Finally..... and then!!

[RutnNStrutn]

I see turkeys walking through my yard nearly every day. But I've been dismayed to not see any poults this spring or summer. So finally yesterday I saw a bearded hen walking through the yard with 5 poults. Today they showed up again, but there were only 4 poults this time.
I think I'm going to talk to my game warden and see what I can do to step up trapping of nest raiders. This year has by far been the least amount of poults I have seen since moving out to the country.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[zelmo1]

Here too, I think it is a wider spread issue than we would want.    Z

[Gooserbat]

At this age it's not nest raiders but likely bobcats, coyotes, owls and hawks. That taken into consideration it's not going to hurt to focus on coons, possums, skunks and such in the future.  Byw bobcats are easy to catch.

[JeffC]

As I am reading this, I see movement out in back yard. We don't see many turkeys here during the summer, they hang out here during the winter. This is sad and happy, 4 hens were here, only 1 poult. Only the 2nd poult we had here in 23 years. As they were scratching around and heading out, 1 of the young Fox came running through, all 4 Hens went after the fox, he wasn't interested in them but ran away knowing he would get his butt beat.

[soflo_carlos]

We set up our Racoon raw traps early in the spring and it really helps slow down the nest raiders, yielding better hatch rates. 

[RutnNStrutn]

Here too, I think it is a wider spread issue than we would want.    Z

Z, this is the first year my area has shown a decline in poults.

[RutnNStrutn]

At this age it's not nest raiders but likely bobcats, coyotes, owls and hawks. That taken into consideration it's not going to hurt to focus on coons, possums, skunks and such in the future.  Byw bobcats are easy to catch.

Sam, that's true, however these are the first poults I've seen this year. So I'm thinking nest raiders are an issue as well.

[Tom007]

It doesn't look good! First year I didn't run across poults while hunting late season.  I've only seen one with a hen in a neighborhood yard after the season. Not good!

[RutnNStrutn]