An odd tale from KY

[shaman]

I'm just back from Opening Week in KY.  I've got lots to tell, but one thing really impressed me about this season so far.  That is the preponderance of strident, frustrated, and exceedingly vocal lone hens.  We had 3 days of nominal activity on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Beginning Monday, late morning, the weather turned really bad and the turkeys mostly pulled the lid over themselves and went into hiding.   It was about 12F colder than normal, it rained, and when it wasn't raining it was exceedingly windy-- we're talking small car warning type windy. 

That sort of thing is normal for 1st week of Spring Gobbler here in the Trans-Bluegrass.  What was odd though was that as temps and winds moderated, what I found was a large number of very frustrated hens coming around looking for a gobbler.  I'd hear them out in the woods being very plaintive.  When I would gobble, they would come running. I wish I'd been able to capture some it with my recording gear, but the wind was just too darn strong. These girls were really giving a class.  Normally, when you hear a hen like that, you also hear gobbling.  The gobblers were almost non-existent, and when they were around, they would toss off a few obligatory gobbles and walk the other way. This was an odd set of circumstances to be sure.  One other thing that got me thinking something might be up was during one of the pour-downs, there were 15 hens out in the pasture with zero gobblers in attendance. 

What's up with the gobs? Have they all gone gay on me?

[shaman]

50 reads, and nobody else thinks seeing hot horny hens running around begging to be bred is a bit odd for this time of year? 

[kjnengr]

Turkeys being turkeys..... That seems to be my response to every odd thing that turkeys do. 

[Mabren2]

Shaman, I'll admit that I feel a little guilty because I read this and my first thought was, "good, at least someone else feels my pain!" Haha. You pretty much described my first week step by step. Normally there are somewhere between 5-10 birds gobbling first thing every morning on the property I hunt. This year, a couple mornings went by without a single gobble from the roost. I've seen more hens than ever, and not one had a gobbler with her. I wish I had some insight for you, but I'm as stumped as you are. I sure hope things get better for you, and if they do I'd be interested to hear it. I'm hunting henry county, about 35 miles northeast of Louisville. Good luck!

[Spitten and drummen]

sounds like you may be in a " Bruce Jenner" gobblers territory.  all kidding aside , so far this season has been strange all over the country for the most part. keep after them and good luck.

[shaman]

OK. Thanks all.  I was hoping to hear somebody say "Ah, Shaman! You just haven't been hunting long enough! Why we have this happen all the time!"

This year has been odd to say the least.  The other really odd thing I witnessed came Opening Morning. About 0900 I started hearing this roaring sound.  At first I figured it was a piece of farm equipment starting up, but it kept repeating and it sounded like it was getting closer.  I couldn't tell if it was a machine or an animal.  If it was an animal it sounded like. . . well, I've heard alligators roar, but this was NE Kentucky!  It started coming closer, and eventually resolved into something like a turkey gobble.  I had this vision of a 10-foot gobbler.  With some trepidation, I moved around the tree trunk and started looking out into the pasture that had been behind me.  Eventually, I saw a couple turkeys coming my way, but still no big gobbler.  All told, 7 turkeys showed up,and when they all got in sight, I clucked and all 7 went off at once and produced the roaring sound.  It wasn't 1 10 foot bird, but 7  jakes making the noise!

[hotspur]

Shaman I'm curious,are the hens mostly yelping,or cutting? Here in Louisiana I have called up hens almost every  day,never called up this many hens in a season. Not one had a gobbler with her. In years past if I called up a hen there was a good chance she had a gobbler following

[WV TURKEY THUG]

the hens were very vocal today were i hunted hope it aint like this to much longer. probably going to be some late hatches

[shaman]

Shaman I'm curious,are the hens mostly yelping,or cutting? Here in Louisiana I have called up hens almost every  day,never called up this many hens in a season. Not one had a gobbler with her. In years past if I called up a hen there was a good chance she had a gobbler following

The gobbler I shot back on 4/20 was trailing a hen that was coming to my call.  However, in every case since then it was lone hens looking for nooky and not finding any.  In all cases they were yelping and cutting, double clutching, and generally fussing something terrible. 

[redmag]

     Same thing here in VA and WV where I hunt.  Gobblers may gobble 2-4 times on the roost and that is it.  However, this morning one gobble at least 60 times starting at 5:30 and quit at about 6:10.  He got on the ground, I called lightly and he meandered off the other way and maybe gobbled another 3 times.  I have see many hens also and this morning one came to me within 20 yds.  She was clucking and even yelped a couple of times.  Tomorrow I am going back in there and see what I can do, had to leave by 8:00 this morning for a 9:50 Dr's appointment.

[g8rvet]

I hunt a 400 acre piece that has produced 1-3 birds every year for the last 10.  I heard exactly one gobble, one time, all year there.  .  Just an odd year.  Last week of the season, cagey old Tom flying down, gobbling for an hour, would not move 50 yards closer to any of us (3 different times, 3 members of my family) for a shot.  But the hens would come on a dead run.  Odd year.

Mostly, I blame Obama

[Ihuntoldschool]

Sounds like the hen to gobbler ratio is unbalanced to me.

[hotspur]

Yea I know what the problem is , too many hens!

[BowBendr]

Shaman -
I too, hunted KY last week. I found the hunting to be unusual for sure. Opening morning found me set up tight on a roosted gobbler that just tore the woods down at daybreak. Hens came in after flydown and led him away. Then about an hour later, I started seeing solo hens everywhere. Then an hour later I got on 2 mature toms that were within 100 yds of several of the hens and they gobbled like they'd never see another hen. But all the birds acted like they didn't want one thing to do with each other. An hour later I killed a whopper that came on a string from 200 yds gobbling like a mad man, only to bolt at the sight of a jake decoy. Killed him as he walked the woods edge, around the deke, he was scared of that jake although he weighed 24# and sported big hooked needles.....
The next 2-3 days during the bad weather, I saw solo hens everywhere and heard very minimal gobbling. Day 4 was nice and got on another 2 gobblers and killed one of them after he made a 200 yd death march, gobbling like he'd never seen a hen...all the while, solo hens were all over the same field those 2 toms were in. Odd indeed.
In the few days it has been since I left KY, they say it's like a light switch has been flipped. Gobblers going off like crazy in places we didn't hear them a week ago. Got video from today of a tom breeding a hen 200 yds from camp.
The one thing I do know is that there were entirely too many hens around, need to thin out a few this fall. My buddy Turkeyfoot calls that place "Hentucky".


Sent by this stupid phone

[Spitten and drummen]

wow , I love years where there is too many hens. means its probably going to have a good huntable population in the future unless something major happens. I would definitely rather have an abundance of hens versus lack of. but yes , its been strange all over the country this year.