Bedding Pockets

[Prelude8626]

For those that have created bedding pockets in the timber what have you found that works best/ doesn’t work. Size, how far about, etc. I have yet to have a timber harvest but need to create some bedding areas and am trying to avoid hinge cuts. Any advice would be great. My woods are just too open at this point.

 

[Buckly]

A common problem for many. Some questions first to get a better idea of what we’re talking about. How many acres do you have? Is it all timber or is there some fields, brush, swamps etc. Flat or hilly, mountainous?

 

[Prelude8626]

150 acres. Fairly flat with (3) 1 acres food plots and about a thirty acre Reed canary swamp. I’m in Maine, so a lot like Michigan.

 

[Buckly]

I have found that deer would prefer to bed where they usually bed now. . I find it hard to create totally new areas as they tend to keep to the familiar ones so, what I do is go in and enhance those areas that they already bed in. Make them bigger with some open areas in them so they can move around. If they are bedding in the wide open timber I feel clear cutting an area is probably best. However big you want to go just drop most everything except for the spruce and pine. I would do at least an acre then go about 100 yards and do another acre. I would think they would like the new growth slashings although it may take a few years to get where they use it. Do these where it benefits you and your hunting. In other words maybe 100 yards off the food plots. I’ve also had good success with creating a line of cut trees. Find a knoll or a higher spot. Sometimes only has to be a foot or two higher than surrounding terrain and cut and drop trees about 10- 20 yards wide and go 50- 60 yards long. They will bed behind it. If you’ve got some big old junk trees you can drop them. Bucks like to bed behind big logs I’ve found in the open woods.

 

[weekender21]

If you’re creating bedding in the middle of open woods you’ll need to consider the shade surrounding your cut to inform your minimum size. A quarter acre cut next to a field will get plenty of sun but that same size cut surrounded by mature timber will be mostly shaded and might not meet your goals.

Our place is pretty hilly, the terrain seems to influence bedding more than stem count.


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[George]

I would make sure that I had red osier dogwood in and surrounding my 30 acre reed canary swamp, red osier/spruce combo. Do you have tamaracks out in the reed canary grass?

G

 

[Prelude8626]

I would make sure that I had red osier dogwood in and surrounding my 30 acre reed canary swamp, red osier/spruce combo. Do you have tamaracks out in the reed canary grass?

G

This is something that we are currently working on.