Earlier this winter when the birds were grouped up, I counted 62 hens, 2 toms, and 3 jakes in a group... Nice to see birds, but a bit dismaying to see such a skewed ratio of males/females...
Yesterday, I took my young children (5 &7) up to the properties I was going to hunt, to secure permission, get the keys, and look around... Late afternoon, and we came across a young (looking) tom with 7 hens, and he was breeding the heck out of them (2 weeks before season).
We have had almost no winter, but the past two weeks things have actually cooled down, so I suppose breeding behavior is a bit off, and unpredictable.
We tried to elicit some gobbles while scouting (2 ranches), and never heard a bird... Saw some sign, and with two little ones in tow, I did not expect to actually see birds...
I very rarely see bachelor toms in the areas I hunt, and my hunting generally greatly improves later in the season as hens start to leave the toms to sit on the nest... In the past years, I would guess that there is a ratio of about 10 hens to 1 tom.
Is this typical for most of you guys? What type of tom/jake/hen ratios are common in your areas?
Seems on par with most all of the places I've hunted across MO/KS/NE. 7-10 Hens/1 Tom. Usually a group or two of 3-4 jakes running around every year too.
Far less than it was just 10-15 years ago around here.
Hard to guess a ratio for me, a Tom with 6-8 hens is a more dominant bird and he keeps his harem together and fights off the subordinates... When I see a Tom with 2-3 hens he is less dominant. Then you have satellite birds. The most I have ever seen in a winter group (they were feeding at an age bag and counted 51 toms, guessed there were well over 100 hens and jakes mixed in) we had a late snow storm with about 10" falling and they lived off the food from that ag bag...I will usually see a few groups of toms over winter, 5-7 toms together and as many as 15. I know the food plots get hit hard!!
Pic from the food plot, this is what I like to see!!
MK M GOBL
Just thinking about it a bit based on my observations, I would say the ratio here in southern NM is perhaps around 1 gobbler per 5 hens.
Quote from: GobbleNut on March 18, 2018, 06:25:51 PM
Just thinking about it a bit based on my observations, I would say the ratio here in southern NM is perhaps around 1 gobbler per 5 hens.
He was asking about turkeys, not the old folks home.
Around here probaly 1/5. My lease in west tx i saw a group of about 50 jakes. Im hoping to run into some of them next month :funnyturkey:
Just 1 gobbler per tag is the only ratio I know for sure.
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