Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

I would like to start a poult sighting thread. It's always interesting and exciting to hear about and read about what others are seeing. If anyone would like to participate I'd be happy to read about it! Let's post about our poult news here. Hoping for a great 2023 hatch nationwide!

Saw my first poults on 5/30, but the hen only had 2/3. Z

Got this pic around middle of May. Only was 4 that I can tell. Pretty early for our area. Usually don't see them like that.  (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230601/6ace132709796a234aa1bbc744ad081d.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230601/c97ab9a2abfa3e5833fe72ea474dd57d.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230601/4129cf9ff19c62027c9689a98db5b404.jpg)

Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk

The lead polt in that middle pic looks like he's bout ready to bust into strutt!!!

I'll keep my peeled for any.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am hearing of a few people seeing some. I assume many are still incubating. Anyone seeing any? Share some pics and news if so!

I have been seeing solo hens but no poults mostly in the afternoon hoping that means they are still sitting in NY. I'd like to think the 16 racoons I took off my 155 acres this year gave them a good chance to hatch.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I was very excited to see about a dozen poults with one mama back in the first week of May here in ETX. I have plans to meet that landowner in July, and I hope they are aware of them, and able to tell me if they are surviving or not.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Saw two different broods today. The one hen had eight poults. I'm not sure how many the other one had. I got a quick glimpse of two poults. My wife saw a hen yesterday in our yard with 8-10. Very encouraging.

Two groups this afternoon.  One had 2 hens and 2 flying size poults.  The other had 2 hens and 5 flying poults. 

One hen with 8+ Itty bitty ones yesterday. Saw a few other hens with none.

I've been seeing one or two hens a few times a week...might be the same hen. She seems to be alone but one day, she acted like she might have been with poults. She kind of looked like she was sheltering some with her wings dropped. May have been my imagination too. Was a little rainy that day.

Saw 2 groups yesterday.  1 group of 3 hens had 25 at least.  Saw another hen with 10.  All were chicken sized and could fly.

I have seen a few other groups in the last couple weeks.  This is coastal SC.

Saw a hen with poults today in SE Iowa. We don't have a heavy turkey population in my county and kind of unusual to see them.

Chris

Finally seeing a few. Can't get a good count yet. Hens are keeping them pretty well hidden. Hoping everyone is catching some glimpses of poults and hope!

Saw two hens yesterday with seven poults which were about the size of a big pigeon

I haven't been out to my hunting woods much since season.  I don't see many poults until they get chicken sized, the grass usually too tall.

just got a pic of 4 poults.
(https://i.imgur.com/poL2zIG.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/C9Y2wmn.jpg)

Just saw a hen with 6 poults and all were fairly large so she bred and laid  before our season or during youth week.

Got a report from my brother few days ago. He spotted 2 hens with about 15 poults or so. This was on property my Dad owns. He also spotted a hen close by his house that had 6 poults. Fully feathered.

Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk

I had four hens with 19 poults at my place today. I was very happy to see that. I also had nine hens walking around together with none. Not to impressed with that.

Have been catching 2 Hens inside of a fenced retention pond built next to an empty warehouse. Keep hoping they have poults, finally heard from a contractor working nearby that he saw 4 poults 1 morning. Believe the Hens go into pond area by rip rap overflow area then forget how to get out...I watch them walk back and forth trying to get thru. Glad to see they are still around after all the construction.     

I laugh at them, just fly over the dumb fence...

 I seen my first hen with poults this week. At 75 MPH I caught a glimpse of them as I was blowing by. I think there were 4, could have been many more.

This morning the girl and I went to her work to make an  employee appreciation meal for lunch, I showed her my spot and she had seen turkey there recently. Multiple hens, multiple poults. My son has seen several as well.

I guess my work travels are to early (4:00a.m.) and to late at a return of (6:00p.m.). Oh well, when it counts I will have time to hunt.

I hope you guys see a million!

Hen behind the house had 5 poults in early July. I saw their pictures on the trail camera for 3 weeks before then.  Haven't seen any poults since.  They might have taken up somewhere else, but I kind of doubt it.  There's 5-6 turkeys that visit here most days (one longbeard,  two bearded hens, and three hens) .  It seems like a hen would have brought poults to a regular food source, but what do I know?

