Request from Florida USA

A telephone call last Thursday came from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (www.myfwc.com) who had been searching for some advice on feeding fallow deer on the Net. Of course, because we are on Florida Road, we came up close to the top! Also our interest in feeding the animals is for the sake of the animal, not the venison. We were happy to share our knowledge.

Bambi Ferree, an officer with the Commission, has been charged with looking after a solo male fallow deer who had been found on Florida's Panhandle "on the loose", tranquilized and brought to the Gainesville lab/area for testing about a week ago. She lives closest to the Lab, so she's become an instant deer keeper! Yes, she does get kidded about her name often, especially as she is researching brain wasting disease in white tail deer. If the buck passes all his health tests, he will be adopted, Bambi hopes. Potential adoptees are the family that found him, as no one in Florida USA has reported a missing buck. Because deer don't tend to roam too far away from the place of birth, we assume that he was from the northern part of Florida and kept without permit.

We shared with her the feeding program we have for our bucks which seems to be working well. From her description, "Panhandle" seems to be about the same age as our deer George and EGee. His antlers are in velvet and are about 15 inches in length already.

We are going to keep in touch and hope that Pan gets a good, safe place to live out his days.

Gates Open Sundays at 2pm

Starting Sunday June 1, 2008 we will be opening the gates for drop in visitors at 2pm. It's a good time to see the deer and participate in feeding them...up close and personal.

It's not necessary to make an appointment if you come out on Sundays at 2pm. Please leave any dogs at home as they can unsettle the deer. We have rustic washroom facilities. Those with limited mobility can drive up to the feeding area.

From Kingston, travel north on Highway 38 to Yarker Road, turn left and travel a short distance to Henderson Road, turn left and travel a short distance to Florida Road, turn left and travel south about 3km to 4265.

From Napanee, travel east to Wilton Road (exit 599 from 401) and turn north onto County Road 6, travel north and turn right at Simmons Road. Follow Simmons Road through the village of Wilton, up the graveyard hill until it ends at Florida Road, turn right and follow to 4265.

Casting Complete

All the bucks have casted off their antlers as of yesterday when Allan found the 26th and last one dropped by Spike in the afternoon -- all antlers have been found.

So here's this year's order:

Gulliver, April 10
Max, April 14
Dandy, April 15
Mike, April 16
Bash, April 18
Murph, April 19
George, April 22, 23
Buddy, April 25, 26
Ty, April 25
KoKo, April 29
EGee, April 29
Moki, April 29, May 1
Spike, May 3

As male hormones drop, so do the antlers. The bucks become adolescents again, almost fawn-like. They keep close to one another and seem to get along well now that the playing field is level -- no one deer can play leader because he has antlers and the others don't.

Solo antler

Here's a great photo of what George looks like with one antler. We can only imagine how lopsided it feels!

The bucks continue to drop their antlers and so far, we have found them all except for one. And that one belongs to George, his left antler missing in the photo, too.

We have searched high and low without success for the antler that fell on April 22. This is frustrating and surprising in that the very same thing happened last year. We only found one of George's antlers.



Here's the dropping order so far:

Gulliver, April 10
Max, April 14
Dandy, April 15
Mike, April 16
Bash, April 18
Murph, April 19
George, April 22, 23

Max, in second place

Max, Apr 14

Max cast off his antlers this morning, and the set were also easy to find. We were a bit worried about difficulties retrieving the antlers at the new site, but so far so good.

In what has become a tradition, Max's antlers will be presented to Don Murphy (President & Founder of Fallow Deer Reserve) as a belated birthday present. In all the excitement, we missed Don' s birthday on April 3.

Our First Cast Off

The first to cast off his antlers, oh so 2007, was Gulliver. This was at about 10 or 11am this morning and we are happy to report that we have found both. They are wider and about 2 or 3 inches longer than last year, when Gulliver also won the antler sweepstakes and dropped those first on April 8.

However, being first is not all it's cracked up to be. Without antlers, poor Gulliver is getting bullied by the others who still have theirs, and he had decided to separate from the herd and hang out in the forest near the spring creek. We found him there this afternoon and gave him his own special carrot nosh.

If last year's order is repeated, Max will be joining him in this self-imposed exile within the next 48 hours.

Spring cleaning, antler watch

Trio

Max at the lick

Spring has finally arrived and the snow has melted enough for us to get into the enclosure and start raking up the winter's hay to make way for grass. After several hours, we looked at the mound of raked hay and found these three making themselves at home.

It's been a long wicked winter but the herd is doing well and enjoying new mineral licks which we introduced this week to help prepare the bucks for antler growth. Thanks to everyone who has donated funds to make the purchase of such licks possible. Special thanks to Annie who donated 50 pounds of carrots on the occasion of her birthday on March 22, 2008.

We are anxiously waiting for the antlers to start falling but nothing so far. All antlers are still attached! Last year, Gulliver was first losing his on April 8, 2007. We'll keep you posted.