Just wanted to get some thoughts on hens with poults already. Our season ends on Saturday the 12th. Youth season started the 7th of April, with the rest of us starting the 14th. A friend of mine and I were hunting this morning and were treated to a hen with 8-10 poults. The poults couldn't have been more than a few days old but what intrigued both of us was Poults Already! It takes a hen about 14 days to lay her complement of eggs and after that a 28 nesting period. So if my math is correct she would have to have been bred around the 15th of March. WOW! Maybe the NC DNR needs to rethink our turkey seasons. Just Saying. Thoughts? By the way, the siteing was in Beaufort county in Eastern NC.
Ideally seasons should not open until hens have already started breeding. I dont think they need to rethink the season at all. Sounds like it was perfect.
I hunt Columbus and Brunswick county and have yet to see poults. Just the opposite. Still seeing hens with gobblers. I will say that hearing of your sighting doesn't surprise me though. In the beginning of March, I was seeing a ton of strutting and Tom's chasing hens.
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They do most the breading before season in a lot of states. Honestly peak breeding is a terrible time to try and hunt them, gobblers with hens all day that have no need to gobble are a tough critter to kill.
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I saw poults while hunting Nebraska a couple years ago, but was close to the end of May, I always assumed there were early and late hatched birds, you get those super jakes that gobble like a tom sometimes and I always figured that was the case.
Here's a couple of thoughts:
I have heard of this before occasionally. Mid March breeding would be kind of early but not out of question. It was my understanding that the season was set up so that most of the actual breeding would be have been done beforehand. Also, with the season set to start the 2nd Sat. of April, this years start date was its latest possible time, the 14th. A few years ago there was a push to have a staggered season start with the SE part of the state starting earlier but as I remember it got shot down by the NC biologists and the NWTF.
One other thing. Being that I live in eastern Pitt County and am sitting at work in Beaufort County right now I am jealous as all get out that you have a local place to hunt. I have been down here for 13 years and still have to drive over 50 miles to hunt turkeys.
Bell Curve pretty much answers it... Some early, some late and most peak.
MK M GOBL
I saw poults one year the first week of season (first few days of May) in central Pennsylvania.
Quote from: TauntoHawk on May 10, 2018, 07:39:02 PM
They do most the breading before season in a lot of states. Honestly peak breeding is a terrible time to try and hunt them, gobblers with hens all day that have no need to gobble are a tough critter to kill.
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I've figured the past few years I may see some poults but haven't. I live roughly on the same parallel as the southern counties of Alabama. They open mid March and we open April 15. We have a very late season going to mid May. (I see signs of molting by the end of season.) But even with that, I saw hens with gobblers in the last week of April.
I understand the bell curve, I didn't plan on contacting DNR, we were just in utter amazement to see the little fellows running around so early. We see them in late May and June and I normally get a survey card from the DNR to report siteings, numbers and the sex of the ones we see but those report cards normally aren't sent out until June at the earliest. Putting this information in the brain for future reference. I have never witnessed just an early hatch and the guys I hunt with were perplexed as well. MK M GOBBLE, with all the late snow you guys have had in Wisconsin, I would say if you saw poults right now (since you guys still have a couple of weeks left) you would probably have the same reaction. Just floors me to see hens with poults this early in Eastern NC. These birds have a Great chance of survival since our temps are in the 80's and plenty of cover and food right now as well.
I saw poults in south/middle GA last weekend.
Quote from: bbcoach on May 11, 2018, 02:45:34 PM
I understand the bell curve, I didn't plan on contacting DNR, we were just in utter amazement to see the little fellows running around so early. We see them in late May and June and I normally get a survey card from the DNR to report siteings, numbers and the sex of the ones we see but those report cards normally aren't sent out until June at the earliest. Putting this information in the brain for future reference. I have never witnessed just an early hatch and the guys I hunt with were perplexed as well. MK M GOBBLE, with all the late snow you guys have had in Wisconsin, I would say if you saw poults right now (since you guys still have a couple of weeks left) you would probably have the same reaction. Just floors me to see hens with poults this early in Eastern NC. These birds have a Great chance of survival since our temps are in the 80's and plenty of cover and food right now as well.
You bet bit different every year.
If I seen them at this time this year yes it would be quite a deal, We are in our "4 Season" right now. We have had some "early" springs with no late snows and have had poults out. It does stick in my head even seeing first cut hay come off during our 1st season. Our Seasons start date shifts in a cycle by the year. We are definitely running late this year, noticed from some old pics on FB I have already picked morels a week & a half ago in previous years, and haven't picked a one yet this year...
MK M GOBL