It's deep into June, and I'm starting to see pairs, triplets and today 5 hens together but none of them have poults. Anyone seeing any poults yet?
I killed a gobbler on May 7th, a few days after the hens disappeared, and I assumed started nest sitting. By that time frame, according to the NWTF website, those nests should have hatched by early June. It's been a very wet spring and I'm starting to get concerned about the status of this spring's hatch. I'm in east central Tennessee.
Your thoughts?
Same here, I seen a few hens with poults earlier but after some cold wet nights I haven't seen a hen with poults in probably 3 weeks.. very concerning!
A buddy of mine was at our lease today and saw a hen with some roadrunners so things here are looking just fine. Our state starts our Summer Turkey survey in a couple of weeks July 1st thru 31 August so we'll see how the state looks when the numbers come out in a few months.
Too early to be concerned yet. Give it time.
If you have the Cicadas youre in for a good hatch.
Saw one hen with 5 poults a few weeks back and got her on cam again last week and the poults are getting big.
Also got a lone hen with two Jake's always around her not sure what's up with that.
Today, got a picture with five hens and no poults what so ever.
Last year, never got a poult on cam but this year was probably the best turkey year ever.
Basically, just saying, I have no idea what these birds are doing.
Quote from: Ihuntoldschool on June 19, 2025, 09:34:59 PMIf you have the Cicadas youre in for a good hatch.
We had cicadas out the wazoo!! I hope you're correct.
I fear it ain't gonna be good in my neck of the woods. Rain and cold temps all spring
We've had the same cold wet spring, and I was concerned about the hatch, but saw a mature hen with several poults feeding in the cut grass on the side of the road last week. Don't often see turkeys anyway during the summer.
The earliest I've seen poults was May 14, in the middle of our NY season. I was hunting and almost stepped on them in tall grass, the hen did the broken wing fake to try to distract me.
The earliest I have seen poults in down was the end of April and the latest I have seen poults still in down was the middle of August in Oregon.
I got out to my woods yesterday afternoon. I didn't see any turkeys, but that's not unusual. The only open areas are roads and pipelines. The pipeline grasses are over knee high so seeing poults would be difficult. Even grown turkeys can drop down and disappear.
I hunt leased timber company land. They have thinned a big section and totally clearcut an even bigger section. Somehow out turkeys have survived this for over 30 years. I've personally seen this 5K acres totally clear cut twice (in cycles, not all at once) in my 25 years of so on the lease.
Quail sized poults that could fly last week in central MS, so things are looking up. At an engagement party this past wknd on some property that a family member owns and my nephew and son jumped a covey out of a food plot that were small but could fly. We have been extremely wet here as well
As I stated via my previous post, I received my 2025 Wild Turkey Summer Observation Survey in the mail yesterday. We can start recording our results on the 1st of July and this will run through the 31st of August. The card has date of sightings, # of hens, # of poults, # of gobblers and # unknown. We have the option of mailing the cards in or adding our sighting on the NC Wildlife website. NC biologists will compile the sighting results by county and total State numbers and then send out a complete observation report sometime in October November timeframe for All to see. Many of the hunters participate, so sightings are normally plentiful.
on a hikeing trail with my best buddy(Aussie named Kota :icon_thumright: )
we had at least 8 poults cross within 30 feet of us. They started putting, and here came the hen! She ran past us at maybe 20 feet or so putting. Then flew up maybe 5 feet into a tree, the poults then flew up as well.. It was very great to see.
Another reason to keep your dog on a leash... :cowboy:
Saw my first poults yesterday. I only saw four that were about the size of a pheasant but I was driving so it was a quick view
I too, saw my first tiny poults yesterday. About the size of quail.
I've only seem mostly small gobbler groups and a couple of hens here and there no poults on my lease in SC. Bubba
Not looking good for my neck of the woods. Late May I saw one hen with three poults. That's been it. Here lately it's been mostly just hens with no poults. I think all the rain we have had has taken a toll on this years hatch in my woods.
The landowner where I hunt seen a few going up his tractor trail. I couldn't work a bird there this spring. Of course one of the big crop fields is now solar panel city.
Quote from: Shiloh on June 23, 2025, 11:57:27 AMmy nephew and son jumped a covey out of a food plot that were small but could fly. We have been extremely wet here as well
That's encouraging.
Still no poult sightings for me, which is unusual where I live.