Do hens make a lot of sounds in the spring where you hunt?

[YoungGobbler]

I don't want to hijack Gobblersnut thread, but this topic makes me think of another topic I wanted to post one time...

Do hens call a lot in the spring where you are?

Because, when we talk about calling in the spring, we focus a lot on making yelps and cutts and HENS sound... But from my experience, hens do not make a lot of calling in the spring... Males gobble, hens do a little bit of tree talk... But I've yet to hear a hen try to call in a gobbler with yelps like what we try to do in the spring...

Just food for thoughts... How is it in your neck of the woods?

[eggshell]

They call some here (Ohio), but not a lot. I think you are not hearing hens because they are already sitting on their nest. If you get out early spring they call a lot. By season they are mated up with dominate gobblers and or incubating.

[GobbleNut]

From my experience, in their spring flocks, hens (and gobblers) are generally pretty vocal on the roost, probably because they feel safe up there in the tree...and it often seems they are looking for reassurance that all went well for their flock-mates through the night. Once they fly down, there also seems to be a brief period sometimes where they are sorting out dominance within the flock and those squabbles can be pretty vocal at times. However, things tend to taper off quickly and within a few minutes they are quiet...or mostly so.

There are exceptions to the above. It seems there are sometimes extraneous sources of "irritants" that will set them off once they are on the ground. Things like dominance interactions within a flock, alarm warnings associated with predators or perceived danger, those squabbles between individual birds, etc. may cause a vocal outburst at any time.

Overall, though, during the day...and again in my experience...hen turkeys seem to be reluctant to make much noise. Attracting the attention of those things that are out to eat you by doing a lot of squawking is not a good idea...and they seem to know that. 

[Yoder409]

They will get mouthy on the limb in the morning at times.  But, most of the ground talk I hear from hens in the spring is in response to MY calling.  Either looking for me or cussing me out.

[Meleagris gallopavo]

They will get mouthy on the limb in the morning at times.  But, most of the ground talk I hear from hens in the spring is in response to MY calling.  Either looking for me or cussing me out.

Same


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[CALLM2U]

I do believe that pressure can impact how much hens call as well.   Unpressured land they seem to be a bit more vocal, but a few high pressure places I hunt, you rarely hear one unless you get close enough to hear their soft purrs and whines while they are feeding. 

[YoungGobbler]

Me personnaly, the sound I most often hear from hens are bubble cluck, just as day the break, until when they are ready to fly down. and once they're on the floor... It's dead quiet. Honestly, pretty sure I can count on one hand the times I've heard a yelp from a hen (In the spring). Actually, I only have two times that I can think of when I heard a yelp in the spring... To me that's just some food for thought to add to Gobbblenut's thread...

[YoungGobbler]

From my experience, in their spring flocks, hens (and gobblers) are generally pretty vocal on the roost, probably because they feel safe up there in the tree...and it often seems they are looking for reassurance that all went well for their flock-mates through the night. Once they fly down, there also seems to be a brief period sometimes where they are sorting out dominance within the flock and those squabbles can be pretty vocal at times. However, things tend to taper off quickly and within a few minutes they are quiet...or mostly so.

There are exceptions to the above. It seems there are sometimes extraneous sources of "irritants" that will set them off once they are on the ground. Things like dominance interactions within a flock, alarm warnings associated with predators or perceived danger, those squabbles between individual birds, etc. may cause a vocal outburst at any time.

Overall, though, during the day...and again in my experience...hen turkeys seem to be reluctant to make much noise. Attracting the attention of those things that are out to eat you by doing a lot of squawking is not a good idea...and they seem to know that. 

What you are describing, I only ear this in the fall, when I am around a good sized flock on the roost. Peep talk in the trees from poults, assembly yelps or clucks from mothers, "kee-kees" yelp from immature birds when they are on the floor and all those social interactions your talking about... But in the spring, I haven't heard that yet.

[EZ]

Turkeys make communication vocalizations almost constantly, you just have to be very close to hear them. Most of the time, they won't get any louder than they have to. YOU, as the outside turkey, have a different motive. You can't walk over and join the flock (like a turkey would). YOU have ulterior motives, lol.

[mountainhunter1]

In 2022, I hunted the whole spring and never heard a hen make a peep. Most years, I will hear a few hens, but usually it is just an isolated series or two of yelps or less. Even more important on this subject is just how soft most of the hen talk is that you actually hear in the woods. That is why I cringe every year when I hear hunters lighting the woods up like they are on a stage in some competition. Most hunters call not only too loud, but too much.

Most of the time, if you hear a hen really yelping like most hunters do, she is out of sorts about something. Maybe she got separated from the rest of the flock, or maybe she was spooked an bit earlier by a coyote or something, or she could just be agitated by that aggressive hen in camouflage on the next ridge. But if her world is perfect and she is having a really good day - most times you have to be really close to hear what she is saying. But make no mistake - she is talking all day long, as that is what turkeys do. 

[YoungGobbler]

Most of the time, if you hear a hen really yelping like most hunters do, she is out of sorts about something. Maybe she got separated from the rest of the flock, or maybe she was spooked an bit earlier by a coyote or something, or she could just be agitated by that aggressive hen in camouflage on the next ridge.

This...

Sometimes on social media I will see a video of a hen yelping like crazy and the one who post the video will go like : learn from this, a real hen yelping...

But that's false, that's a disturbed hen making all sorts of noise because she is disturbed. It's nothing like what a real hen would do to attract the attention of a male... My 2 cents...

[YoungGobbler]

Turkeys make communication vocalizations almost constantly, you just have to be very close to hear them. Most of the time, they won't get any louder than they have to. YOU, as the outside turkey, have a different motive. You can't walk over and join the flock (like a turkey would). YOU have ulterior motives, lol.

Your right. Small constant purrs with little peep and such.