Thanks for offering up the pointers.
Mak-Most of the platforms we use are about 6 and a half feet off the ground. They only need to be beyond a deer's reach that is standing on his hind legs. Unless you're in an elk area, then they need to be taller and a whole lot stronger, and even with that there's very few that will withstand an elk...or several elk.
The platforms are only necessary in areas where deer are present and you will not be. We have lots of turkeys all over northern Michigan being fed every day all winter long by hand-someone walks over to the birds, which will stay fairly close once they know you have food in the dead of winter, and puts the corn down right in front of them. The turkeys eat it while you're standing right there. No worries about deer.
A lot of people question this but there's hundreds of people out there doing it every day all winter long up here.
If you are not going to be there every day, you do need a platform, or a trailer that the barrel can go into that deer can't climb up into, or some sort of fenced or elevated platform. I use a lot of smaller slatted trailers now-the turkeys can fly up and into the trailer. The deer are prevented from doing so by the slats on the trailer and the rear gate. Trailers can also be moved if necessary if the turkeys move, which they occasionally do. Hard to explain but once you see it, it's simple, and it works.
We don't start our feeding program until January 1 of each year, but we have feed barrels that are "DNR approved" that we'll give you.
You also need to be sure someone else isn't already feeding those birds every winter-usually, somebody is, that's how the birds have survived all these winters.
PM me or email me at
Lindag10@hotmail.com and let me know where you want to feed and we can talk further about it. Several people are feeding every winter in the Indian River area, but people move and die, so we always need to make sure each flock is taken care of every winter.
Turkey feeding in Northern LP
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