Advice needed on shelled corn feeder.

[BLACKJACK]

My small corn plot has been eaten up by the deer yet I still have 15-20 pheasants flying in there, I'd like to set up a shelled corn feeder. Would like one of those overhead spinning feeders that I could program to run a few times during the day so that I'm feeding more pheasants than deer. Looking at the Cabelas catalog they have two, one on three legs by Moultrie and one with the Cableas name on it. Moultrie has a good reputation but the Cabelas one looks like it might have a heavier duty stand. Anyone have experience with either of these feeders? Looking for something that is sturdy enough to withstand deer attacks and is easy to program.

[MNpurple]

I know a couple people that have the moultrie feeder and it seems like it has worked fine, no problems, except the deer (when not experiencing hunting pressure) learn what it means when that timer goes off and quickly associate it with food. If this happens they may still steal the corn from your pheasants.

IMO I would set up one of those shelled corn feeders you see on WMAs alot this time of year. A cylinder of small holed chicken wire set up on a pallet and then surrounded by hog paneling slightly off the ground so the pheasants can come and go but the deer cant get in to the corn. The grounds gonna be froze so pounding in posts is probably out but maybe you could use trees? If not it may just be easier to do the moultrie feeder. The DNR HSOforum has some plans for a couple different kinds of pheasant feeders.

[BLACKJACK]

I've built several types of shelled corn feeders for pheasants and aside from the problem of keeping the deer away, they also don't work very well, the pheasants won't use them. I can check the tracks after a fresh snow and they're not there, seems like they don't like to get focused into one little area. Was hoping that with an aerial feeder, and the corn spread over a wider area, that pheasants would find it and use it.

My second thought here is to experiment with different pheasant feeders, corn food plots get spendy to put in when you account for fertilizer, fuel, chemicals, etc. That $100+ per acre would go along way when buying shelled corn.

Nobody else has used a battery operated feeder? I'd like your input if you have.

[WaveWacker]

Personally I feel that it's going to be easier and more effective to just dump piles on the ground. This is what I do at home. All you have to do is go out after a snow fall and open up the piles and the birds definately do find them. Not sure that spreading it out over an area (on top of snow much the less) is going be a big attractant plus you are going to have the expense of the feeder and have to mess with batteries when it's cold outside. Yes, one way or the other you are going to have worry about deer hitting it but I put mine down in the cattails and for the most part the deer don't find it.

[SwimRunFly]

Here is a simple solution!

Our property is an hour a way from our home and I do not have time to get the feed out on a weekly basis. Dumping corn on the ground simply fed the deer and they would eat it up in a very short period of time because they have a stomach like a cow and they will bed down very close to the food source until its gone (typically in a week)

So what I did is take seven 5 gallon buckets and drilled two 1 inch holes (wood bit) on each side, 1 inch from the bottom. I set the buckets on 6 x6 blocks to get them off the ground (add blocks as the snow accumulates), fill the buckets with corn and put the covers on. Spread a little corn on the ground and the pheasants will find it in no time and can peck the corn out of the holes as they need it. Deer can not gorge themselves and the food for the pheasants will last much longer. I have also done the same thing with 50 gal plastic drums. This is a very inexpensive feeding system. 5 gal pails hold 25 lbs of corn and the 50 gal drums will hold about 250 to 300 lbs (you probably could have done the math)

The only other things I would suggest is to fasten the handles of the buckets to a small tree or pole (duct tape or zip ties) because the deer will try to kick them over. And also put the feeder in a safe place to birds are not susceptible to predators.

Heavy brush cover or cattails.

Good Luck

[lawdog]

I have made two different kinds of feeders for pheasants over the years and they have used both a lot. The easiest is just to double roll some chicken wire or other similarly small holed little wire thing and zip tie it into a silo type shape and then fasten that to some plywood. Fill up the silo and the pheasants peck the corn out and the deer can't get it (unless they plow over the silo so if that's a concern build it around a secured steel rod.). The other is a the barrel on the wood platform with two openings at the bottom cut out of the barrel and again covered with wired fencing of some sort so the birds peck the corn out and the deer can't steal it all. As I said both feeders have gotten good use when the birds need it.

I would say Blackjack if the pheasants haven't hit your feeders, they are finding plenty of food elsewhere. I don't think those big feeders are built for birds, but more for deer.

[Tom7227]

Lawdog seems to have it pretty well figured out.

I saw where someone recommended putting some hog fence around the feeder and that would keep the deer out. The holes are big enough to let the pheasant through. I checked at FF and found that a 4 ft high piece was $15.89. Iowa Steel & Wire Ag Panel 4 ga 16' 10 wire. Two of them bent in half should do the trick.

Both designs can be found in the Carol Henderson book Wild About Birds, probably available through the DNR or at Wild Bird Stores. The barrel unit is somewhat comlicated to build and requires two barrels that have to be cut and then bent and finally braized together.

The one with the circle of hardware wire around the post requires a top on the feeder to keep the shelled corn dry. I think it was as simple as some 1/4 inch mesh hardware cloth in a circle about a foot across. I suppose you'd have to have a fence post or something to keep it from tipping over.

[Tom7227]

Here's a link to a Pheasants Forever page that gives the lowdown on feeding and has a couple of brochures that give the complete instructions on how to build the two feeders mentioned in this thread.

http://www.minnesotapf.org/page/1000/MN-Food.jsp