Winter feeding

[eggshell]

Haven't I read that you worked for your state's natural resource department?

Yes, that is true I did. I managed a state fish Hatchery and we ran a turkey check station there for 30+ years and in the winter months we'd work with game managers on deer projects and turkey trap and transplant projects or tagging as it wasn't a real busy time for fish rearing. I had a
net shop at my facility and my net maker made some of the cannon nets for trapping turkeys.

We always baited with corn for the trapping projects and never had any issues that we knew of. The topic of feeding was often debated with some biologist for and against. I never really saw any of our biologist say outright it was bad. However, the Dept. policy was against it because of baiting for hunting.  Many of our flocks live in farm land and they are in corn and soybean fields all winter. If corn made them sick our flocks would have been dead long ago. I agree if your corn smells musty or looks old and moldy don't feed it. I asked the question to get some other perspectives on how it has or hasn't worked. Since Ohio has gotten so much deer recognition the last 10 years there are feeders every where now and most of them have corn. I know some use wheat for turkeys. This is part of my dilemma, the deer baiters are pulling the flocks off our land and I was just kind of wanting to level the playing field and keep some of them home.

[ddturkeyhunter]

The baiting thing or feeding depends on WHERE IT IS and how much food is AVAIABLE AT ANY GIVEN TIME. By my house I put out about a quart container of corn each day when the turkeys happen to come around. Been hear four years now this is the first year they came up to my house because of my bird feeders. I am sure its because of the snow they are maybe having a harder time. Will they die if I don't put something out for them, more then likely not. I do it just for something to watch for a few hours a day, thats about how long they stick around. Then there off to the next place they know they might find something. The reason they started to come up to my place in the first place, is because they found I have a nice fence row of sumac bushes full of Berries growing wild. So as far as my place, me adding extra corn isn't changing things much, they have already imprinted the Sumac bushes as a winter feeding source.
But I am aware what my little extra feeding has the potential to start doing . Last year opening day turkey hunting in the Black Hill of SD sixteen inches of new snow to hunt in. In the one area I have hunted, a person would have had to say where did all the turkey go. Well they headed back down out of the hills to the back yards where they found food all winter.(backyard feeding and bird feeders) So Yes like stated earlier it can cause conflict with the non hunting public, when people are hunting in areas close to backyards. All of that just starts with just feeding regular birds and the turkeys come in for it. So unless ALL feeding of anything is stopped you will always have problems. But then a person can't have a compost pile either, because that will attract them also and the list goes on and on. It all comes down to what is legal and if it is on your land or not. In Florida on private property next to this one WMA I have hunted they have a spinning feeder that feeds EVERY day. So there the turkey move out of the public land to that field every day and people hunt the property line waiting to ambush them as they come back in, every day during hunting. Not my style of hunting but that where baiting has totally changed the way them turkeys would have feed naturaly. So it depends WHERE IT IS if it is helping the turkey through bad time, or changing feeding habits for the long term.