primos32
Well-Known Member
Any of you guys do any habitat work for turkeys?
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Help Support TNDeer:
Turkey Habitat Management
- Thread starter primos32
- Start date
I have done some, what are you trying to figure out.
PickettSFHunter
Well-Known Member
I try my best to balance to balance between deer and turkey. Sometimes they can become negative to one or the other.
I frost seed clover in all our food plots sometime in february.
MDvols
Well-Known Member
muddyboots said:
You work the seed in the ground or just broadcast. i've got foodplots i was thinking about broadcasting Chuffa after winter but i didn't know if it would come up without breaking the ground?
I have the stuff to do it right but was wondering if i could get by with being lazy.
prob not with chuffa, you may get some to come in but you really need good soil contact with it. Clover is perfect for turkey while Chuffa is better it is a bit harder to grow..plus clover is more of an all around food source.
Chuffa will grow in a variety of soils but it tends to do best in sandy soils.
Chuffa will grow in a variety of soils but it tends to do best in sandy soils.
The clover i just spread it over frost covered ground that was fall deer plots. Works very well.
You can do the same in the spring. Just be sure it's out before the last frost
Onelow69c10
Well-Known Member
This may be a dumb question but why plant before the last frost?
primos32
Well-Known Member
Frost seeding is beneficial because of the process known as "frost heaving". This is when the expansion of the frozen water creates cracks in the soil's surface. The seed then falls into these cracks and when the ground thaws the seed is now covered somewhat. This creates good seed/soil contact for plant growth.
as well as insuring moisture to the seeds for good germination.
REN said:
Spring is when i was talking about doing it. Usually sometime in february.
String Music
Well-Known Member
Outside of planting food plots (mostly clover), I try to improve the nesting habitat every year. Hinge-cutting, clear-cutting, and crushing brush with a dozer is a great way to increase nesting habitat- especially bording or near food plots.
Another type of improvement is putting in logging roads. Turkeys (and every other wildlife) love walking and strutting on these roads.
Last year I had a huge oak flat about 100 yards from one of our large clover fields. Although it was covered with acorns, I never heard or observed any turkey using the flat. After studying an aerial map I finally figured out why: the flat was surrounded by thick cover that the turkeys didn't want to walk through. After discovering this, I had our dozer operator cut a 20-foot path from the food plot to the oak flat. Within days a gobbler began roosting on the flat!
Another type of improvement is putting in logging roads. Turkeys (and every other wildlife) love walking and strutting on these roads.
Last year I had a huge oak flat about 100 yards from one of our large clover fields. Although it was covered with acorns, I never heard or observed any turkey using the flat. After studying an aerial map I finally figured out why: the flat was surrounded by thick cover that the turkeys didn't want to walk through. After discovering this, I had our dozer operator cut a 20-foot path from the food plot to the oak flat. Within days a gobbler began roosting on the flat!
jbow
Well-Known Member
Another way to increase the number of eggs that make it through the spring is to decrease the number of Coons, Possums, Fox, Bobcat, and Coyotes on your property.
jbow said:
which is hard to do then you think. There was a study done by Dr. Lovett where they poisoned predators from a 2000 acre track in FL and the predator rate was not really influenced. There was also a study done recently about shooting coyotes and by only removing a small amount of them during a year the outcome actually had a reverse affect and the coyote population actually increased by a small margin. I was always taught in my biology classes that if you are trying to remove predators from a given area you must do it in large quantity, as removing only a few by hunting can do the opposite. If you really want to help in egg survival then you need to work on Possums, coons and skunks first and foremost.
"We had an experiment in Florida on 2,000 acres by poisoning predators 10-80 and it did no good. The predation rate was not reduced. Trapping will do no good."
