Poults!

JAY B

JAY B

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Seen about 10-12 this morning while leaving my spot, momma hen bout took me out when I was trying to snap a pic of a little one running down a firebreak!
 
Seems early...which supports the idea that there's a lot of breeding going on much earlier than most of us figure.
 
Poults today would mean breeding in early March... Hen sits for 28 days so if you count backwards....very hard for me to believe... Early hatch around here would be 3rd week of May but usually don't see them until after first of June..
But anything is possible...
 
Roost 1":1f29swhj said:
Poults today would mean breeding in early March... Hen sits for 28 days so if you count backwards....very hard for me to believe... Early hatch around here would be 3rd week of May but usually don't see them until after first of June..
But anything is possible...
Click to expand...

Now I'm confused because early March would be over 60 days ago. What am I missing?
 
I don't doubt it, I've seen poults either the last week of season or the week after it closed the last 2 years. I seen poults the week after season last year that were the size of wood ducks so they had been around awhile.
 
Early but doesn't surprise me.
I have about forgot what the look like. Maybe I will see some this year.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Tapatalk
 
Drove back on the farm behind my house this morning to take a young man to try and kill his first turkey. Had one begging to die but he was across the Grand Canyon. A bout of Diarrhea hit the young hunter about 6:30 so I took him home. About 6:45 driving out I saw a hen on nest 15 yards off the haul road. The nest wasn't hid very good. Hopefully there will be some poults come from it.


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker
 
Vermin93":ggft673h said:
Roost 1":ggft673h said:
Poults today would mean breeding in early March... Hen sits for 28 days so if you count backwards....very hard for me to believe... Early hatch around here would be 3rd week of May but usually don't see them until after first of June..
But anything is possible...
Click to expand...

Now I'm confused because early March would be over 60 days ago. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
Take into account it takes a hen about 3 weeks to lay her clutch.... So 21 days to lay the clutch plus 28 days of setting equals 49 days where I come from...I didn't say march 1, I said early march..... What else would you like to knit-pick??
 
Roost 1":3u2fvcth said:
Vermin93":3u2fvcth said:
Roost 1":3u2fvcth said:
Poults today would mean breeding in early March... Hen sits for 28 days so if you count backwards....very hard for me to believe... Early hatch around here would be 3rd week of May but usually don't see them until after first of June..
But anything is possible...
Click to expand...

Now I'm confused because early March would be over 60 days ago. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
Take into account it takes a hen about 3 weeks to lay her clutch.... So 21 days to lay the clutch plus 28 days of setting equals 49 days where I come from...I didn't say march 1, I said early march..... What else would you like to knit-pick??
Click to expand...

I was asking a serious question as I recently read it takes about 2 weeks to lay a clutch and then 28 days of nesting. That is 6 weeks, which would be late March, which is why I was wondering if I was missing something.

Now that I think about it, 7 weeks would be mid-March, so consider yourself knit-picked. Doh! :o
 
I think poults now would be exception , not the rule. Considering we had over 20" of snow here around March 10th, I very seriously doubt any breeding was going on then. Southern TN might be completely different.
 
Setterman":en9i39q5 said:
It doesn't surprise me.
Click to expand...
x2. There are more hens bred every year the first half of March than many people want to be believe. I saw numerous lone hens in "odd places" the firast week of season this year. This suggests they were bred mid March and they were already in the "nesting mode" seeking an oddball place away from everything to nest and raise their poults. This was in Hickman county.
 
Andy S.":1hv7rik1 said:
Setterman":1hv7rik1 said:
It doesn't surprise me.
Click to expand...
x2. There are more hens bred every year the first half of March than many people want to be believe. I saw numerous lone hens in "odd places" the firast week of season this year. This suggests they were bred mid March and they were already in the "nesting mode" seeking an oddball place away from everything to nest and raise their poults. This was in Hickman county.
Click to expand...


Yep I see it every year
 
I wish we had an actual turkey biologist on here to give his opinion.... Nesting in March?? I would think the ground temps would still be too cold for eggs to be successful....just my thoughts... I remember Setterman saying he had snow the first week of the season this year...
 
I don't know anything about your area roost, as I'm speaking of Lawrence, wayne, lewis, and Murray when I talk.

We sure didn't have any snow. I've seen lone hens since the week before season opened in odd places.

I would think ground temps would have to be below 40° but more like below freezing before you see a negative impact on eggs.

I've kept chicken eggs in the fridge at around 40° while I was waiting on the incubator to clear out and had good hatch rates like 99% on game chickens.
 

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