# Do deer eat peaches?



## fatboy84 (Sep 13, 2006)

A buddy of mine is hunting next to a peach farm and asked me if deer will eat peaches, like they do with apples and pears.

I didn't know so I thought I would ask you guys.


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## PHIL M (Sep 13, 2006)

Yea they eat them, but not as much as you would think. There is usually good browse in peach orchards also. I used to hunt one that had a lot of wild clover growing in it.


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## Twenty five ought six (Sep 13, 2006)

I lived next to peach orchard for years, and hunted right next to it also.  I never saw any unusual activity.  I have both peach and apple trees of my own, and have never seen any activity of the deer eating  the peaches.

They will eat the tips of the limbs and the tops of young saplings in the spring.

The orchard owners kept it mowed and fertilized and as noted this created a lot of browse.


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## Gadget (Sep 13, 2006)

I have two leases that are active peach farms. The deer like the peach leaves better than they do the peaches themselves. They will destory young trees, the land owner trys to keep them out with electric fences when first planted.

I have seen deer eat peaches though, but only after they've become over ripe and fallen to the ground. They don't eat em too much though, definitley not high on their list.


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## Hunt&Fish (Sep 13, 2006)

Years ago our hunting club camped around an old home place and there was a peach tree in the yard. I have watched deer stand on their hind legs to get those green peaches. Now I don't recall if there was a drought that summer although it was in the 80's and we did have a bad one year in that period. Deer will go crazy over a food source when there's nothing else to eat. During that drought I would cut privet limbs and leave them where they fell on the way to my tree stand and within a few hours deer would be feeding on those limbs. They had already browsed all the privet they could reach while standing on their hind legs. I've never witnessed deer that hungry before that drought or since.


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## fatboy84 (Sep 15, 2006)

Thanks


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