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Save the turkeys

I think most of us check it here periodically but no one else says anything so nothing gets talked about

I can assure you many that you argued with here are doing what the can for the hens and poults.

Piss on the deer.


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woodsman04":qfc9is0m said:
I think most of us check it here periodically but no one else says anything so nothing gets talked about

I can assure you many that you argued with here are doing what the can for the hens and poults.

Piss on the deer.


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argued? :roll: :roll:
 
Most haven't been in the woods enough to have a decent report since season is over. Plus, at this point, there is nothing to discuss... seasons have been set for the next 2 years. Nothing we can do about it now.

We fininshed the 1st cutting of hay, only destroyed 2 nests (well below average). I have not decided yet if that is a good thing (more hatched early, or more initiated nests in the woods instead of hayfields) or a bad thing (fewer hens and therefore fewer nests in general). Only chopped up 1 fawn, another somehow made it through the moco unscathed. So far, we've only seen one hen with a successful hatch and toting a half dozen or so poults.

We have had a new jake group of 9 shift onto one of the farms who weren't around ever in the past on camera, so that is a good thing and gives me a bit of hope for next year if they stick around.
 
megalomaniac":3pdzb9nn said:
Most haven't been in the woods enough to have a decent report since season is over. Plus, at this point, there is nothing to discuss... seasons have been set for the next 2 years. Nothing we can do about it now.

We fininshed the 1st cutting of hay, only destroyed 2 nests (well below average). I have not decided yet if that is a good thing (more hatched early, or more initiated nests in the woods instead of hayfields) or a bad thing (fewer hens and therefore fewer nests in general). Only chopped up 1 fawn, another somehow made it through the moco unscathed. So far, we've only seen one hen with a successful hatch and toting a half dozen or so poults.

We have had a new jake group of 9 shift onto one of the farms who weren't around ever in the past on camera, so that is a good thing and gives me a bit of hope for next year if they stick around.
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ive not decided if its good or not either as we only jumped two hens while mowing hay as well and 0 fawns were seen or chopped
 
I'm thinking the rain fall early may have made hens seek more suitable (dry) nesting locations
 
Two ways to look at it. Cutting up nest in hayfields that is.
Either abundance of hens running out of suitable nesting habitat, or not enough suitable habitat and they nest in the nest place the have.

Another thought I have had, is that these are first year hens and they do not know any better, but not sure on that. I've been led to believe that a hen will try to nest in the same area if she is successful previously.


Still drive 70-170 work miles daily through Lawrence, Giles, and Wayne county and other than having about 7 poults with a hen on camera in Giles county on May 13, I haven't seen a feather.
No pictures on my property, or seeing them from the road anywhere. Hens, gobblers, jakes, poults, nothing. This doesn't consist of riding up highway 43, Highway 64, I-65 either. This is old back roads.

I'm afraid it's been more of the same. I think most in these areas should have hatched at around Memorial Day, plus/mins five days.


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I've noticed a lot of wheat around me in Montgomery county. Farmers are just now getting to it, hopefully hens took nest in it and the poults survival will be higher this year...hoping.

Hay season was a bit delayed but we didn't see any nest, nor have I seen any hens.


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I got tired of posting and reading here after season, because everybody was acting like the wild turkey as a species is going extinct, and arguing about everything.

I made a post about seeing a hen with a big clutch of poults a few weeks ago, and nobody replied. Since then I've seen a bunch more hens with poults, so it looks like it was a good hatch this year in my part of middle TN.


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catman529":2mzmnsyb said:
I got tired of posting and reading here after season, because everybody was acting like the wild turkey as a species is going extinct, and arguing about everything.

I made a post about seeing a hen with a big clutch of poults a few weeks ago, and nobody replied. Since then I've seen a bunch more hens with poults, so it looks like it was a good hatch this year in my part of middle TN.


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Even with the record rainfall it seems the poults have done better than normal talking with others. Hay never was cut till last week and everybody cut then. That's 2 to 3 weeks behind normal. Only heard of 2 nests and 1 fawn being hit then but heard of a few others getting hit early May mowing cover crops. Been seeing fawns for a few weeks. One with triplets. Seen my first poults June 1. Guy I work with seen a hen with 8-10 fly across from him driving Monday.

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catman529":1pyr29mi said:
I got tired of posting and reading here after season, because everybody was acting like the wild turkey as a species is going extinct, and arguing about everything.

I made a post about seeing a hen with a big clutch of poults a few weeks ago, and nobody replied. Since then I've seen a bunch more hens with poults, so it looks like it was a good hatch this year in my part of middle TN.


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Really, there isn't much to comment about a hen with poults, unless the poults are unusually old or young for the time of the year. Turkeys reproduce or they become extinct. What's really important is not how many poults you are seeing, but rather how many hens you are seeing WITHOUT poults. Those are the important ones, the ones that either didn't initiate a nest, or lost their nest to predators, AND, that doesn't even take into account the hens that were killed themselves on nest (you never even get to see those birds, obviously). The past 2 weeks should have been the peak of hatch, numbers hatching now should be declining. Successful nesters should be bunching back up with other successful nesters for protection in numbers pretty soon as well.
 
For the first time in 5 years we have seen 4 hens with poults in tow on our farm. That's the best we have "seen" which means 6.25% of the 25 hens have live poults walking behind them. My stupid math tells me that's an average of .8 poults per hen that have hatched and alive as of last week.
Like Mega has alluded to, what about the other 20 hens without poults?

Regardless, I'm very ecstatic about the poults. I'm also cautiously optimistic for my small area but my guard is not down. Especially since I spoke with a few people who are out and about daily scouting crops or planting, both which have noted a sudden drop in numbers here in Montgomery County.


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I've not seen any hens yet with poults. Usually see a few around. Hopefully a good hatch and survival rate this year.
 
I have seen 6 or 7 hens lately and one of them had 1 poult,the rest of the hens had none!!In turkey management,hen turkeys need to average 2.6 poults per hen to have a stable population.
 
I went up to TN this past weekend to refresh salt licks and hang cameras for deer. Spent all day long Saturday in the woods or on the roads, another 4 hours Sunday. Saw 20 or so adult hens scattered all over, none had poults. Saw a bachelor group of 3 LB's and another single LB. So far, only one hen has been seen with poults by our farm manager this spring. Worst hatch we've ever had on my farms it appears.
 
Besides what I had on camera of poults in Giles county in the second week of May, no poults have been seen or photographed on trail camera.

Giles and Lawrence county mainly. Also northern Limestone and Lauderdale county Alabama.

Last spring/summer I thought was a "bumper crop" of poults in these areas. This year has been like every year since 2012, besides last summer.

I have seen one single hen and two jakes.


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I saw a bunch of turkeys last weekend working but they were all too far away and skedaddled when they saw me so couldn't tell if they had wee ones. I hung a few cams over mineral licks so maybe will have more to report soon.
 
megalomaniac":2pj8xgal said:
Saw 20 or so adult hens scattered all over, none had poults. So far, only one hen has been seen with poults by our farm manager this spring. Worst hatch we've ever had on my farms it appears.
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I hate to hear this mega, not much hope for the future in that field report.
 
Boll Weevil":ht7drrl0 said:
I saw a bunch of turkeys last weekend working but they were all too far away and skedaddled when they saw me so couldn't tell if they had wee ones. I hung a few cams over mineral licks so maybe will have more to report soon.
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In my experience, hens with small poults usually don't blow out of there. They hang close so they don't get separated if the poults flush from a predator.


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