Quick question. Just an observation so I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed the same thing. I have a pretty good size pen around a timed protein feeder. See pic below. My observation this year is that I saw many more bucks on camera while the pen was closed up. I opened up the pen about 3rd week of season and the bucks seems to quit coming. So could it be that because of the closed pen the smaller deer don't jump in to clean the feed up giving the bigger deer more to feed on? When the pen is completely closed I only see bucks and mature does on camera. The panels are 52 inches I think. Has anyone else noticed the same? Also on the same subject of feeder pens, do axis typically jump in pens this high? I don't see any at this particular feeder.

3rd week of the season was probably the rut in your area. Bucks could have just moved out of the area to rut. Older bucks also will dominate a feeder keeping the younger ones out. Does can be the same way. Did rain around the same time? Acorns? How far from water or did a water source dry up? Pen height and pen size may also be part of the issue. I know axis do not like to jump a fence and at 52" they might just go to one easier to jump in. 48'x48' pen for example with 2 feeders in it and the younger deer will not feel comfortable around older deer due to size of pen and height of it.

Correct. My observation was that the older bucks seemed to dominate the area more when the pen was closed. Or at least older bucks would frequent the feeder when the pen was closed. You are probably correct about the bucks moving out during the rut. However I really didn’t see them return after the rut. It did rain a week or so before I opened the pen up. There is a watering hole nearby and a water well on both sides of the lease. So water is not usually an issue on our lease. There were acorns on the ground most of season and it seemed every trip there was a full moon. The pen around this feeder was made using 10 16ft cattle panels so size should not be an issue. I did have axis frequent this area before I put the pen up so I am guessing you are correct that axis just don’t want to jump in due to height. At the end of season I placed another barrel feeder outside the pen hoping to draw them back to the area.

I think it was more coincidence. The bachelor groups break up and hard to pattern when they start chasing. Look for them to return this spring. It will be interesting to see if it happens again this year.

Nice feeder.