Driving into camp yesterday morning and saw a hen. As I got closer, several poults flushed. I assume it takes 4 weeks for them to be able to fly decent? So hatched the week of the 18th of April? Also checked a camera and a hen with poults was on it on the 14th of May.

Just for reference

Day old poults: learn to respond to the hen’s putt or alarm call before leaving the nest and will respond by freezing or running to hide beneath the hen if she sounds the alarm call
Within hours: Poults learn to peck at food items by mimicking their mother’s behavior
Day two: poults are performing most of the characteristic feeding, movement and grooming behavior patterns
Week one: poults are regularly dusting with the hen
Week two: Poults are able to fly short distances
Week three: Poults can roost in low trees with the hen, this change also indicates a change of diet from mostly insects to a higher percentage of plant matter

Hmm...it would seem you didn’t kill the boss gobbler early in the too early season. Otherwise, you would have disrupted the breeding cycle, delayed nesting, decreased production and never have seen flying poults in mid-May. Am I right?

Bahaha hahahahaha! When you’re right, you’re right!

[quote=Richard Cranium]Just for reference

Day old poults: learn to respond to the hen’s putt or alarm call before leaving the nest and will respond by freezing or running to hide beneath the hen if she sounds the alarm call
Within hours: Poults learn to peck at food items by mimicking their mother’s behavior
Day two: poults are performing most of the characteristic feeding, movement and grooming behavior patterns
Week one: poults are regularly dusting with the hen
Week two: Poults are able to fly short distances
Week three: Poults can roost in low trees with the hen, this change also indicates a change of diet from mostly insects to a higher percentage of plant matter[/quote

Not sure how far they flew. They got up about quail height and were moving pretty good is all I got to see. Bout the size of a pheasant.

I now have a third hen with poults that feeds on my lawn, and this one has 9. So I've got hens with 5, 7, and 9 poults hanging around. I can't walk to the garden without disturbing turkeys; went out there yesterday and scared 2 different groups. I hope the hatch is as good everywhere else.

Wether has been near perfect. Wet early, drier now. Already plenty of green and bugs and no bad storms and hard rain since they started hatching.

We've had several consecutive years of great hatches. Unfortunately it is coinciding with Chuckie's pushed back and shortened season. I feel certain he will take all of the credit, and wouldn't be shocked if he took away more of the season or reduced the limit.

Just saw my first batch of poults in Blount co on a cell cam

Seen two different groups of poults here in the last 2 days in Pike County. First batch was really small, didn't fly and there was a load of them. 2nd batch just a bit ago while I was bush hogging were flying very good and there was a load of them too. Love to see it.

Just saw 9 on club in Jeff co. They were super small and didn’t fly and I drove 5 feet from them

We had an intense thunder storm here yesterday, with large hail falling for about 10 minutes. I wondered how it might have affected my poults, but when I stepped outside this morning my lawn was covered with poults under the watch of 2 of the hens. The hens were only a few feet from the front door, so it spooked them enough that they started gathering up their offspring and heading into the woods. I quickly went back inside and tried to get a count from inside the house, but they were too quick and I couldn't get an accurate count.

I have been hoping to see all 3 of the hens together with all 21 of the poults, but that is wildly optimistic. I expected they would all eventually get together, so it was good to see that at least 2 of them are together. I think all 3 of these broods hatched the first week of May, so they should all be able to fly by now and can roost in trees. Hopefully, most of them still alive will make it.

If they hatched the first week of May, that means that the hens were setting beginning the first week April. And since they lay an egg a day, that would mean that all 3 of these hens started laying in the middle of March. Their breeding then had to be done by mid March, and it could have started as early as mid February. I have seen poults on my lawn for several consecutive years now, and it always happens around the 10th of May. It doesn't appear that killing some of the gobblers has made any difference to their reproduction in this area.

PCP, no doubt the ones I saw that had flying poults had to be hatched no later than late April, so she was on nest 1st of April and laying in mid March. I’ve seen another group that probably hatched 1st week of May on another piece of property about 20 miles south of the others.