I would love to hear the sound of a deer cracking the shell of a hard hickory nut. I'd bet that on a calm day you would be able to hear it from a 1/4 mile. away

My bitternut hickory trees haven't arrived yet.. maybe next week. I hope they come before it dries out.

Hickory are an interesting tree.
Lsst year I planted a few bitternut. This year might try some shagbark.

https://www.thespruce.com/all-about-hickory-trees-8303273

I have a lot of native pecan - nuts are smaller than most commercial varieties. Deer, hogs, coons, skunks, squirrels, crows - even mallards eat them when they flood. Everything loves them

I have an abundance of Bitternut Hickory here locally. Nuts disappear as fast as they drop !

Do deer like them? I planted three bitternut hickory trees last year so I'm interested.

I found a bitternut hickory tree on the property Sunday. I wonder if I can simply plant the nuts like this if I grab some from the tree



I've planted a lot of acorns in my life, but never a hickory nut.

Plant it, squirrels do it all the time, I've got pignut hickories sprouting in all the garden beds here courtesy of the local gray squirrels.

Deer definitely eat them. Decades ago when I lived in CNYS I was on a ridge behind our house sneaking along and stood about 10 yards from a doe eating them. The cracking shell sound was easy to hear.

Once again, critters being critters in different parts of the country. Some say their deer don’t eat pecans and down here everything does. Watched a doe her twins yesterday eating the early windblown green ones that have already fallen.
Deer will devour corn but walk through a pile of it to feed on acorns.
Can’t recall hickory’s or if deer eat them, but ours ain’t too picky when it comes to food. Heck there ain’t too much they don’t eat. Other than corn or peanuts at certain times of the year, the only thing I’ve seen them “run” in to feed was white oaks. I thought they were being chased by something, but it was a race to start munching down. We don’t have too many down here where I hunt, but the very few we have are magnets.

I guess different regions and the deer density makes a difference. Here, I have a long list of stuff deer are not supposed to eat, and it all gets eaten!

I've never seen a deer eat hickory nuts, pecans yes, but not the thicker shelled hickories.

Most all of our hickories are thick shelled pignuts, mockernuts and a few scattered shagbark.

Now the squirrels will camp out on them.

I don't know if there's a special process but I'll probably plant some bitternuts this fall