My SIL was telling me she was having deer in her yard eating the fallen hickory nuts. I wondered if she knew her trees and asked her to send me a photo of the nuts and the tree's bark. It is a Bitternut Hickory and the deer crunch them right down! Now I know exactly what it is like to only have teeth in the bottom front of my jaws, and even if I wore my uppers I wouldn't be able to crunch up and swallow a hickory nut of any type! Any of you folks ever seen deer eating up hickory nuts?

Each fall I watch domestic Canada geese eat acorns. They sort of gum them until all the hull is separated from the core of the acorn. A goose can do this in about 20 seconds, and they eat for 3-4 hours. They like the same acorns the squirrels and wild turkey prefer, and have their favorite trees. I counted 34 under an oak last week.

Hickories yes, walnuts would be a different story

Yes. Seems like hickories have nuts every year and the deer really hit them hard here

Hickories produce nuts on a 3 year rotation. It ranges hardly any, moderate and heavy. When we have hickories, every mast eating critter keys on them, even if there is a good acorn crop. My guess is they are sweeter than the bitter acorns.

I have heard can eat scaley bark hickory but not the regular ones. Shells are thinner on a scaley bark.

The oaks here seem to have a rotation period as well. A great crop occasionally but most years very poor.

deer eat acorns right next to my pecan tree. never seen one eat pecans. these are wild pecans. not those big ones grown commercially. squirrels sure like them. so do i. takes awhile to get enough picked out for a pie. worth the effort. i use big channel lock pliers. break them end to end not from the side. do it with nut in a bowl with a rag over the top. both halves are intact and lying in the bowl 95% of the time.

I was in White Sands MIssile Range in NM back in the 80s. Pecan trees were planted in many lawns yet very few folks harvested them. I picked them up and sent the meats for Christmas gifts. I see a number of pecan groves/orchards somewhere in GA, TN, KY.

The deer hit the apples, hickory nuts and then the acorns here in NY.

Those wild ones are good, especially for pies, candies, and such.

I used to trap on a pecan farm in western Ky. The trees were some kind of root stock with paper bark pecan grafted to them and they grew with limbs close to the ground, unlike natural pecan or hickory trees. The owner said the deer would climb the limbs and get up into the trees to get the nuts. I was targeting coons because they hit the pecans too, but it was hard to find bait that would interest them when they had pecans to eat.

Do deer Eat hickory nuts?
Deer rarely eat hickory nuts. Deer tend to prefer pure white oaks over all other acorns. Post Oaks are in the white oak family and tend be a bit more drought resistant that white oaks. Water oaks tend to drop over a longer period of time. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
Never seen one eat hickory around here. Too many oaks and deer are browsers. Hickory nuts are too hard to digest. Hulls are too thick. But not saying the NEVER eat one.

https://hunter.guide/do-deer-eat-hickory-nuts/

We’ve been cracking hickory nuts. If a deer can get one open I’d sure hate to get bit by one.

I have never seen it or heard of it tell today. May be a regional thing.

I live in an area that is without hickory of any specie, but for years lived in a part of Michigan that has several types, and all were quite common. Finding a Shagbark that was dropping was a great way I hunted squirrels. It would draw them in like a magnet. In all the times I sat quietly near hickorys waiting for a bushytail, not once did I ever see a deer pay the slightest attention to a hickory nut. I am an old dog that has just learned a new trick.......or at least learned something I found surprising. Thanks for all the input folks.

Thanks, I ordered some bitternut hickory's the other day for this year's planting. The Forester came to my property this year & said he thought they'd work on my property. 'Just adding a few for diversity and to try basically. My research pretty much supported what's on this thread in that dear will eat bitternut hickories.

I have tons of Shagbark and some bitternut hickories.
I know the squirrels won't mess with the bitternuts.
Something must eat them as the nuts disappear eventually.
We have so many shagbarks that even at this time of the year you can find nuts on the ground that haven't been eaten.
I have never seen a deer eat a hickory nut, don't mean they don't just I have never seen it.

I find that what a deer will eat is a very regional thing. In our last move we moved about 20 miles from our old place. At the old place the deer never touched white pines, at the new place I planted about a dozen of them and the deer gnawed them up in the first winter.

I like the wood of a bitternut better than a shagbark FWIW.

bitternuts get demolished by the deer here. looks like hogs have been around when theyre dropping.

Never noticed them eating hickory nuts in Illinois but here in farm country they ain’t starving either