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yesterdays First! (poult)...How old?

cruff10

cruff10

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Yesterday in Morgan County walking along a 4 wheeler path I found this one dead. No I Did not kill it or anything. Don't know what was wrong with. No markings of any kind.

I don't know how old? Maybe a week or two? Someone may like to add to this.

So let me get this straight. If this turkey was atleast a week old, and it takes 4 weeks (28 days) for a egg to hatch, and this hen will lay one egg a day up to 14 days. That means she was done breeding and laying on eggs after the 1st week of season.


In different spot we caught up with a hen that would not leave the area, never thought about her having little ones with her. No wonder I have had the worst season ever. The hens already were on the nest and done at week 1-2 and the gobblers quit being agressive around week 3-4.

Now to all the people that say the weather don't have anything to do with breeding patterns. This is simply amazing.

2012-05-12_15-40-04_213.jpg


2012-05-12_15-37-29_993.jpg
 
Fresh out of the egg is the age of that one.


I hunt the same area you do and the birds were still henned up this morning. I won't argue it has been an odd year, strangest I have ever seen.

But the birds where we both hunt have been responsive all season, just difficult at times due to the hens accompanying them.

4 wheelers were a huge issue this year, and it would quieten them down for hours where it used to last 30 minutes. If we could get atv's outlawed than our hunting would vastly improve. The birds are there but the incessant ridge running and calling is absurd. I feel sorry for folks who hunt like this, it surely has to be frustrating.

Over now for another, time to look to next year.
 
Don't start on the ATV thing again. As I still think you are full.of it. And this was not the area you are thinking. And thanks for reminding me why I don't post in the turkey forum.
 
I was walking on the wma yesterday.... found 3-4 eaten eggs within about 50yards of finding the first to last.... sad... need to take out some turkey predators.
 
cruff10 said:
Don't start on the ATV thing again. As I still think you are full.of it. And this was not the area you are thinking. And thanks for reminding me why I don't post in the turkey forum.
Click to expand...

It was not a personal assault on you, I am just referencing what I experienced this season, and for several years now.

If I'm full of it why did you have a bad season, when most in this area did just fine who don't ride ridge lines all day?

Look at the county kill totals, if everyone had your issues our kill numbers would be way down. Riddle me that one at least.

Maybe rather than getting defensive you could listen, and help yourself. If I had any sense I wouldn't say a word, and just continue to let you negatively affect your hunting.
 
It has been my experience 4-wheelers and turkey hunting dont mix, however I do believe the early warm up affected the breeding. Where I was hunting the first week of TN season they were gobbling all day and losing hens quick. When KY season came in on April 14th most of the gobblers were lonesome and by the 20th they were done and most male birds were grouping back up.
 
The warm up had little to do with the breeding, ...and as for your dead poult ...IT IS TIME FOR THEM......Not the first of March....Poults should be running eveywhere in a week or so.
Setterman ...Like him or not ..knows what he is talking about
People out educating the turkey ,Kills me.
As soon as they hear the 4 wheeler..they know what is up.
Oh yea that poult was a few hours OLD.
 
Good time Charlie said:
The warm up had little to do with the breeding, ...
Click to expand...


I have to respectfully disagree....

They were gobbling like peak time 3 weeks before youth hunt.... slowed down the week after youth hunt.... almost no gobbling by opening weekend.... then a couple of weeks into season..... lucky to even hear a gobble from daylight to dark.
 
I think the weather must have affected each flock or area of birds differently. Gobbling was good in maury throughout the season.
 
Good time Charlie said:
The warm up had little to do with the breeding
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree with this and although I dont have the formal educational background to back it up,I do have several years of hunting experience to go on. Warm weather early makes for earlier breeding cycle which in turn makes hunting better earlier in season. Downside to this is that hunting is worse later. I think most anyone that spent considerable time in the woods this year would have to agree........
 
the warm up had something to do with it i think everyone can agree with that, however to what extent is debatable. IMO it did not have the full extent some do but thats just my opinion with a background it in and years of hunting experience...HOWEVER I think each area will have different levels of effects.

I was in the wood everyday starting 1 week prior to juvi all the way till the 3rd week of season and i mean every day. From a gobbling stand point i didnt see much of a difference however i did see range shift much earlier then normal in the areas i hunt. This reason may be why some saw a gobbling change, where the actual gobbling was good but the birds were in areas they normally were not in till later in the season.

as a whole i dont think it brought on breeding early (again as a whole) but without a doubt the early green up had an effect on birds range and movement.


having said all that, its just my opinion based on the knowledge i have learned from personal field work over the past 15 years BUT everyone has an opinion and mother nature always has a trick up her sleeve that will prove all knowledge wrong on any given day.
 
If the unusually warm weather (85 degress in March) did not affect breeding then how can we explain poults being hatched 3rd week of April as some have witnessed??? I know the "experts" say the length of day triggers the breeding cycle which may be mostly true but I firmly believe warm temps play a part also. Maybe the change in foliage has something to do it, I dont know.
 
Roost 1 said:
If the unusually warm weather (85 degress in March) did not affect breeding then how can we explain poults being hatched 3rd week of April as some have witnessed??? I know the "experts" say the length of day triggers the breeding cycle which may be mostly true but I firmly believe warm temps play a part also. Maybe the change in foliage has something to do it, I dont know.
Click to expand...

Of course I am referring the the areas I hunt which may be different than others.Temps changes in Mid-Tn are prolly always a little ahead of us here in KY.
 
Roost 1 said:
Roost 1 said:
If the unusually warm weather (85 degress in March) did not affect breeding then how can we explain poults being hatched 3rd week of April as some have witnessed??? I know the "experts" say the length of day triggers the breeding cycle which may be mostly true but I firmly believe warm temps play a part also. Maybe the change in foliage has something to do it, I dont know.
Click to expand...

Of course I am referring the the areas I hunt which may be different than others.Temps changes in Mid-Tn are prolly always a little ahead of us here in KY.
Click to expand...

Something was definitely screwy this year. I saw poults the earliest I have ever seen poults, and having spent the bulk of my time in Southern Miss that is is saying something.

I am wondering if the early green up played the larger role, but that somewhat doesn't make sense. The clutches I saw were large, which means that hens didn't jump the gun and start setting early because the woods greened up. Something else triggered it.

I do know a ton of well known turkey folks are seriously reconsidering their opinions, but one year which was freakish will be hard to make an across the board opinion change.

All I do know, is that I heard as much gobbling as I have ever heard, but the birds were strange this year.
 
Was helping a land owner out Friday in Cumberland county with some hogs and came across two seperate hens with poults. Each had probably 8 to 10 a piece. First group were grouse sized and flew off together, second bunch were right at two weeks old and momma lead them off(dogs never messed with them). Sorry, I'm a bit old fashion and don't carry a cell phone with me every where I go, so there are no pics. Heard 3 different turkeys gobbling from daylight till about 9:30. Was driving me crazy and told the landowner I wasn't coming back until they stopped. :D Landowner showed me where hogs had gotten two other nests.
 

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