Couple questions on need zones.

Been doing my red deer grind and HM. I don’t count kills but I’m up to three stacked nines in just a few 2 hour sessions. A couple weird things i can’t figure out.

I didn’t think you could have a herd without males. I have 2 separate drink zones that say they have a herd of eight. Both of them have 8 females. I’ve checked them 10 times and it doesn’t change. How do I deal with this? Would popping a doe or two respawn with males?

I have two or three drink zones marked on the map but I have never once spotted a deer at them. I have ran through them looking for tracks and never seen any. I have checked dozens of times at all times of the drink time and never a single deer. I’m thinking about just writing them off as a glitch and moving on.

Lastly, I see videos of people setting up tents in the middle of a drink zone claiming the deer won’t spawn at all if you set up right on the zone. I have a couple spots I try to do this at because I have zones across from each other on a lake and it works best to shoot from one zone to the other. Saves on tents. But I can’t seem to get it to work. What is the trick here? Every time I travel to one of the tents there are deer literally running circles around the tent and spooking? Is there a secret to making this work?

Tia