Me and boy went out 0-dark:30 this morning calling coyotes. No shot opportunities there.
But on the short walk back to the road, through calf-high grass, we flushed a wet hen out at about 5 feet. There was a distinct bed where she'd spent the night. My first instinct was "Nest ???". But, there in the grass..........under the grass and trip briars........were somewhere between 8 and 10 peeps !! Like, 1-2 week old peeps !! Yellow and still kinda fuzzy with brown spots. A few feathers starting. About 1/2 to 2/3 the size of a bobwhite...... 2 or maybe 3 times the size of a turkey egg.
Never, EVER have I seen a brood even CLOSE to that small this late. We've already had overnight temps in the mid 40's......... They got a whole lotta growing to do real quick.
That's crazy! Fingers crossed they make it.
Personally, the latest I've ever encountered late hatched poults was Labor Day weekend several years ago. I was walking along and flushed them in a field...they could only flutter several yards so may have been about a week old or so.
Yeah..........these ones weren't flying yet. They've got a lot of growing to do and not much time left to do it.
Around here we have two more months before the average first frost. They would make it here I bet. Hope they make it there too.
crazy! wonder how many times shes renested?
Never heard of broods this late either. What state you in Yoder? This hen had to have been bred around the 4th of July to have poults this small in September. I'm with the rest, I hope they ALL make it.
Turkeys are amazing and resilient...pulling for every poult to finish the race to adulthood as we need the recruitment!
Mother Nature has no set in stone rules . I to have seen a couple of very late hatches in my region also this year . One with only one poult and another with only 2 .
Quote from: bbcoach on September 07, 2021, 11:53:20 AM
What state you in Yoder?
I'm in west-central PA. We're, potentially, 2-3 weeks away from our first frost here. I've made snowballs in September before, so.........
Right now, the weather forecast is calling for mild temps for the next 2 weeks. And it COULD stay mild for quite a good bit longer than that. But it CAN go to crap in the blink of an eye, here.
Quote from: Yoder409 on September 07, 2021, 09:25:18 PM
Quote from: bbcoach on September 07, 2021, 11:53:20 AM
What state you in Yoder?
I'm in west-central PA. We're, potentially, 2-3 weeks away from our first frost here. I've made snowballs in September before, so.........
Right now, the weather forecast is calling for mild temps for the next 2 weeks. And it COULD stay mild for quite a good bit longer than that. But it CAN go to crap in the blink of an eye, here.
With these fellas so small and you living in PA, with frost right around the corner, it will be hard to find protein (insects) if you have an early fall. Growth and feathering is utmost on my mind before you get cold temps and possible early frost and snows. Tough road ahead. I pray for late frost and snow.
This is a pretty neat thread. I am fascinated by wild turkeys and especially turkey poults. I enjoy watching them and studying them as they grow. My opinion is that they'll be just fine. Turkeys are very resilient. They battle a lot to get to adulthood and then everyday after that. I feel like these poults have a pretty good chance because of the amount of bugs that are active right now. Grasshoppers are abundant this time of year. For poults that are hatched earlier in the summer they don't have as many grasshoppers to scoop up. If you walk through a field right now there are hundreds and thousands of grasshoppers available.
If they can scrounge up a lot of protein in the next month or two they'll be good to go!
Can you monitor them? It would be a neat story to follow if you're able to keep us updated on that little flock. Thanks for sharing!
Based on what I've seen raising chickens and turkeys, they have a good chance of survival from the elements. A 1 month old bird is fairly well feathered, and by 2 months they should be about as warm as they are going to get. We always put them in the coup after about a month. They do fine after that. We did run heat lamps in the winter, but there were plenty of cold days in the fall with nothing.
I don't know what kinds of bugs turkeys will eat. There's no shortage of bugs here. Early summer was barren, but after a few good rains, they came back full force.
I'm thinking predators will be their biggest concern. As the tall grasses die off, they won't be able to hide. I don't know exactly when a turkey can fly, but I'm guessing it's somewhere around 1 1/2 to 2 months old when they get the bulk of their outer feathers. That's going to be into mid or late October, and the grass will be dying down before then.
Have seen poults here as late as July 28th and still had egg tooth. Have also seen poults without pin feathers as late as late August. As others have said already, tough for them to make it.
Quote from: bbcoach on September 08, 2021, 06:41:07 AM
Quote from: Yoder409 on September 07, 2021, 09:25:18 PM
Quote from: bbcoach on September 07, 2021, 11:53:20 AM
What state you in Yoder?
I'm in west-central PA. We're, potentially, 2-3 weeks away from our first frost here. I've made snowballs in September before, so.........
Right now, the weather forecast is calling for mild temps for the next 2 weeks. And it COULD stay mild for quite a good bit longer than that. But it CAN go to crap in the blink of an eye, here.
With these fellas so small and you living in PA, with frost right around the corner, it will be hard to find protein (insects) if you have an early fall. Growth and feathering is utmost on my mind before you get cold temps and possible early frost and snows. Tough road ahead. I pray for late frost and snow.
Well...........currently the 2 week forecast is calling for lows in the 60's save for one 45 and one 51. It was 46 last week, one morning, so..........
Right now, the weather seems to be in the little buggers' favor.
Quote from: bossgobbler on September 08, 2021, 08:41:05 AM
This is a pretty neat thread. I am fascinated by wild turkeys and especially turkey poults. I enjoy watching them and studying them as they grow. My opinion is that they'll be just fine. Turkeys are very resilient. They battle a lot to get to adulthood and then everyday after that. I feel like these poults have a pretty good chance because of the amount of bugs that are active right now. Grasshoppers are abundant this time of year. For poults that are hatched earlier in the summer they don't have as many grasshoppers to scoop up. If you walk through a field right now there are hundreds and thousands of grasshoppers available.
If they can scrounge up a lot of protein in the next month or two they'll be good to go!
Can you monitor them? It would be a neat story to follow if you're able to keep us updated on that little flock. Thanks for sharing!
I wish there was a way to monitor them. But there's a lot of woods.........and a lot of grass areas, too. It would be total luck at this point to run into them again.
What's interesting...........or odd.........or crazy........... Years ago (6-8) on a Labor Day weekend, we were cruising our property roads spotlighting for the kiddos to see deer. Just happened to shine down in some timber and there was a doe 30-40 yards off the road licking off a newly dropped fawn !!!! At that time I was running a lot of trail cameras. After season I'd put out corn and take "inventory" of which bucks were still around, etc. Well, that little booger made it !!!! I had trailcam pics of it at a corn pile around Valentine's Day. It was gray........like a winter deer is gray.......but still spotted !!! I'd have never believed it.
Well................... Currently, toward the end of the 2 week forecast there's an overnight low temp of 37 degrees and 31 degrees.
Grow, yinz little boogers !! GROOOOOOOWWWWWW !!!!!!!!!
They will handle freezing by then. I don't know about you, but this late rain has really greened things up. It's greener here now than it was in July by far. I wonder if that wont maintain later than a normal year.