K.K.: it is illegal to feed the whitetail, regretably. new york politicians don't want the whitetail fed because it increases their chances of survivability which increases whitetail/human interaction, usually of the vehiclular/whitetail sort and that causes accidents which raises insurance costs, etc.. politicians listened to their long island and hudson valley whiners and that prompted an opening up of doe permits which has severly reduced the number of whitetail in many counties. Now, in my neck of nys, only land owners can get doe permits.
I have found that when I feed the birds, using sunflower seed, bird seed and whole corn that I can't do anything to keep the whitetail away and they get pretty healthy eating all that bird food. Since I am using that food to feed the birds, which is legal, there is nothing I can do about the deer and turkey eating that stuff, especially at night.
Gosh, looks like lots of critters benefit from my feeding the birds. I have also found that if you take a bale of good hay, the mice and birds like the seeds and use the grass to improve their nests. Funny thing, the deer also eat that stuff.
Pesky dang deer.......................... Mikey.
