Winter flock questions

[RutnNStrutn]

the evil baiting (feeding = baiting)

I'm not baiting turkeys. We put out corn by the house to see deer every day. The turkeys found it, of course. In the spring I will follow Tennessee law about hunting my place. I don't hunt turkeys over corn.

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[RutnNStrutn]

1. yes and no, a few may have made it over there, I doubt many survived.
,
2.There was/is pressure.

3.originals, no------new ones, no.
So, no

What you have a chupacabra thats moved in.

Why do you think most of them died? Plenty of food to eat, and good habitat. It's relatively mild weather here in middle east Tennessee. I also haven't seen or gotten that many game cam pics or videos of predators.
Why do say there was/is pressure? I don't hunt deer or turkey at my place..... yet. Neither do any of my neighbors. Lots of farm and ranch land around me.
So none of my turkeys are coming back, and no new ones are replacing them?
And a chupacabra has moved into the area?
Dammit!! Now I've got to move again!!!

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[RutnNStrutn]

I have seen it a bunch, even the opposite way.  Had a ridge on a property that was filthy with gobblers in the fall and winter, I have seen as many as 15 toms on that ridge in Nov.

Fortunately for me, the turkeys seem to be here in the spring, summer and into the fall, but disappear in late fall and winter. I guess that's better than the other way around.

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[g8rvet]

Hey brother!  Glad to see you retired and are living your dream!  Congratulations on a well earned retirement. 

I have the opposite problem on my place, here in the fall (4 on the camera today) and gone in the spring. Cleared an area for dove and hoping it will attract some birds year round with better habitat.  Everyone knows any birds I get coming in will be reserved for daughter and grandson though.

If you get a hankering to hunt some north florida birds, give me a shout.   

[crow]

1. yes and no, a few may have made it over there, I doubt many survived.
,
2.There was/is pressure.

3.originals, no------new ones, no.
So, no

What you have a chupacabra thats moved in.

Why do you think most of them died? Plenty of food to eat, and good habitat. It's relatively mild weather here in middle east Tennessee. I also haven't seen or gotten that many game cam pics or videos of predators.
Why do say there was/is pressure? I don't hunt deer or turkey at my place..... yet. Neither do any of my neighbors. Lots of farm and ranch land around me.
So none of my turkeys are coming back, and no new ones are replacing them?
And a chupacabra has moved into the area?
Dammit!! Now I've got to move again!!!

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Ok, we'll take this step by step,
Most of them died because they've been eaten.
It doesen't surprise me you don't have pics of other predators once a top tier predator moves in.

No, none of your dead turkeys are coming back, it doesen't work that way.

The ones that are gone, are gone (*see Joe Hutto where the poults got scared by a big snake near a wood pile and always skirted it after that event.)
Probably be years before new one's will risk it.

I wouldn't go to the extreme of moving ,just get yourself a short stocked gun, compact bio's, hang an unwaxed moldy trumpet around your neck, and sneak onto some local farms without asking landowner permission.

and start drinking heavily, at least your in an area with some good local refreshments

[tal]

  

[RutnNStrutn]

1. yes and no, a few may have made it over there, I doubt many survived.
,
2.There was/is pressure.

3.originals, no------new ones, no.
So, no

What you have a chupacabra thats moved in.

Why do you think most of them died? Plenty of food to eat, and good habitat. It's relatively mild weather here in middle east Tennessee. I also haven't seen or gotten that many game cam pics or videos of predators.
Why do say there was/is pressure? I don't hunt deer or turkey at my place..... yet. Neither do any of my neighbors. Lots of farm and ranch land around me.
So none of my turkeys are coming back, and no new ones are replacing them?
And a chupacabra has moved into the area?
Dammit!! Now I've got to move again!!!

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

Ok, we'll take this step by step,
Most of them died because they've been eaten.
It doesen't surprise me you don't have pics of other predators once a top tier predator moves in.

No, none of your dead turkeys are coming back, it doesen't work that way.

The ones that are gone, are gone (*see Joe Hutto where the poults got scared by a big snake near a wood pile and always skirted it after that event.)
Probably be years before new one's will risk it.

I wouldn't go to the extreme of moving ,just get yourself a short stocked gun, compact bio's, hang an unwaxed moldy trumpet around your neck, and sneak onto some local farms without asking landowner permission.

and start drinking heavily, at least your in an area with some good local refreshments

You should take up stand up comedy!!!

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[RutnNStrutn]

Hey brother!  Glad to see you retired and are living your dream!  Congratulations on a well earned retirement. 

I have the opposite problem on my place, here in the fall (4 on the camera today) and gone in the spring. Cleared an area for dove and hoping it will attract some birds year round with better habitat.  Everyone knows any birds I get coming in will be reserved for daughter and grandson though.

If you get a hankering to hunt some north florida birds, give me a shout.

