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Poult report 2022

Bone Collector said:
Unfortunately I have not seen any poults. I did see a ton of jakes this season though.
On my land I have 4-5 hens using it now, with 0 poults. I haven't been on the WMA in a little while but will start scouting soon.
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Given your area I'd bet my next paycheck there are plenty of poults around.
 
Alright I saw something in my own backyard I haven't seen before. 3 hens with at least 20+ poults among them. 2 hens were Jennies running together with at least ten poults, quail sized. The other was an adult hen with exactly ten poults, grouse sized. I couldn't count the jennies poults because it was hard to see them all in the grass. I've been trapping coons since the winter of 2020 and I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but a dang good hatch here in my backyard this year.
 
Memorial Day, I had a hen with 8-9 poults walk out into my yard. Haven't seen her or the poults since. Last week, I had a lone hen in the yard hobbling around. She had a gimpy leg. Yesterday, a lone hen with 5 poults strolled through the yard. These were little puff balls and couldn't have been the ones I saw a month earlier.
For the record, I have had as many as 55 turkeys of various sizes in my backyard at one time but that was probably 10-12 years ago.
 
I finally saw my second hen with poults. It was only 3, so I'm do more than half of what I usually see.
 
Creek bottoms said:
Saw 15 poults with 2 hens on gravel bar of the creek Saturday. About the size of banty roosters. I hope they're too big for the Cooper's hawks now.
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Had a cooper's hawk bomb and kill one of my show orpington hens a few years back. We're talking about a hen the size of a 5 gallon bucket and almost 10lbs. Same weight or a little bigger than an adult turkey hen.
 
Do hens and jennies hide their poults like does do their fawns, leave them to browse and then return to them? I saw 6 hens/jennies today in a neighbor's cow pasture (very short grass, almost like the green on a golf course so I know they weren't under foot). I'm fearing that none of the poults made it from these healthy looking hens.
 
Southern maury county. I had 2 hens with 6 or 8 poults each haven't seen them in a couple weeks. I trapped a couple fox and coons last season hoping that would help. Last two year the hens would hang around my house with their young every day or so they would show up with one or two less poults til none where left. So I'm gonna continue trapping if all possible. Oh did I mention we hear quite a few screach owls and hoot owls around here too.
 
I've gotten pics of 2 hens together with poults that happen to be at grouse size. Also have pics of the hen that I jumped off the nest early June. I put up a cam, you can see her in the brush up till 06/22. If you look at the first pic, you can see a small white spot between the V of the branch under the tree and the other hen walking by. There has been yotes, bobcats and bears walk by this hen. She had 12 eggs, I got pics early July with 5 poults. I just got a cell cam pic I believe it's her with 1 poult. Sad to see this, but we've gotten loads rain the last week & 1/2 here that i'm sure has hurt the younger poults. Also have a large group of hens with no poults. Was hopping with the dry conditions that more hens would have had more poult survival.

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Hen from the nest with a 5? poults.
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Just 1 poult now.
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Hen protecting her brood from a little buck.
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Yesterday morning, a hen w/ 6 poults about the size of a pheasant was in the backyard. I think this was a hen & poults that I saw about a month ago but haven't seen since. She had 8 or 9 back then and is now down to 6. As they were peckin' around a lone, crippled hen came out in the yard. Her right foot was balled up like a fist. As soon as she appeared, the hen with the poults bowed up like a strutin' tom and charged the cripple hen. Ran her for about 50 yards before returning to her brood. Never seen that before.
Later in the morning, another hen with 5 poults about the size of quail came out in the yard.
 
Saw two healthy looking groups over the weekend. The first group I saw while floating down the Harpeth river on Saturday. A hen and 6-8 poults. The second group I saw in the most unlikely of places, my fenced back yard in a neighborhood. There were four by themselves and they hung out for about half an hour. The fence definitely confused them but they were really quick on the ground and could fly very well. Of course they eventually found their way out. I never did see a hen with them.
 

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Just last week I saw some little ones. Surprised me as they were about the size of some 4-week-old chickens I have. The week before I saw a group and they appeared to be over half grown.
 

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