Gobblers done before the season ends

[LaLongbeard]

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[TRG3]

Don't forget...Both gobblers and hens work on peck order through out the year. Should the breeding season begin to wane, you might want to concentrate on challenging the resident gobblers with a gobble tube. You just might get one or more to come to investigate the new upstart who needs to be put in his place!

[hotspur]

Three years ago we had a very early spring here in Louisiana. By the second weekend I had my tags filled and by the end of the season the friends and family I took hunting killed 9 more,hens on the nest does not mean gobblers are done. The last day of that season taking a friend that walked ahead of me and to fast we bumped 4 gobblers and killed one, I love early springs

[HOOKS1]

 I do not agree with this assumption, the gobblers will continue to seek out hens until they begin to molt. I go out after the season ends and listen to gobbling and also call some up to take a few pictures, it's still pretty good through May, if not to hot. And I'm an old timer.

[Cutt]

I know some previous years we had early springs, and many claimed the same. I disagree, as I saw both early and late poults, which tell you they pretty much had to breed the entire Season, although it does tapper off the longer the Season wears on.

Mainly due to the unsuccessful nesting rates, caused by unfavorable weather, predation, human intrusion, etc. where many will renest. Even after all successful nestings, the Gobblers will still search somewhat? Now if turkeys had a perfect Season, with no renesting, it might end early? But the chances of that are slim to none, with all the adversities a hen faces with nesting.

[Dtrkyman]

Most temperate zone animals are seasonal breeders, raising their young under environmental conditions which are most favorable to survival. The timing of reproduction is controlled by the length of the day, also known as the photoperiod. Across the year, changes in photoperiod are interpreted by the animal's brain and serve as a sort of calendar to signal the appropriate times to start and stop breeding. Dramatic changes in physiology and behavior are mediated by photoperiodic signaling, but the underlying mechanisms are not completely understood.Inn mammals, the retina perceives photoperiodic information and sends this information to brain areas responsible for initiating reproduction. In non-mammalian vertebrates (such as birds), the eyes are not involved in this process. In birds, the photoreceptors mediating
photoperiodic signaling are known to be housed somewhere within the brain itself, but their location and basic characteristics remain unknown. Several candidate photoreceptors in different brain areas are currently under investigation.Together with Vincent Cassone at the University  of Kentucky, we are investigating a structure in the hypothalamus of the brain, the premammillary nucleus (PMM), that is thought to be involved in photoperiodic timekeeping. We are combining several different approaches to test the hypothesis that photoreceptive neurons in the PMM mediate photoperiodic signaling in turkey hens. Egg laying in turkey hens is stimulated by long photoperiods. After some time under long-day conditions, egg production slows and ceases, and birds become photorefractory, or insensitive to the stimulatory effects of long days. We are combining behavioral studies with tissue culture and neuroanatomical methods to find out whether the PMM plays a role in photostimulation, photorefractoriness, or both.