Does weather affect the turkey mating season?

[silencer223]

I've had a theory for awhile now. I live in PA and we've had an exceptionally warm winter and seems like we are having an early spring (except with this winter storm we got recently). It seems to me like the turkey mating season doesn't necessarily rely on the weather to tell them when to start. Year after year it seems like they start around the same time every year regardless of how warm or cold it is. Has anyone else noticed this?

My theory is that they are like deer and once a certain date comes around then "boom" it's on! A friend of mine told me it has to do alot with the length of the days.

Any thoughts on this? 

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[wvmntnhick]

Your friend is correct. They know when to breed based on daylight hours. Not saying it can't swing a bit one way or the other based on severe temps but that's the way it works, daylight hours.

I hate when people say the cold weather will "bring" the deer into rut. Only thing that'll do is make it happen more readily during daylight hours. Bucks don't want to chase does in the daylight when it's 90* outside but it doesn't stop them. They just wait until it cools some in the evenings to do the heavy chasing. It still happens all day long but the temp will dictate how much happens in the daylight in some cases.

Turkeys are no different really other than I think the hens may be more in tune with knowing it's not a bright idea to lay eggs while its 25* outside. If she hasn't already started laying it may hold her up a few days until things are more favorable. If she has, she'll likely lose the nest and start a new clutch afterwards.

[Gobble!]

Your friend is correct.

x2

[Ihuntoldschool]

Agree with everything posted.  Photoperiod is the biggest factor.  Weather plays a small role but length of days is WAY more important.  Things happen about the same time every year in a given location. 

[SteelerFan]

Agree with everything posted.  Photoperiod is the biggest factor.  Weather plays a small role but length of days is WAY more important.  Things happen about the same time every year in a given location.

Always reminds me of a (true) story: In my youth we would travel to WV to hunt turkeys. Stopped at a little country store one day, and there was an older gentleman sitting in a rocker by the wood stove. I said "good morning", and he returned the greeting. He asked if I was hunting, and I said "yes, sir". He then said, "son, do you know why turkeys gobble?" I said, "well, not exactly..." He leaned back in his chair, took his pipe out of his mouth and said, "well, if you only got to breed the ladies a couple of weeks a year, you'd gobble on the limb every morning too!" He smiled, and said "someday, you'll understand..."

[wvmntnhick]

Agree with everything posted.  Photoperiod is the biggest factor.  Weather plays a small role but length of days is WAY more important.  Things happen about the same time every year in a given location.

Always reminds me of a (true) story: In my youth we would travel to WV to hunt turkeys. Stopped at a little country store one day, and there was an older gentleman sitting in a rocker by the wood stove. I said "good morning", and he returned the greeting. He asked if I was hunting, and I said "yes, sir". He then said, "son, do you know why turkeys gobble?" I said, "well, not exactly..." He leaned back in his chair, took his pipe out of his mouth and said, "well, if you only got to breed the ladies a couple of weeks a year, you'd gobble on the limb every morning too!" He smiled, and said "someday, you'll understand..."

Did most of my gobbling in college.

[Farmboy27]

It's a lot like the fact that a snow shoe rabbit will turn white in the winter even if it's warm and hasn't snowed a bit!  Had a guy tell me one time that the weather was to warm the fall before and that the buck hadn't rutted. I asked if he saw any fawns that next summer. He said "oh yeah, tons of em!"  I said wow, how the heck did that happen if the buck never went into rut! 

[Bill Cooksey]

Weather won't play a role in when they start, but it can play a role in when they finish. Obviously it's more a factor in some areas than other for obvious reasons, but a severe storm here and there can wash out a lot of nests and extend the season. Nothing like a big storm in late April here to have a gobbler that was just about to get lonely suddenly find himself surrounded by a harem again.

[Greg Massey]

Weather has a lot more to do the hatch and survival of the chicks..

[hs strut]

Weather has a lot more to do the hatch and survival of the chicks..

i agree. i have noticed that when its a wet or cold spring the poult numbers are lower.

[Bill Cooksey]

Weather has a lot more to do the hatch and survival of the chicks..

No doubt about it. Second and third attempts at nesting are rarely as successful as the first, if carried off. That said, the hens will try again if weather, or a predator, destroys their nest. When it happens on a relatively large scale it can cause the active breeding season to obviously extend. On the flipside, nice weather which allows a high percentage of hens to succeed with their first attempt  will leave lonely gobblers earlier, but they'll eventually tone down after a period of time with no hens to breed.

Our TN season is long and goes across the entire spectrum of spring in the turkey woods when weather is seasonal. Most openers you are likely to find turkeys in big flocks, and often they're mostly done by the time it winds down six weeks later. But when there's nice weather in March, the birds tend to be broken up by opener, and when the weather is bad in April the gobblers are often still lively and looking in May.

For the sake of the birds, and future hunting, I prefer nice weather and early nest success.

[sixbird]

Animals respond to light. The pineal gland determines hormonal responses due the amount of light (length of day). Reason dictates that temperature can't be the initiating factor in, say, fur growth in furbearing animals. If that were the case, animals would have thin coats right up until weather turned cold. Fur would have to develop over a couple of week period right after cold weather started.It would be a response to temp.. Nature has mitigated that by responding to day length so, no matter temperature, fur grows...When it gets cold, they're prepared.
Same with the breeding cycles...
That said, cycles can be disrupted by poor weather, on a temporary basis. We've all seen that...

[silencer223]

Well that's cool!! Never knew that! It's kinda funny that I posted this now cuz it's supposed to be in the teens this weekend and be in the 40s all week here. So that warm snap has come and gone!

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[chatterbox]

Around here in NH, we had a real warm spell, and there was a ton of gobbling and displaying.
Hens were calling to gobblers, but would walk off once the gobblers came courting.
We now hit a record cold snap for April, and all gobbling has quieted down.
There was an old phrase, and I can't remember where I heard it. " Gobbling is cheap, but eggs are expensive."
I know the length of days effects the spring breeding season, but I think warm weather also plays a role as well.
I hope it's a little slow. It seems when we have an early and warm April, our May hunting season suffers.

[fallhnt]

I have seen birds not move much in a spring snow storm. Latter in the day the sun came out I saw hens get bread. Mating season is based on daylight length for a turkey.