I heard a few gobbles from the roost at a farm a few miles from my house in central NC today. He shut up pretty quick, so I figured he had hens. A little while later it started raining, so I eased by one of the hay fields and there was 16 hens with one whopper of a longbeard out in it. I watched through binoculars at a distance, when they moved to the far end of the field I left. Great to see, but nobody's getting that gobbler away from his ladies until the flock starts to break up.
I saw a big gobbler trailing 4 hens about 3/4ths of a mile down the road from there yesterday afternoon. I figured the hen flocks were already breaking up (maybe they are) since is was just a small group, but it's only going to get better. Youth week starts on April 7th and the regular season starts April 14th.
Jim
