• Help Support TNDeer:

Commercial Chicken Houses

Lincoln Co Archer said:
I can agree to a limited extent with your post Mega regarding predation, and I certainly cannot argue from an infectious disease perspective. From the 50,000ft up POV, having seen the glory years of turkey hunting in our county I simply cannot agree with the overhunting aspect. The pressure the turkey population received was probably as much or more than anywhere else in the country, and the turkey population sustained if not grew. And then in a matter of a couple of years the population nose dived.

I do think that from 1995-2005 were the absolute peak years in turkey numbers and that there are natural cycles in population. However this doesn't "feel" right. There are many areas of the county that are void of turkeys now that carried hundreds of birds per square mile. I believe that it would be hard to prove that natural predation could have that impact.
Click to expand...
Lot of theories out there, but no straight answer why the flocks disappeared so quick in some areas. We have a whole lot yet to learn about the wild turkey. On a positive note, southern Lawrence co had a really good hatch this year. Not sure about the other southern counties but it looks promising.
 
Lincoln Co Archer said:
In Lincoln Co the turkey population decline sure looks like it coincides with the increase in chicken houses and the use of chicken litter. The turkey population is no where close to what it was 15-20 years ago.
Click to expand...
They aren't allowed to say it due to the money involved. It'sa political thing and that's that. But overlay declining populations with areas with chicken houses and tell me what you see.
 
I ordered and either spread or composted 1000's of tons each year From 2011 to 2019. Broiler house clean out was trucked from 50 to 90 miles to our site and we stockpiled there between clean outs so we had a constant supply. The site was 5 acres out of a 100 acre row crop field surrounded by 1000's of acres of pine stands and hardwood hollows. We had deer on the site every night. They damaged our tarps and covers constantly. The turkeys often bugged the native grasses surrounding the site. There are 4 farms that started a soil improvement program between 2011 and 2013 that ran thru 2019 that I am still involved with in Trigg county KY and Stewart county TN both have seen constant and sustained increases in turkey populations to the point that believe are near a healthy capacity. We have seen large improvements in habitat but a reduction in trapping of predators. I see no signs of disease from applied fresh, aged or composted litter on thes properties. I won't deny that it happens there can be great variations in barn cleanliness affecting bacteria development but I will add that massive habitat improvements and never over harvesting or taking of hens seem to be a factor. Three of my most productive setup areas during the last 10 years are all within 1/8 mile of where we stocked litter.
On a side note the only issue we found was the bedding growers used (rice hulls and cleanings) contained seeds of pig weed, amaranth, Palmer, water hemp and other hard to manage weeds. The fresh (not composted) litter would spread these. Even after being warned a lot of planters wanted the nitrogen content so they spread it anyway.
 
The population did nose dive and i don't know why but i feel confident that it had nothing to do with poultry farms. There were a large amount of these farms well before we had a strong turkey population.
 
Last edited:
I raised chickens from 1990 through 2012. We spread litter on our hay ground every year except we sold all of it the last 2 years

We didn't see any turkeys on our land until about 1999. In 2003 my wife killed the first Turkey here and we didn't hunt it anymore that year. In 2008 I killed 2 here and started hunting it some every year after that. Now I don't hunt anywhere else besides our farm and the one joining us. Now we ain't spread litter on it since 2010 but I watched them increase all those years while we were spreading. Y'all gonna have a hard time convincing me that chicken litter affects the turkeys
 

Latest posts

Back
Top