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Bedding builds

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StucknAz

Active Member
What do you all do specifically to build bedding? Anyone hunt in the hills that could give some advice on what works best through your trials? I’ve got a lot of spice bush that’s around my food which is above the bedding that supports doe bedding, however my traditional topography that would support buck bedding needs work. What do you all reccomend?

I ordered Norway, cedar, plum, and nine bark. What would you do next, drop/hinge trees lots of maple. Would it make sense to put of 3-5 norways, few cedar/plum/ninebark all within a couple large bedroom sized hinge/flush cuts at the buck bed elevations?

These locations are pretty open with no side cover.

What’s your go to when building bed locations?
 
Also thoughts on adding water way back along these bedding benches? I could access this bench location from the bottom and the only water would be out of the way dropping down to the creek, or should ai have a waterhole between the bed and food
 
Southern Ohio property, sits at 900 feet all the way down to a 100 ft. Property is long west to east ridge which has military crest on the north and south sides. Food is positioned at the west end of the property and also have food and orchard in the center.

Habitat is a lot of wide open woods with a high percentage of the trees being maple, some cherry, some oak, elm. Lots of autumn olive close by, my main source of cover is spice bush and hinge pockets.

There’s limited thicket/browse due to the high canopy ground and the spice bush takes over a lot of the cuttings I’ve made.
 
If you open up that canopy (logging, tsi) sounds as though you'll have a lot of invasives take off. May need to look into taking out portions of autumn olive.

Personally, I don't like to create individual deer beds. Rather places where they like to bed.

My checklist would be to meet with a forester first to see if it has logging potential. If so, log it. If not in near future, but maybe long term - Go TSI.

If its absolute junk, I'd be tempted to put in a few clear cuts on some of those bedding hillsides.. Then you could plant some of those shrubs, but probably not needed. Just let nature take over.
 
Bassattackr said:
If you open up that canopy (logging, tsi) sounds as though you'll have a lot of invasives take off. May need to look into taking out portions of autumn olive.

Personally, I don't like to create individual deer beds. Rather places where they like to bed.

My checklist would be to meet with a forester first to see if it has logging potential. If so, log it. If not in near future, but maybe long term - Go TSI.

If its absolute junk, I'd be tempted to put in a few clear cuts on some of those bedding hillsides.. Then you could plant some of those shrubs, but probably not needed. Just let nature take over.
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I had Madison Raber out to check for timber value, it’s not there. He gave me a prescribed cut area for north and south winds, pretty large sections. I can tackle the AO and Spicebush if it gets heavy, prob keep a close eye on it.

That’s what I’m thinking, drop a handful of the maples and supplement the cuts with adding the shrubs and conifer to multiple locations within the cuts.
 
So many things out there now on YouTube about habititat management.

Some really good!!

No ONE scenario fits all..
I've jumped big buck in SO MANY weird spots over the years!!

Best advice I can give, even a thick spot the size of an average garage can be a magnet in an area that has an open overstory.
A discarded Christmas tree in a wide open crp field or a marsh (brought in) can be fantastic!!.
I don't hunt much hilly county so I won't pretend to give advice on that but..., I hunt mostly river bottoms. Bucks typically bed really low in thick cover.
 
As my plan is evolving these cuts along bench system will be below the main prescribed cuts. The main cuts should house doe close to the food. These bench cuts will be much smaller in size, like mentioned the size of a garage, then half moon the new species around the bench along with the side cover from the cuts.

As far as water, would you consider at the very back point of these movements on the bench where it v’s down, there’s a small 1/16 acre clearing here too, thoughts on micro plot of something less desirable with Skip scrape in the plot with the water? I’d have a 25 yard shot and good but tiring access???

Or is water and micro plot bad idea at the far end of all of this? Theory would be it’s a rest stop for crushing travel and food would be small enough that it would be eaten down to the ground and not much attraction come November. Add mineral site here and turn it into a scent station? I’ve never hunted to back end of the property without accessing thru the gut but there’s steep ravine I can use to access the entire property.

Sorry again for the length, just looking to try something different and only get 4 days a year to tackle my farm projects!
 
Bassattackr said:
If you open up that canopy (logging, tsi) sounds as though you'll have a lot of invasives take off. May need to look into taking out portions of autumn olive.

Personally, I don't like to create individual deer beds. Rather places where they like to bed.

My checklist would be to meet with a forester first to see if it has logging potential. If so, log it. If not in near future, but maybe long term - Go TSI.

If its absolute junk, I'd be tempted to put in a few clear cuts on some of those bedding hillsides.. Then you could plant some of those shrubs, but probably not needed. Just let nature take over.
Click to expand...
Forester said no go for any cut of value, limited money trees. I’ll likely be doing what you are saying but make that military crest and just above will get supplemented with those shrubs.
 
Bedding build from scratch (hopefully). Open ag country. Planted thin switch (3-4lbs/ac) spring '23. Burned off half a week ago, left the other half stand. Went through last night & planted sporadic white pine, shingle oaks, and cedar. Will spot plant more oaks, few spruce, and cedar. The hope it to never have a canopy, but enough good trees to block the wind, give structure, but the sun still get in and pockets of switch living. Will have the switch immediately until the trees can get legs under them.

I have a friend who plants pines this way all the time, but I wanted my own mix of different thermal things. Will the switch slow the tree growth, yes, but it also might protect the young trees from browse too. We will see! 5 ac experiment. Worse case I end up with a switch field anyway.
 

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Here's a few pics of an area (bout 2 acres) I did this winter.
A few before / after. Riverbottom with mostly boxelder/ elm/ basswood.
Spent many hours with a chainsaw doing this.
 

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I have bought from many different nurseries. Right now I buy them from a friend (Minnesota Habitat Management). He’s more of a habitat guy, not a real nursery . Might cost me a $1 more , but he gets quality trees.

In the past I’ve used Itasca Greenhouse, local SWCD, U of Idaho Nursery, Kelly Tree Farm… a variety !
 
JNRBRONC said:
The guy who got busted for openly shooting deer off season with a HP rifle to protect his nursery? Seems ironic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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How long ago was that? I know some time ago the original owner of kelly tree farm retired and sold to Jacob. Not sure how long ago that was, guessing 10 to 12 years.
 
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