Have seen 6 different hens in 2 separate areas and no poults. Have a friend 1 mile from my house, probably same birds from my "backyard flock", and he has 1 hen with a few poults. Birds around here are being slowly pushed out due to development. Picture of hen from yesterday, saw 3 walking around eating. Starting to see some bambies.
Nice pictures, Jeff.
Hopefully, there is a reason for the lack of poults you have seen besides nesting failure. Could be those hens are still sitting on eggs...or their poults are being reclusive. Regardless, even if they may have lost a clutch, they still have time to renest this early in the season.
Over the years, I have reached the point where I never make assumptions about nesting success and poult survival based on anything other than the presence of jakes later on in the year and in the following spring. Seeing jakes in the population is a sure sign of nesting success. It is when I am not seeing any jakes that I start getting concerned...especially if that is happening multiple years in a row.
The reason I use jakes as the barometer is because they are easy to identify, whereas young-of-the-year jennies, once they have reached "full size", are difficult to identify from older, adult hens.
I definitely don't like seeing that. Hopefully they were close by taking cover. I saw 2 Bambi's a couple of weeks back not more than an hour old.
Central MS and we have hens still nesting and I'm getting pics of gobblers still strutting with hens. Good chance they will nest 2 or 3 times. I wouldn't be overly concerned yet.
I agree with GobbleNut, I will have a better idea of what is happening in our area early mid-Oct / Dec with the poults and what i'm seeing as far as numbers.
Here in KY we had a very wet late spring/early summer. I've always heard that was bad for nesting success. But I've recently heard about a study that said rainy weather late spring/early summer has no impact on nesting success. I'm hoping the study was correct, time will tell.
Quote from: Shiloh on June 14, 2024, 12:17:14 PMCentral MS and we have hens still nesting and I'm getting pics of gobblers still strutting with hens. Good chance they will nest 2 or 3 times. I wouldn't be overly concerned yet.
In south MS, Poults appeared 2 weeks ago.
I'm out quite a bit and have not seen any poults yet. I have seen individual hens and one group of three all with no poults. The weather seems to be pretty good, no cold wet spells or anything else that would hinder nesting activities. I did see a single coyote yesterday but that just goes with the territory. I believe the hens do a pretty good job keeping their young out of harm's way until they are a little more mobile. Usually, mid-July into August is when I start seeing or hearing about poult sightings.
Last year we had a cold wet spring and when people started seeing them it was a hen with maybe one or two. :(
In May, I saw a hen with it looked like 10 poults. Encouraging sight, but no way of knowing how many made it through that 2-3 week dangerous period. The last 2 winters in my area have been mild, no snow to speak of. Hopefully we get another mild winter, and the birds get a chance to rebound.....
We have had an all time record amount of rainfall for the first five months of the year. The grass is so high a hen would have to be in the road to see her. I hope we had a good hatch, but so much rain can't be good for poult survival. But I wouldn't expect to see many turkeys now with the open areas and pipelines having such tall weeds and grass.
Seeing a lot of poults here in central Missouri. It's a nice change.
In the last 2 weeks we have seen poults that can fly and about the size of a banty chicken, poults smaller than a small quail, a nest with 12 eggs and gobblers still strutting with hens. Hopefully we won't have any tropical depression type weather.
Quote from: Shiloh on June 14, 2024, 08:43:32 PMIn the last 2 weeks we have seen poults that can fly and about the size of a banty chicken, poults smaller than a small quail, a nest with 12 eggs and gobblers still strutting with hens. Hopefully we won't have any tropical depression type weather.
That's encouraging
This week I've seen a hen with one Pheasant sized. And a hen with at least 10 quail sized. Some hens are still setting, fingers crossed. In south MS.
I wouldn't be too concerned yet about not seeing hens with polts. It means she's doing her job. Good brooding cover( not grass) keeps the polts out of sight from you and predators until they get bigger.
Kind Cobra's statement about starting to see polts july/August seems to holds true in Mn as well.
A buddy from Ga just seen a hen with 10 small polts earlier this week near his house.
Quote from: backforty on June 14, 2024, 06:10:08 PMSeeing a lot of poults here in central Missouri. It's a nice change.
Nice to hear that. It's slim to none in the southern part of the state. Too many flooding rains during nesting season this year.
All the hens who visit my property are poultless. The two who hang out on my parent's property have lots of poults.
Last year they had a hen with newly hatched chicks at the end of August.
Some hens do better than others. This picture from a south Florida WMA. This area had a very dry nesting season but is getting rain now.
Great picture! Nice to see those poults!
A friend just spotted a hen with about 6-7 poults. They were around a week old.
So far, I've seen a couple of hens running together with around 8 to 10 poults. Poults were able to fly abit. My brother saw hen and 4 poults mid May. Real early for our neck of the woods...
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I haven't seen a hen with poults yet this year
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Seen a hen with polts on the side of the hwy in northern Minn last week.
They are starting to mow the right of ways now so expect I'll be seeing more of them in my travels to a from the cabin.
Doesn't appear the farmers are mowing hay yet but expect it will happen soon enough once the weather dries out a bit.
First cut on most fields around here. 8 poults sighted in about 64ish square miles. Not many this year and I put on a lot of miles. I know there are more, numbers just way down. I hope it's just more in the woods. Z
I have hens with poults here and a number of hens without. Typical for here. I would say over the years that 3 out of 10 hens have poults at my place. I wish it was more but that's pretty Ty consistent every year.
Still waiting to see poults on cameras in GA - not looking to good so far
Southern Illinois... I finally saw a hen with 5 poults otherwise I've only spotted hens. Thats been on public ground
Friend is seeing good numbers in Indiana, I have not really been anywhere to see any.
We are getting hammered by wet weather this spring up here in Mn. Hopefully it dries out and we have a better outcome this spring than I'm expecting.
Poults starting to show up here in SW Michigan.
I saw my first poults of the season yesterday, it looked to be three hens with about four or five poults about 6-7 inches tall. It was one of those situations where there could have been more because of surrounding cover. But made my day anyway... happy0167:
This morning I had three hens with best I could count 16 poults in my yard. Put a big smile on my face.
Finally saw some poults. 8-9 poults with 2 hens. I hope this is the norm and I am just not seeing them. Time will tell. Z
Seen a mix here in MA. A few hens without and a few with poults.
Which is what I have seen in years past.
The poults Ive been seeing are small. Last evening I saw a hen With 7. They were the size of grouse.
This is the longest Ive gone without seeing some. But did hear from another friend about 45 minutes south of me that had 2 hens and 5 poults this morning. Waiting on pictures to see what he saw, not a hunter, could be turkey buzzards.
Saw 2 hens with 6 poults today. They were ~3 weeks old. One hen with no poults. And busted a hen off a nest of 10 eggs.
Two different friends on two different days this week have seen 2 hens with 12 poults near me. Didn't ask what size.
I've yet to see a hen with a poult.
Monday I saw 2 quail sized poults and yesterday I saw 4 chicken sized poults, both with hens in the same spot. Vast difference in the size, I figure at least a month apart growth wise. Just interesting seeing them in the same spot. Not seeing too many but I am hopeful. Z