It's the middle of April in MN and I'm seeing mature Tom's still in groups of 5-8, what's going on?
How is your weather? Do you still have a lot of snow and cold temps?
Spring is late this year in MN. The snow cover just disappeared from 2/3 of state in the last 3 days. Its been warm as heck for the last 3 days but unseasonably cold up until this point. We just had 8" of snow dumped on Mlps/ St Paul area April 1st. Quite the April fool's joke played on us by mother nature.
The snow is all gone except for a big drifts, the weather has been warm the last week and now it's turning cold and wet again, seems that they aren't really hot and chasing the hens yet . Have seen a couple of strutter with hens but the next field has a large group of Tom's just walking around.
The snow just went out unless your in the south 1/3 of the state. 2 weeks ago there was a blizzard with power outages. The winter flocks just broke up and now they are forming breeding groups. one of the advantages of having large winter flocks is 50 turkeys can scratch through the snow cover way easier than 5 exposing more food for all to eat. Some are further along than others.
When they split up they'll split into groups of gobblers and groups of hens. They'll filter through the surrounding landscape establishing breeding groups and the hens will start choosing who they want to mate with. Pecking orders need to be reestablished. Give em time. It doesn't happen over night because it's been unseasonably warm for a few days. Up until the last week it's been unseasonably cold. From my guesstimate I'd say we are atleast 2 weeks behind.
The recent warmth has sped things up a little bit the cold this weekend will put a damper on that.
Their calendar might be a week off.
They didn't get the memo they were supposed to break up on a certain day/time of day on the day on the hour.
You had a weak mast crop last fall.
You have a bunch of 2 year Olds.
You have the "gay" turkeys some used to reference on the forum (Joke) .
Turkeys being turkeys. They will break up when the hens tell them to. In the turkey woods it's all about the hens in the spring. Early season down here in the South the gobblers are still grouped up. It doesn't take but a day for things to change in the turkey woods. I would not be concerned because they will still respond to calls and are still very killable.
Quote from: Spitten and drummen on April 15, 2023, 07:34:33 AM
Turkeys being turkeys. They will break up when the hens tell them to. In the turkey woods it's all about the hens in the spring. Early season down here in the South the gobblers are still grouped up. It doesn't take but a day for things to change in the turkey woods. I would not be concerned because they will still respond to calls and are still very killable.
THIS! Hens dictate the breeding cycle. When the hens are ready, they will inform the gobblers and it'll be on! As hunters, we want things to develop on our schedule but if you have cold wet weather for the next month or so, you may lose ALL of next year's birds due to failed hatches.
Quote from: Spitten and drummen on April 15, 2023, 07:34:33 AM
Turkeys being turkeys. They will break up when the hens tell them to. In the turkey woods it's all about the hens in the spring. Early season down here in the South the gobblers are still grouped up. It doesn't take but a day for things to change in the turkey woods. I would not be concerned because they will still respond to calls and are still very killable.
Right on. Hens need the ground temps to be, if remember correctly, in the 60's for their eggs to stay viable on the ground until they start to incubate. They can regulate the temp a little by adding removing leaves from the nest.
Morel mushrooms start popping once the ground temps get above 50 degrees. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any morels in MN at this point in time. Dandelions and lilacs will bloom about the same time.
From what I'm hearing from a buddy hunting in the SE part of the state they just starting to get rolling in that area. Gobbling seems to be in the pre breeding peak phase as the longbeards are trying to gobble up hens and establish territories. Most likely gonna start to get quiet in the woods in the next week or so as the hens start congregating around their chosen gobblers. It will be roost/assembly gobbling than quiet for the most part.
I just refreshed my memory. Eggs need to be kept between 50 and 60 to 65 degrees before incubation.
The ground temps map show the soil temps have been in the 30's until a little over a week ago. They climbed through the 50's earlier this week and peaked on Thurs at around 69 and are now dropping. Today they are in the 60 degree range and still falling. The rainy cold weather and possible snow this weekend will keep them falling.
I contributed some of it to a weird spring, with all the cold fronts just a couple weeks ago, we still had a couple of frost ... Just acting weird ... usually by the 15th of April, that are usually pretty much done, in my area.. but they are just getting started ... If you have never witness the coming together of the flocks and seen a break up , you have missed something pretty special, how they pair off and going in different directions, it's like seeing part of a survival tactic ....
Some groups just do that well into May. They might answer your calls, but they're more interested in chasing each other around in circles.
We had a lot of snow leading up to the season... that kept birds congregated together longer. Then just a couple days before or something it all melted. So they were still bunched up, we're having a late spring (kinda... almost feels like there's a switch that just got turned on, nonetheless it's been kinda weird). My opinion is the birds are just now beginning to separate Toms going off on there own, some Boss gobblers with there flock, Jake groups etc...
But I'm no Chamberlain... what do I know.
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They go by their own clock. Nature knows.
I saw you guys in MN and WI got 8-12 inches of snow on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I guess Mother Nature knows why the groups haven't broken up. It's a GOOD thing the birds aren't breeding or eggs on the ground would not have made it under the snow.
Yesterday I saw 5 jakes at daybreak fly down and chase each other about and then about 9:00 I saw 7 longbeards in a field together showing off. I have also seen the occasional hen waltzing about and have called in several. They may gobble but not consistant and don't bither to come in. This is in the EP of WV.
I called up a group of six longbeards this morning...in South Carolina. There's only 5 in the group now but I was surprised. 1 1/8" spurs and beards of 10" and 7" on the one I killed. Only weighed 15 lbs. Last year's jakes I presume