new ground, suggestions and options wanted

[keith44]

Hello everyone.  I'm new here, and new to owning acreage.  My wife and I bought 12 acres last year that we hope to retire on (in 20 ish years).  We have aprox. 9 acres in woods, two main clear field areas, and a partial clearing in the woods (about center).  We have put the house on a 200' x 50' yard area that we "made".  I will have about 1 acre set aside for gardens (vegetable). 

We have some rabbit population, a few squirrels, 9 deer (does), and various song birds.  I am hoping to develop areas to hunt squirrels and rabbits with an air rifle (cause I can) and attract and "hold" quail to the property, with minimal annual input.  Anyone have any experience in these areas that could share any info, or ideas

[Matt3357]

All I can say is that I am envious.  I hope to do exactly what you are doing when I get out of school a few years and get settled into a career.  Keep us posted.  Pictures are always good! 

Matt

[bobg]

   I bought 16.5 acres a little over 20 years ago. The back 8.5 was woods the front 8 was a corn field for years and then set vacant for 2 or 3 years. When it went up for sale i grabbed it. Bought a tractor and brush hog and cleaned up the front 8 and had a house built. Saw very little game there. The trees were very large in the woods and no ground cover. Finally called in a logger and had all the big timber cut out of the woods. When the ground cover started to grow in moved the deer, squirrels and rabbits. Along with the rabbits came the fox. Couldn't keep the rabbit population up with all the fox. Shot a few fox but the rabbits never came back.   My wife didn't want me to shoot any deer there. She liked to be able to set at the kitchen table and watch them. After a couple years of that i said this was BS and started hunting deer there. We took a lot of deer out of there. In the early fall i could go out there and kill my limit of squirrels. Due to health reason i could not ride the mower to keep the 8 acres mowed down. Then my wife got sick and passed away. I sold the place and bougt a half acre in town and had a house built there.  What a mistake. Damn it doesn't look like i answered one question you ask. I get kinda long winded at times. 

[burntmuch]

Im just a year or so ahead of you. Been in our new home on 5 acres for 2 years now. Wish it was 10 or 15 acres, but 5 will have to do. My land used to be a tree farm. Lots of pine. Ive got some oaks in the back,so deer come thru. Ive shot 2 deer & a real nice tom turkey back there. Thats kinda cool. Ive built a chicken coop & pen. plus a pig pen.. I did a garden last year. My very first one. It did pretty good. I learned a lot. Last year I planted raspberry bushes & blueberry bushes. This year I ll be starting a strawberry patch & asparugus bed. I want to do a few dwarf fruit trees. Plus my garden will be twice the size as last year. My goal for my property is to supply as much food as possible for my family & learn some forgotton skills. ,growing fruits & veggies. , raising chickens & pigs,, Also learning how to store this food. This next fall I want to build a root cellar. My advise to you would be take your time, one project at a time. . Make sure you & the wife are on the same page. Its alot harder to get things done if the wife isnt on board with your ideas. If you have kids, make them help. Im 42, Im of the generation of work enough overtime so you can pay more stuff. Im trying to change that & give my kids some life experience, & knowledge base. Dont forget to enjoy your property. Nothing better than walking out back & showing my 3 year old son, the deer & turkey tracks, or picking a few raspberries.
                                                                                        Jay

[SHOOTALL]

for quail leave a border at field woods line , let go wild . For sqrl  fertlize nut trees to enhance production. Rabbits leave thick spots . For deer plant clover . Add minerals to soil also.

[keith44]

Matt, hang in there, make a plan, be flexable, and set your priorities.  It took us 12 years longer than planned, but worth the wait and all the work.

bobg- Sorry to hear that you were unable to stay there, it sounds like you made a great place.  Share your stories anytime.

Shootall- clover and rye are on the list to over seed the lesbediza (sp?) and native grasses.  How wide should the borders be?  If I raise and release birds how much habitat should be avail. for what number birds?  As for the trees, I'm thinking 10-10-10, or 12-12-12.  Also I am already making brush piles from the limbs and trees that were downed in the ice storm a couple winters ago.

[keith44]

Jay you and I are alot alike.  Chickens are coming, probably next year (I intend to free range and need good fences before I turn a food critter into an area) Blueberries are gonna need a soil ph of 5.5 (give or take) the asparagus bed is in place (new this year) and a small orchard will be part of that acre setaside for gardens.  These things I want fairly close to the house. it's the rest of the area that I will maintain wildlife habitat on.  Like you I am of the greedy pay me more generation (I'm 43) and I have chosen a different path.  My grandfather still has almost 300 acres where he runs Angus cattle (about 150 head) and hay fields.  At 90 yrs old he still works hard, and lives alone!!  I hope to do as well and have had the good fortune to be shown how to do some things by him. 

One of the first things he showed me and over the years explained and demonstrated is wildlife set asides.  There are areas on his place that are only lightly, selectively logged, but are otherwise untouched.

[bobg]

  I never fertilized the nut trees. I had more acorns than the deer and squirrels could eat. The logger dozed a horse shoe shaped trail through the woods to haul the logs out on. He left all the tree tops. I took the bucket on the tractor and put them in piles. Got the brush hog in there and cut lanes between the horse shoe. When it was logged and the sun could get in there a lot of black berries came up. The birds sure did like those. So did i. We don't have quail and i haven't seen more than a dozen pheasants in 30 years.  The guy was very selective with what he cut out of there. Took out a lot of the big oak trees.
  The woods was full of small maple trees that could not grow because of the oaks crowding them out. When the sun could get in there the maples started to grow. Planted 4 apple trees but when they started getting apples the deer took care of the apples in a hurry. 
  Not being able to keep rabbits there is what upset me the most. At the time i was raising beagles and it kept the dogs in shape running them. Great to start a pup on too.

[SHOOTALL]

Borders should be 20 + ft wide and with a few spots wider. Hawks will fly along them looking for birds and rabits so wide is better. Back when I hunted and trainned bird dogs we had some pen raised birds get out . They some how lived and reproduced. there were no wild birds near that we knew of . That was over 20 years ago the covey is about 75 birds now they stay on about 20 or less acrs. I think the big covey comes from them being in a pen with large numbers of birds and that's what their offspring learned. Honey suckle is good to have also. I mix colver and rye sometimes . I live on 10+ acres and had a good deer thing going but now use the land for cows . One thing I did do first was plant pasture starter and deer seemed to come to that.