Done Breeding Already??

[bushwhacker]

I posted on this topic a week or so ago but I have seen in the past few days that my assumptions are correct. Turkeys here in southern missouri aren't gobbling much at all right now.
I have been in areas the past few days where I was hearing as many as ten two weeks ago and haven't heard a gobble. I think they are coming into the peak breeding here and our season starts 4/16, so they are right on schedule or maybe a week early at the most. Now I'm not saying this is true all over the country but this is just what I'm seeing here.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

This season proves that photo period crap ain't true, these guys that get thier education in a classroom and not in tha woods can say what they want but here in bama were 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule. Hens have left the gobs and are nesting. Better killem while u can it's getting close to being done here.
They are gobbling good most places here and none I've worked or harvested this year have had hens with em.

Nice, guess this is what you say when you don't like what your doctor tells you too.  Sorry to piss on this thread, but when someone dumps on education b/c it doesn't jive with what they believe just really sticks in my craw.

I tend to be very scientific but I scout 3-4 days a week and i cannot reconcile what I am seeing and hearing through science.

There seems to be a lot of disconnect between scientific theory and natural application this spring.

Science cannot reconcile the nests in the woods and the fact that my taxidermist's turkeys have been laying for 2 weeks with one sitting.  This normally doesn't occur until the first week of may. The presence of the eggs and the sitting hen is empirical scientific data.......

[bigthunderchicken]

I can tell you that some gobblers are still henned up in Bama, but most of the hens are bred. They are nesting. I have been seeing lone hen tracks since the opening week! When I say henned up the hens arent walking right past the gobblers without paying them any attention even running off. But the gobblers are still running around after them.

[deerhunt1988]

 Hens started laying/nesting about 7-10 days earlier than normal for the areas I hunt in central/north Mississippi. The second peak in gobbling was also about a week earlier than normal.. Photoperiod is still the primary factor for breeding, but this season made it apparent that other conditions affect it too. Kind of sucks because our season has 3 weeks left and gobbling has dropped DRASTICALLY already. Last two weeks will be really rough.

[Trevor2]

Right on schedule here. Watched a gobbler breed a hen today at bout 75 yards.

[hotrod49er]

I think its better the more that r bred.  Toms r lonely and respond more.

[Brent]

This season proves that photo period crap ain't true, these guys that get thier education in a classroom and not in tha woods can say what they want but here in bama were 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule. Hens have left the gobs and are nesting. Better killem while u can it's getting close to being done here.
They are gobbling good most places here and none I've worked or harvested this year have had hens with em.

I don't know where you hunt but our Alabama birds are right on schedule.

[WyoHunter]

I just got back from NW Kansas and saw hens by themselves quite a few times. My grandson's gobbler came to the call about 8:30am by himself but my gobbler was still with hens. I had numerous gobblers answer my calls but wouldn't commit to coming in. They were just walking and talking.

[gunnerj]

Well, it's looking like the guys who get winter weather are ahead of schedule and where the snowbirds go is right on time. Now, at least in Northern Iowa, on a normal year the turks are in big groups yet and the frost is just coming out of the ground. I know ground temp is the way things happen here. I had a biologist tell me. If you don't have the ground up to temp, the nest won't incubate. We don't have big groups and the hens are searching by 8am. We are at least 2 weeks ahead here.

[jakebird]

Here in Pa, hens have not begun incubating, as i'm still seeing them feeding throughout the day aside from the mid morning to noon or so stretch when they are laying and tending nest. They are also still roosting in trees, not sleeping on the nest at night. Gobblers are henned up early, then mostly alone past ten am, till early to mid afternoon. Incubation should begin very soon, but we're not much ahead of schedule at all. Week or two tops. Season should be good and youth hunt is next wkd. My son is going nutz with excitement!

[bigthunderchicken]

i can also tell you that where i was hearing 3 to 4 gobbles a morning two weeks ago im not hearing anything now. nothing not a thing. still seeing signs tracks and feathers along with some scat. not a bird gobbling though!

[Turkey Havoc]

Don't believe they are finished, even here in Southwest Louisiana. Just 5 days ago I was trying to get a gobbler away from hens, he wouldn't come so I went and found one that didn't have hens. 

[redmag]

     I don't know any of the "mumbo jumbo" scientific stuff, but a friend of my saw a hen with about 6 poults last week here in WV.

[guesswho]

It's been a normal year for me here in East Central Alabama and Central Georgia, except for warmer weather most of the season.

[chatterbox]

Gobbling and hen chasing has really intensified here in NH.
Looks like we are right on schedule, and I think our season looks promising.