food plots

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FARMTOFIELD

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Ok I'm going to build two food plots about 200-300 yards long and about 75-100 yards wide going to leave a buffer zone of about 10 yards on each side. What trees would be great to plant for nesting ground habitat for turkey? I'm thinking blue spruce would be good to line them with, providing good ground cover and rain protection. Any habitat advice appreciated
 
If you can get some Gobbler Saw tooth to plant they are great. They will be loaded with acorns after only 5 to 7 years, and deer and turkey love them.
 
Rockhound, I would disk up the borders and let them go wild- blackberries, broomsedge, beggarslice, ragweed, etc. These are prime brood rearing cover. Disk 1/4 to a half each year. Deer will eat the buffer as much as the food plot, and you won't give up "sightability" during deer season like you will with tree planting. If you decide you want them thicker, don't disk, and the trees will creep in.

OR

Plant a strip of clover around the wild stuff and 2-3 strips across it. burn the patches between the clover strips in the spring for turkey hunting, and it will grow back just in time for them to raise their broods in it. Deer love these fields as well.

If you are wanting to provide nesting sites, you could cut down scattered (10-20 per acre) low-value hardwoods throughout the woods. Turkeys love to nest against structure, especially logging slash, and if you distribute them throughout the property, the coons and skunks have to work much harder to destroy those nests.
If the only nesting cover you provide is right next to your food plot, your turkeys have one-stop shopping, but so do the nest predators.
 
Well the place has been clear cut and I mean clear. Its bare dirt pretty much and I'm starting from scratch.

The hollows will be let grow back up unless I decide to plant pines but the field edges I'm looking for are more along the lines of protection and nesting. We dont have but a few birds and I wanna make it easier on them
 
I've always believed that nesting habitat need not be in long narrow strips. It makes it easier on nest getters to run up and down the edges of food plots looking/smelling for nest. I like nesting places in square shapes, no bigger or smaller than an acre. If it is too big, it will be hard for the new poults to get to the bugging areas. Too small, it gives predators an easier place to find the nest.

Mick Thompson sounds like he knows what he is talking about. I have noticed that hens like to nest in areas with downed trees and stumps. They like to put their nest right beside a log, or in a downed tree top. Anything that makes it harder for the nest predators to get to.

Nesting habitat is crucial for turkey populations.
 
5 years ago I did not have a single bird on one of my properties where they were abundant at one time. 3 years ago I started a predator management program with a guy coming and trapping coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and other fur bearing varmints as well. After 1 year, I saw turkeys using my place again and now I feel confident enough in the numbers to hopefully kill a couple off of the property this season. You're doing the right thing by making your property more suitable to the birds, but you might want to check on predator pressure as well.
 
I recently posted in another thread about the amount of varmints I've wicked this past year.
 

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