Fill it up and scatter a little corn around it. I’d be willing to bet if you put it in a place they’ve already been fed they’ll start hitting it within days. Especially young bucks. They are about the most stupidest animal in the woods.
Took my deer a month or more to use one. It has been sitting in the woods so long now the deer don't pay it any attention unless it has corn in it. You would think they are so smart to elude us hunters that they would have to wonder how it goes long period of no corn to magically having corn.
I replaced a spreader feeder, which they used frequently with a trough before the season started and I can’t get them to use it for nothing. Despite all the for mentioned add ons including peanut butter and peanuts themselves, the deer will not come around it. Think I’m going to quit feeding at my other feeders till they get hungry enough to use it.