Salt Licks

I made a few salt licks around the end of March and the deer have finally started to use them a little bit. It is starting to get hotter here  every day so they should really be tearing them up within the next few weeks. I am not sure why but I have always seemed to have deer hit my salt licks more about a year after I have established them. Not saying that I know what I am talking about at all, but my theory is that the does have their fawns, and after using the licks they become natural to the fawns and they will continue using and bringing their offspring to them as well. Just my theory anyway.

 I have heard of so many different ways to make salt licks or mineral licks that I cannot count them all. The way that works best for me is to just buy those cheap 50lb white salt blocks, dig a hole deep enough to bury the block but leave  the top sticking out about an inch above the ground. Then I fill in the hole around the block with the loose bag salt,  and  cover the top of the block with loose dirt and more bag salt mixed together with a rake. Then I pray for rain.

I mix the bag salt in with the dirt and cover the top so that the deer will start using them sooner. I learned that one year when I put out a couple of blocks and just buried them up to the top and nothing ever touched them. I figured that the deer where I was must not like salt. The next spring rolled around after the block had dissolved into the ground and had been forgotten about, and  I noticed deer were tearing the ground up where the blocks had been the year before trying to get the salt. So if the deer start hitting them pretty heavy and it’s not raining enough to melt the block into the ground some, I will just keep recharging the licks with bag salt until they stop using them for the year. 

I put four licks on our new property this year. The deer have already started using all four. I put one by each feeder and one by each of our ponds. I know that some people will say to use the brown blocks because they have more mineral than salt, and have more of what the deer need. I myself have used the brown blocks and white blocks side by side and never had anything touch the brown blocks, even after they melt into the ground. I do not put out licks to grow monster bucks anyhow, I just want to hold deer on and around my property. I try to do so by keeping as much stuff out that appeals to their cravings. The pic below is one of my licks I made at the first of April, it was completely covered with dirt and salt when I made it and now the deer have dug all around it.