Question?

[MouthCaller]

Let's say the gobblers are henned up early in the season do they have a period of time where the hens stay with the gobblers all day or do they leave to start nesting from the get go? Not hearing much and wondering if I'm wasting time waiting on hens to leave the gobblers.

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[MouthCaller]

15 views in two hours and nobody had an opinion?

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[memert116]

My experience is that they are not henned up all day.  I've had some success by trying for a gobbler right off the bat and if he gets with hens often times the game is over, however, in my experience the hens will leave around 9 am or so to go sit and the gobblers will be out looking for a hen.  I will just sit in an area I know they frequent, a strutting area or dusting area and do some infrequent calling with a hen decoy out.  FYI.....they often come in silent for this set up

[Muzzy61]

My experience is that they are not henned up all day.  I've had some success by trying for a gobbler right off the bat and if he gets with hens often times the game is over, however, in my experience the hens will leave around 9 am or so to go sit and the gobblers will be out looking for a hen.  I will just sit in an area I know they frequent, a strutting area or dusting area and do some infrequent calling with a hen decoy out.  FYI.....they often come in silent for this set up

X2

[2eagles]

You are not wasting time any time you're hunting turkeys.   

[870FaceLift]

If I don't have success right off them limb, I usually see an uptick in activity at 9:30 or so and then again at 11:30.  I have always attributed this to the fact that they leave the hens for a period of time.

I also agree that they often come in quiet during these times.  You might have a two year old sneak in without a peep because he got a beatdown after flydown.

[g8rvet]

Gobblers do eat too. They may break off even when the hens are not nesting. Or you may strike a subordinate bird that is skeered of Mr Big in your area.  One club I was in several seasons ago had 2 birds gobbling on 2000 acres. They were both killed opening weekend. The next week I heard 7 different birds.  May have been coincidence or may have been a reestablishment of the pecking order. 

[hunter62]

get closer and work the hens and gobbler if he don't want come go to him

[jblackburn]

I think it depends, but in general I have found that sooner or later either the hens leave or the gobbler leaves.  I just checked my game cameras this weekend and had huge groups of birds, hens, jakes, and gobblers early in the morning, then small groups and even single gobblers later in the day.

[MouthCaller]

We got on some that gobbled but not hot hens were calling to not very far ahead of them never saw them this was any an hour ago around 12

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[captin_hook]

try to work the hens, the gobblers will follow em.

[MazeNBlu3]

What I've seen is the hen's take off late morning to early afternoon. After which the gobblers are lonely and in need of company. Try calling softly at first to get him to move. The other thing you can try is to tick off the boss hen and get her to move towards where you are, when she moves he'll follow. When the big boy is with hens it's sometimes hard to get to move but the above tactics have worked for me. Hope it helps and good luck. 

[Gooserbat]

I think they all break apart at some point in the day sometimes it's just latter than others. 

[jblackburn]

I think they all break apart at some point in the day sometimes it's just latter than others.

Yep, just like us.  We love our wives dearly, but at some point you just got to get away!

[DirtNap647]

I think they all break apart at some point in the day sometimes it's just latter than others.

Yep, just like us.  We love our wives dearly, but at some point you just got to get away!

lol x2