I am just going to put in some random thoughts here, not because I am an expert at deer feeding but just from a lot of years experience. Obviously I don't know how the deer act in your area they may be different because deer don't all act the same way everywhere.
What ever you use for bait, usually corn, it is not a natural food for deer. Maybe in thecorn belt states but not else where and even there corn don't naturally grow in the woods where deer hang out.
You got to kind of "train" deer to eat it and depend on their natural curiosity to make them start. Some never will start.
If you got deer the where ever you put your feeder will be in some old does home range. And some bucks circle. She will be the first to start eating and will train her kids to eat too. When natural groceries get short other does will come in looking for food. That's when you see the boxing matches between your resident and strangers coming in to eat.
Now back to mama training the kids. If one of them is a buck he will know where that feed is and will be looking for it. He ate it as a button and will continue next year. The older he gets the less he will eat, especially when he is on the prod. But he never forgets where that food source is or was. After the rut he will check it but you may never see him at it except at night.
Of course we are excepting that he don't get shot as a forkie the second year.
I have seen the same bucks at my feeders or very close by until they are @ five years old. Never see them again. I didn't shoot them but somebody else may have somewhere else.
I say I haven't seen them that is to say in daylight wearing horns. I have seen them bare headed late in Feb when groceries are really short. Pretty sure it was them anyway.
As soon as natural feed stuff comes out deer will quit feeders. You resident old doe will still hit more out of habit than anything else. She will sure as hell be there with her kids next fall and the ones she trained the year before will be there too. They don't forget where the groceries are.
BCR
