I tried to build a water hole

[Tmayer13]

Well the one issue with the new farm is there NO water on it at all. I drove down into an area that I put a clover plot in and found a little standing water on Saturday. I looked it over pretty hard and with the grade of the ground and the fact that there was already some water there I decided to see if I could get a water hole started. I just used the bucket of my tractor and dug down as much as I could....I came back Sunday and shoveled some of it was well...it actually turned out really well. And when I showed back up Sunday there was already water standing in it, so I'm optimistic. And worst case scenario I just push the dirt back in and come up with something else. My pics aren't the greatest but it's about 18"-24" deep!

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[deerdown]

Looks good, are you going to throw some bentonite on it to seal it up?

 

[Tmayer13]

At this time no...it was actually a pretty good hard clay in the bottom. I felt like with as wet as it was and with the already existing clay it would probably be fine....if not I may get a mini excavator in the there and do a different route...we will see how it works out

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[Jbohn]

Could always put a tank in , water in winter time best . Deer get good bit moisture from plants during summer .. maybe with what you have there could grade so run off keeps tank full . Just option . I put 2 in my farm and they are hitting them well in October on .

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[Tmayer13]

We only received a half inch of rain and the water hole filled up completely. This leads me to believe that I picked the right area where any amount of run off will go into this spot. It will be interesting to see if it continues to hold water

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[breckhawk]

Could always put a tank in , water in winter time best . Deer get good bit moisture from plants during summer .. maybe with what you have there could grade so run off keeps tank full . Just option . I put 2 in my farm and they are hitting them well in October on .

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I don't think people realize how dynamite this technique is. Especially in areas that don't have a lot of natural water around. The ones I have out aren't very big and I even dug them out with a shovel. Wasn't too bad.

You can usually find someone selling one of these big plastic ponds on craigslist for cheap. As long as they don't have a crack or hole in them they will pretty much fill up on their own. During real dry spells I have had to add some water.

I have one about 200 yards from my back door that I can see. I'm up on a hill. In the valley below our hill there is a creek so there is water close...but it never fails every night right before dark there are always at least 5 deer coming to the 'pond'. They absolutely prefer the standing water to running water IMO.

During long dry spells it's almost not even fair. Especially early October. If you keep water in it pretty much every buck in the area will be using it at some point.

Definitely need to have a stick in there like the pic to let little critters out. I found out the hard way when i first started finding a few dead bunnies in each of mine.