Thanks Larry!! The wife and I are loving it here in Tennessee so far. Hope your changes bring in more turkeys to your property.
I'll keep that hunt in mind. Good luck this spring brother!!

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[catman529]

If you had a bumper crop of acorns, there was probably a bumper crop everywhere else around you.
I'm guessing you're in the highland rim area of TN.

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Yes, it's almost exclusively hardwoods in this area. White and red oaks everywhere. So I'm sure you are correct.
Upper Cumberland, just east of the Highland Rim.

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I didn't make it to the Cumberland plateau this past fall, but everywhere I went on the highland rim was stupid loaded with white oak acorns. There are acorns sprouted all over the ground right now because the critters couldn't eat them all.

Anyway, be careful with the corn during the warm months. The hot humid summer weather is conducive to growing the fungus that produces aflatoxins, which can kill a whole flock of turkeys.

Good luck this spring!


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[RutnNStrutn]

If you had a bumper crop of acorns, there was probably a bumper crop everywhere else around you.
I'm guessing you're in the highland rim area of TN.

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Yes, it's almost exclusively hardwoods in this area. White and red oaks everywhere. So I'm sure you are correct.
Upper Cumberland, just east of the Highland Rim.

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I didn't make it to the Cumberland plateau this past fall, but everywhere I went on the highland rim was stupid loaded with white oak acorns. There are acorns sprouted all over the ground right now because the critters couldn't eat them all.

Anyway, be careful with the corn during the warm months. The hot humid summer weather is conducive to growing the fungus that produces aflatoxins, which can kill a whole flock of turkeys.

Good luck this spring!


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Same here in the Upper Cumberland. Acorns out the wazoo!!!
Thanks for the great advice!! I think we're okay with that threat, because the deer are so plentiful and eat the corn so fast that it's gone before it has a chance to grow fungus. Plus when the turks return, the corn disappears even faster. I'll have to stop feeding the deer at the house during spring turkey anyway so that I'm legal and ethical.

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[catman529]

If you had a bumper crop of acorns, there was probably a bumper crop everywhere else around you.
I'm guessing you're in the highland rim area of TN.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yes, it's almost exclusively hardwoods in this area. White and red oaks everywhere. So I'm sure you are correct.
Upper Cumberland, just east of the Highland Rim.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

I didn't make it to the Cumberland plateau this past fall, but everywhere I went on the highland rim was stupid loaded with white oak acorns. There are acorns sprouted all over the ground right now because the critters couldn't eat them all.

Anyway, be careful with the corn during the warm months. The hot humid summer weather is conducive to growing the fungus that produces aflatoxins, which can kill a whole flock of turkeys.

Good luck this spring!


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Same here in the Upper Cumberland. Acorns out the wazoo!!!
Thanks for the great advice!! I think we're okay with that threat, because the deer are so plentiful and eat the corn so fast that it's gone before it has a chance to grow fungus. Plus when the turks return, the corn disappears even faster. I'll have to stop feeding the deer at the house during spring turkey anyway so that I'm legal and ethical.

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I'm the same way here with corn. The deer eat it fast enough it doesn't have time to mold. Just like to try and spread awareness about the potential threat to wildlife with moldy deer corn.


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[ChesterCopperpot]

I'm the same way here with corn. The deer eat it fast enough it doesn't have time to mold. Just like to try and spread awareness about the potential threat to wildlife with moldy deer corn.


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A bit off topic from the OP, but the mold on corn that threatens turkeys isn't something that just appears. Aflatoxins are there the moment you put it out. Levels as low as 100 parts per billion of aflatoxins found in corn destroy the livers and immune systems of wild turkeys, and especially young of the year. The only corn regulated at levels less than that are for human consumption and dairy cattle. Meaning you buy sacks of corn for beef cattle, swine, mature poultry, you're compromising and killing turkeys. You buy corn sold for wildlife, IT'S NOT EVEN REGULATED. What they sell as "wildlife corn," "deer corn," "deer and turkey corn," is the bottom of the barrel crap they couldn't sell to any other market. Why? Most likely because it exceeded levels of things like aflatoxins when checked. Couple that risk with the disease impact of high concentration bait sites, all of that against a steady decline throughout the southeast that has biologists baffled, why put it out? There's a whole, whole lot of things will kill a turkey, but you know the thing they all but never die from? Starvation. You might like watching them in your front yards, but you sure ain't doing them any favors by dumping out sacks of corn.


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[Parrot Head]

I have hunted same property for 20 years in IN and every year by end of October turkeys just disappear.   First of April they reappear.

[RutnNStrutn]

I have hunted same property for 20 years in IN and every year by end of October turkeys just disappear.   First of April they reappear.

That's good to hear!!

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[silvestris]

Wildlife of any species do not benefit from feeding/baiting, or do I repeat myself.