For many people enjoying their cabin in the forest, ranch in the Hills, or even their suburban home, attracting deer is never a problem especially if you have a garden. Deer are known for their voracious appetite for greenery, shrubs, different types of flowers, and vegetables of all kinds. They will happily eat bird seed if it’s available.
However, for the hunting enthusiasts and seasoned hunters, deer can often be scarce or surprisingly difficult to find. Setting up the right environment for both sportsman and hunters can become a large project quickly.
When it comes to homemade deer feeders, there is no shortage of options. Human beings have a natural tendency to build and make tools for just about anything. This also applies to homemade deer feeders. Numerous examples of different types of homemade deer feeders including those listed below;
- Tripod feeders
- Salt and Mineral Licks
- Gravity Fed Feeders
- Hanging Feeders
- Station Feeders
- Trough Style Feeders
Food options for feeders also includes a range of options including but not limited to:
- Salt and mineral licks
- Molasses-based deer licks
- Peanut Butter based feed
- Seed mixes
Sorting through the different options for homemade deer feeders can be tough when the right combination of both feeders and food is needed to create the right bait for deer.
Many possibilities of different types of deer feeders available. We're going to look at three different types of homemade deer feeders and recipes that make them a little bit more unique.
1. Tube Feeder with Grain.
With many station or tube feeder ideas out there this idea is remarkably simple. Most often it's a 4 or 6 inch PVC pipe with a V joint and pipe covers one either end acting as the trough off at the end of the pipe. Simply put pipe covers on either end and you have your deer feeder.
These can be as tall or short (depending on the pipe length) as you like. Just remember the longer they are the more feed they will hold, and the less often they will need to be refilled. The larger pipes can feed more than one deer easily while the smaller ones are used to add a feeder to a more confined space.
Simply fill the pipe with your favorite feed mix and happy hunting. These feeders don't freeze since they are not using wet or moist bait and they can be placed in very specific targets in a line of site to augment aim when hunting.
2. Molasses & Grains
There are so many different types of deer food and licks available for you to purchase. Retail options are often very expensive but, surprisingly easy to make, when you have a recipe.
Deer are attracted to many different types of food. Molasses especially attracts deer and has very high nutritive value. Molasses provides a higher mineral content as well as iron and sugar for energy. Molasses will also hold together a feed mix nicely in most Homemade Deer Feeders. Deer also need higher carbohydrates in the winter for energy.
This recipe uses molasses at the base of the recipe and you don't have to go through the process of cooking or baking. This recipe can also be manually shaped with the oats and corn and it will keep its shape. This is ideal to pair with a station feeder.
You can double this recipe easily to make larger quantities. This recipe uses a base amount.
a. Oats — You can use cracked or whole oats. — 3 cups
b. Corn — You can also use cracked or whole corn. — 3 Cups
c. Molasses — A cup
Mix equal parts of the grains together and drizzle the molasses over the grains. Use gloves if needed and knead together like bread dough.
Some Molasses may be darker and thicker than others, you may be able to use a little more if needed. Mix in the molasses a portion at a time to make sure the mixture is not too wet either. You want the mix to be firm enough to mix well and be clumpy.
This recipe will create a feed mix which is moist enough to be molded into a shape or you can leave the feed in a mixed clump. In winter months it will freeze in most trough style feeders but will also break off in pieces easily with the oats mixed throughout the mix.
3. Station Feeder
Station feeders are one of the most common types of homemade deer feeder. Variations on this type of homemade deer feeder seem to be endless. We looked at best deer feeders which can be made with basic materials relatively easily (think a single trip to Lowe's or Home Depot), don't include too many complex power tools and you could make with your kids safely, sort of. The examples we found include:- Small feeders structured like a bird feeder to be fixed on the side of a tree or a fence post. These are easy to build, take a seed mix to fill (or a homemade deer feed mix). As a DIY project they are great.
- PVC feeders made with 2 or 4-inch PVC pipe which uses a V joint at the base as the feed trough. These are easy to make with very few materials in comparison to other Homemade Deer feeders, durable, and can be attached on narrow places, or in a group of feeders on a number of trees in a specific clearing to attract larger groups of deer.
- A cattle feed styled trough with canopy roof to protect against the elements (this style of homemade deer feeder may attract other types of critters more than the homemade deer feeders attached higher off the ground on trees and fence posts, so keep that in mind). These are ideal for more open spaces and can feed numerous deer at a time. We recommend making the roof top large enough to cover the feed trough due to the elements
These types of homemade deer feeders listed above are the most common for easy-to-do projects. They seem to be the easiest to make with a modest amount of resources.
For people looking to thoroughly enjoy the process of hunting right down to building your own homemade deer feeder, these options will give you a solid start.
