty 50 gallon drum.
He was right down below me in the thickest part.
A few years ago, we had a terrible winter here in southern Iowa with about 4 feet of snow on the ground for quite a while. That year, i watched whitetail deer eat eastern red cedar trees. With all the locust pods buried, along with most of the other available food sources, they were eating what they could. but usually, later in the winter, they're hitting the locust pods on the farms I hunt, december through february.
Honey locust should have some thorns on them Jon.
You are probly right, the black locust have shorter pods.
Black are single thorn
Honey are clusters
Jon, I too have a great interest in what I call prefered Deer foods.Foods the deer key in on when the usual ones aren't there. Yes honey locust pods are about 12 in. long and black locust pods are two to four in.I have hunted black locust stands when other foods are short in supply.I started a thread last winter called : { Prefered foods of the whitetail]
:thumbsup:
I forgot to mention that there are locust that have no thorns.One or the other or both,I can't remember.
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj319/kittitiny/imagesCAVQF2T4.jpg)
black locust bark
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj319/kittitiny/b7.jpg)
smooth bark of a honey
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj319/kittitiny/imagesCA30WGAY.jpg)
a spiney honey
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj319/kittitiny/black_locust_tree.jpg)
blacks realy like to reach w/ a high canopy
we used them for fence posts on the farm
blacks =short beans//honey =long beans
A "bean tree" in the south is a honey locust. I know deer occasionally consume black locusts pods as well as mimosa pods, but nothing like their taste for the large, sweet pod of the honey locust. I've seen deer eating honey locust pods more times than I can count, but cannot remember ever seeing one eat black locust pods.
If you place a 12 inch, fibrous honey locust pod next to a puny, papery 4" pod of the black locust, you will see why one is preferred over the other.
I just did some quick research and realized that the Mesquite trees we have all over Texas are part of the Locust tree family. They have thorns and pods as well. Deer eat the pods, but definitely not as their first choice.
Good thread.
i've never seen them eat either pods--but it seems like they go out of they're way to rub the black locust saplings!!!
It's just part of the puzzle. I'm always amazed by what the deer teach me after years of hunting them. It's for sure not a preferred food source. But I have now learned that it rises to the top of the list during lean years when the acorns are gone and the fields are plowed over. At least in my tiny area of the Midwest.
"It's for sure not a preferred food source."
If you are talking about honey locust, I and thousands of other hunters in the Southeast would argue that.
I have seen them eat them but it seems more of a late winter or spring when the fields have been hammered all winter.
Liquid amber I'm just talking about the Midwest where deer often have farm crops at their disposal. What I'm noticing is that when there are little or no crops available to the deer around here then the honey locust pods become more desireable to the deer. But I have never hunted whitetails in the south.
You might try a shot of 13-13-13 on a few patches of honeysuckle (spring and fall) and locust trees (drip line) to sweeten the pot. :)
Like most animals, deer eat whatever holds the most nutritional value, in their area, at a given time. Depends on what you have where you live. In the woods where I live, when we have a good acorn crop, the pods usually go uneaten. When the corn (or beans) is standing late into the season, good luck seeing them hanging out in the woods. Around here, they'll just bed down in the corn and beans. The most activity you see is during the pre-rut and rut when the bucks are looking for does or the scrape lines are getting worked over. If you have a green field, you'll see them there at some point every evening. So I guess I'm saying you have to hunt the current need of the animal.