Black hickory nuts

[TACC]

My aunt just spent 2 days picking up black hickory nuts that have fell off of her tree and asked if I would like to feed them to the deer that come up along side our deer camp next to the lake.

 

I told her I have no idea if the deer actually eat them but would find out. I imagine the squirrel population would love them either way.

 

Does anyone have any experience with these nuts?

 

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[landtracdeerhunter]

On 11/2/2017 at 10:03 PM, TACC said:

 

My aunt just spent 2 days picking up black hickory nuts that have fell off of her tree and asked if I would like to feed them to the deer that come up along side our deer camp next to the lake.

 

I told her I have no idea if the deer actually eat them but would find out. I imagine the squirrel population would love them either way.

 

Does anyone have any experience with these nuts?

 

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We have an oak and shag bark hickory woods.  Deer eat the oak nuts first, then tend to go after the hickory nuts when oak are used up. They come in quite often when the snow pack builds up to eat hickory. Never find many shells so I believe they eat shell and all. That may not be right though. Squirrels are nuts about hickory.

Unfortunately in New York any time nuts are located into a different area than a nut tree, it's considered feeding and is against the law.

[TreeGuy]

I wouldn't move them either.... But, I know the deer like them and turkeys LOVE them

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[G-Man]

If they are shagbark or shell bark nuts I'd plant them all over .. pig nut or bitter nut let the animals eat them

[Fletch]

As others have said if you move them you open yourself up to illegal baiting. Personally I hunt one spot that is loaded with at least a couple different varieties of hickory and after years and many, many hundreds of hours hunting there I have never once seen a deer eat one. The squirrels absolutely love them though. I have read a few folks say the deer eat them but it must be some special variety I don't have.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Fletch

[landtracdeerhunter]

Shag bark hickory nuts are great for human consumption. We put them in cookies, cakes, and other pastries. We had a bumper crop in 15. The last two years haven't been that great.  Just enough for the squirrels.

[Doc]

I have to say that I have never seen a deer eat a hickory nut. I have cracked a jillion of them for cooking, and cannot imagine a deer having the clamping force necessary to crack the shell of a hickory nut. I use a bench vise to develop enough force. And then it is an amazing job to separate the intermingled nut-meats from the hard sharp shards of the fractured shell. I mean, it is not like the thin shelled acorns with the single large nut meat inside. Hickory nuts are one nasty little bugger to open up and the sort through to get the relatively small edible contents out of.

Are you all sure that deer actually eat hickory nuts?

[landtracdeerhunter]

I can tell you Doc that when the snow pack comes on, the deer are under the hickory trees digging. Deer tracks in the snow for a give away. Have found a few sheds there also.