Poults Not Seen!

TheLBLman said:

This pic came in on one of my security cams yesterday.
Appears to be at least 7 chicks.

How old you think these chicks?

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I had 2 hens here at my house in Lincoln county yesterday. Had 6 or 8 poults that I could see about these same size. No idea how old. First poults I have seen here in about 8 years. I have a 10 acre ag field that I was leasing to a farmer. Stopped that last year and let the field go fallow. Nicely grown up now with perfect nesting cover and a ton of food. Hopefully these will become a resident bunch. Lord knows we need it. This part of Lincoln has nowhere near the turkeys it had when I moved here 10 years ago. Also killing all the Yotes and coons that I can will help.

Back yard feeder this morning. Looks like she lost one poult. last time I saw her she had five.

Seen Hen with 3 poults weeks ago crossing rd….. Yesterday seen 2 hens with 6/7 poults all very healthy. Nest predator control definitely helping!

Finally seen the hen I saw where I could see her poults
She has 5
Also have another 1 w poults smaller than quail (5 of them as well)
Not seeing any other than those

I have a hen hanging out in the back yard. Same observation, no poults

Good sign from today.

TNTreeman said:

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Good sign from today.

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Excellent!!

Ran 7-8 off a small clover plot this morning, didn't see a hen...They were about 1 foot tall.

Dang, those hatched early May... almost out of the danger zone!

Seen some Saturday that couldn't been week old, couldn't fly yet

Poult count seems very low here in KY. I rode around the other morning and saw 15 hens total, did. It see a poult until I found the flock of 8 hens with 10 poults. Those were prolly at least 4 weeks old maybe a little older.

I saw 14 hens yesterday in a cut hayfield in Dekalb Co. There were no poults I could see…

we raised meat birds this past few months (Dickson) via a chicken tractor in the yard. we have seen 6-8 poults recently coming in morning noon and night to the yard. I will also add that we've worked hard at predator control in the past few years. Got rid of many of the foxes and a couple coyotes during trapping season that were taking 1/2 our flock of laying hens each year.

I'm in Cocke County and I have seen multiple hens on my way to work and I have seen no poults. It's a little bit concerning.

OakHillHunter said:

I'm in Cocke County and I have seen multiple hens on my way to work and I have seen no poults. It's a little bit concerning.

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this was our case last year. I didnt see a single poult all summer in 2023. back in 2020, i have a photo where our chickens were free ranging with over 30 mature Turkeys in the field. things have genuinely changed and i'm not sure what it could be...

Predators? Re-Gentrification / farms selling to developers. Weather changes. Disease?

She was back last night with 4 healthy poults, a Jake and a couple hens. Poults looking healthy and like mini turkeys now. They are flying now as well.

I've seen poults three different times now, a pair of hens with at least a dozen poults and a single with 7. Very rarely have I seen that many poults per hen. It is however only two sightings. I usually don't start seeing poults regularly until August so we will see how the rest of summer goes, but it's a good start.

Just had a new set of hens with 12-15 poults with them. Looked like one set was definitely bigger than the other. Cool to see this morning.

On a good note, I've seen a pair of hens with 3 little ones that have raised them up to banty rooster size, they've done good, and we've got a hen with 8 that are banty hen size, flying real good and are seen most days. Maybe they'll all make it

I my aunt just sent this to me from our family farm in NW Dickson County.
Ever since that hard freeze we had a couple years ago and I found dead armadillos, we are back to having poults in the summer and Jake sightings in the spring. Coincidence or not, I'm loving what I'm seeing.