OldGobbler

OG Gear Store
Sum Toy
Dave Smith
Wood Haven
North Mountain Gear
North Mountain Gear
turkeys for tomorrow

News:

registration is free , easy and welcomed !!!

Main Menu

Holy Poults

Started by zelmo1, August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

zelmo1

Saw a beautiful sight yesterday morning as I drank my coffee while waking up. I heard some turkeys and went to the window, WOW. In total we saw 4 hens 3 jakes and 35-50 poults feeding through our back yard. This is nice because they are usually not around here that often. The poults were different sizes too, some were huge, some normal and some a little smaller. I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches. Either way there was a pile of them for my area, which is a great sign. Just excited about the future here now. Stay safe and God Bless

Turkeytider

Quote from: zelmo1 on August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM
Saw a beautiful sight yesterday morning as I drank my coffee while waking up. I heard some turkeys and went to the window, WOW. In total we saw 4 hens 3 jakes and 35-50 poults feeding through our back yard. This is nice because they are usually not around here that often. The poults were different sizes too, some were huge, some normal and some a little smaller. I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches. Either way there was a pile of them for my area, which is a great sign. Just excited about the future here now. Stay safe and God Bless

Don`t know where you`re located, but there have been more reports this year, for whatever reason, of wide variability in age/size. Can only be variability in nesting but I wonder why it seems more pronounced? I`ve seen reports of broods in very late July and early August that appear newly hatched.

ChesterCopperpot

Quote from: Turkeytider on August 10, 2020, 08:08:17 AM
Quote from: zelmo1 on August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM
Saw a beautiful sight yesterday morning as I drank my coffee while waking up. I heard some turkeys and went to the window, WOW. In total we saw 4 hens 3 jakes and 35-50 poults feeding through our back yard. This is nice because they are usually not around here that often. The poults were different sizes too, some were huge, some normal and some a little smaller. I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches. Either way there was a pile of them for my area, which is a great sign. Just excited about the future here now. Stay safe and God Bless

Don`t know where you`re located, but there have been more reports this year, for whatever reason, of wide variability in age/size. Can only be variability in nesting but I wonder why it seems more pronounced? I`ve seen reports of broods in very late July and early August that appear newly hatched.
Where I am—in the North Carolina mountains—things seemed to start really early, like mid March. Then we got hammered with a hard, hard dogwood winter right about the time the first nests started hatching, and rain rain raIN RAIN for months and months on end ever since. I know of one particular hen right here at the house that has had four different clutches and lost every single one. Yesterday I saw twelve hens together and not a poult in sight. That variability in size, though, is very much the effect of weather related loss. Unfortunately most birds here never caught one single break this spring and early summer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NCL

Seen more groups of poults this year than in the past. Usually only see one or two groups of poults, this year probably a half dozen. Had three hens with 10 poults that were hanging out in my yard for a couple of weeks. Then they or another group moved across he street. Some of the sighting could have been the same group in a different location but definitely more birds than in the past. Saw two hens with 5 poults that were about 3/4 size just a couple of days ago.

bbcoach

That is pretty impressive to see 35-50 poults with only 4 hens.  Those bigger leggy poults normally will stay with the hen that hatched them so this is even more unexplainable.  I hope everyone of them make it to maturity.  That is a very good group to have around your house. Keep some food out for them and keep us posted on their growth and numbers.

Turkeyman

Quote from: zelmo1 on August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM
I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches.

Unlike songbirds I've never heard of a turkey hen having multiple broods.  Early, late  and second nestings after nests get destroyed, yes. Great to hear you have a lot of birds. Due to our abnormally dry and warm weather (most places) we should have a good hatch overall. Need a few in a row however to get back toward the "good old days".

Turkeytider

Quote from: Turkeyman on August 10, 2020, 04:09:29 PM
Quote from: zelmo1 on August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM
I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches.

Unlike songbirds I've never heard of a turkey hen having multiple broods.  Early, late  and second nestings after nests get destroyed, yes. Great to hear you have a lot of birds. Due to our abnormally dry and warm weather (most places) we should have a good hatch overall. Need a few in a row however to get back toward the "good old days".

So far this has been a good summer in Georgia weather wise. If we can keep away from really bad weather ( hurricanes ), it should give the later hatches a good chance.

zelmo1

I am in New Hampshire and we usually see a couple broods around the area. This year has been looking good, 7/8 broods spotted. It was a funny mix, 3/4 jakes, 4 hens(could have been a couple more I didn't see, and a bunch of different sized poults. I would say from a grouse to a bigger chicken in size. I have never seen such a diverse group in my area. I am optimistic about our future here. I really would like to go to special regs for shooting jakes. Youth or Sr hunters and a one time "First Bird" exemption. I think it would boost our numbers significantly. Good Luck to all, Al Baker

Huckleberry91

Quote from: ChesterCopperpot on August 10, 2020, 08:41:31 AM
Quote from: Turkeytider on August 10, 2020, 08:08:17 AM
Quote from: zelmo1 on August 10, 2020, 06:53:24 AM
Saw a beautiful sight yesterday morning as I drank my coffee while waking up. I heard some turkeys and went to the window, WOW. In total we saw 4 hens 3 jakes and 35-50 poults feeding through our back yard. This is nice because they are usually not around here that often. The poults were different sizes too, some were huge, some normal and some a little smaller. I am wondering if there may have been multiple broods from one hen or early and late hatches. Either way there was a pile of them for my area, which is a great sign. Just excited about the future here now. Stay safe and God Bless

Don`t know where you`re located, but there have been more reports this year, for whatever reason, of wide variability in age/size. Can only be variability in nesting but I wonder why it seems more pronounced? I`ve seen reports of broods in very late July and early August that appear newly hatched.
Where I am—in the North Carolina mountains—things seemed to start really early, like mid March. Then we got hammered with a hard, hard dogwood winter right about the time the first nests started hatching, and rain rain raIN RAIN for months and months on end ever since. I know of one particular hen right here at the house that has had four different clutches and lost every single one. Yesterday I saw twelve hens together and not a poult in sight. That variability in size, though, is very much the effect of weather related loss. Unfortunately most birds here never caught one single break this spring and early summer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thats tough to hear, we had some weather similar to that here in the Ozark Mountains long about that time and I originally thought It would put a big damper on numbers but surprisingly I've seen several different clutches of various sizes. I saw 5 the other mornin headed into work that were certainly early hatches. I did read that NC numbers were up, if its so hopefully they keep going up!