I have 5 mostly wooded acres in Maryland next to crop fields (alternating corn and soybean each year) and this is the only place I hunt in Maryland. In this state, you have to have written permission of the landowner in order to hunt private land so I am stuck and cannot legally roam, close the distance and try to make a play on the surrounding properties.
I have a small food plot and each day, my trail cam takes video of a hen roaming around in the food plot, eating this and that. She must have a nest in our woods.
Some questions:
While I hear gobblers on the roost in the surrounding valleys and farms in the morning (and I cannot go to them), does this hen's presence help my odds of a gobbler visiting my tiny parcel?
Do gobblers know she is here?
Will she somehow attract them?
If she is on a nest, are gobblers no longer interested in her?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
My thoughts are if there are hens in the area there will be a gobbler close by. Also if that's the only land you'd have to hunt I'd plan on setting on that property for a while if public or private (other than yours) is not available. I killed my first one last year and I've learned patience is a must.
Either way, sometimes she can be a nuisance...
Most of the time i don't care to have them around me unless she has a gobbler in tow ...
But i agree with hen's around, hopefully a gobbler is around also...