One of those hens had 13 poults two years ago and 10 of them survived(!).  For as many hens as I see here, I'd figure that more poults might survive.  Too many predators, I'd bet.

Jim

Jim

I have a 3hr drive to the cabin which I make almost weekly. For a while this spring all the hens I seen were poltless. I started seeing polts after the state began mowing the road  right of ways. Before the mowing no polts, after mowing about 50% had polts. Started seeing them in the middle of July. Some were the size of pigeons others were about half that. We're not talking huge numbers of hens I been seeing. 3 maybe 4 at most in a weekend trip

Im hoping that I just aint seeing them, but sightings around here are way down. It is a trend the last 3 years. I hope I just have bad timing but my long hours scouting are pretty gloomy. Z

Multiple sightings in SW Michigan, most with 4-8 poults. All different sizes from pheasant to quail.

A ton of poults in Missouri.  Have seen two hens with 23, one with 10, one with 8, one with 6 and one with 2.  Buddy has a couple of groups of 20 plus poults on his farm as well.  All central MO

Saw my first poult sightings last week. 2 hens followed by 9 poults.

This is encouraging.  I am pretty sure that we didn't have the best hatch this year in MS.  Several big thunderstorm systems throughout the hatching period, but I don't think it was terrible, plus we had the best hatch that we've had in a long time last year.

Lots of hens.........  Not a single poult seen, yet, by my brother or me.

Got a couple pics over the weekend of 3 hens and about 20 poults in north Ms!  i cant get pics to load if someone would like i'll email them! Pretty amazing for our area!

I saw 1 hen with 6 poults in Midwest, 6 gobblers and hens w/no poults.  I have not saw any poults in PA.

Hen and at least 4 half grow poults today.

Sent from my SM-G990U2 using Tapatalk

Hen and 8 3/4 grown poults today.

Over the weekend driving through central Missouri i saw 4 different hens in 3 different counties.  Two of them had around ten poults, and the other two had 6-8.  All flying size.  I need to tally up my total, but so far I have yet to see a poultless hen and I would say the average number of poults per hen is probably close to 8.  Quite a few with 10-12.  Poult sightings are in the hundreds for me and I usually don't see hardly any. 

Poults are getting big in central FL :z-winnersmiley:

Quote from: Bolandstrutters on August 17, 2023, 08:03:08 AM
Over the weekend driving through central Missouri i saw 4 different hens in 3 different counties.  Two of them had around ten poults, and the other two had 6-8.  All flying size.  I need to tally up my total, but so far I have yet to see a poultless hen and I would say the average number of poults per hen is probably close to 8.  Quite a few with 10-12.  Poult sightings are in the hundreds for me and I usually don't see hardly any.

Seen a few poultless hens in northwest Missouri and seen a couple last night in Central Missouri. Overall has been a good hatch in Missouri probably a 2-2.5 poult per hen average. Its amazing what dry conditions can do so predators don't smell them.

89 hens and 91 poults for me since June 1
36 gobbs

Tons of year old birds though, and the groups of hens (i assume jennies) without poults have skewed my poult per hen ratio a bit

Dang Nathan that all in N Ms

Seen 3 more poultless hens yesterday  :(

Still waiting to see the first one.

crazy that its almost Sept. and I finally saw the poults, 7 of them with 2 hens.   

I finally saw a big rafter of hens(5) and poults(12) yesterday. Good new, bad news is that they were in an unhuntable area. Still have only seen a handful of pouls away from civilization. Still hoping it isnt that bad, but the numbers are wayyy down from previous years. Looking for a few morw spots further away from that bad animal ( humans )population. Z

Ive lost count of all the poults I've seen this summer in Missouri.  Ive been traveling quite a bit because im building a house two hours from our home (just outside of st. louis).  I haven't seen a single hen with less than 5 poults, most have had more than that.  countless sightings of 2 hens with over 20 poults together.  I would guess i've seen close to 500 poults throughout central Missouri. 

Growing up quickly in S Central FL