We've had rain everyday for a couple weeks now it seems. I've heard several biologist blame poor hatch years on extremely wet springs so this can't be good.


Me and Cole think alike! Just saw your post on Reb's rain thread 5 minutes after posting this.

Haha, yep it is definitely not good. The early hatch birds may be fine but the later hatch has had it pretty rough.

Good thing it was pretty dry around here later part of April and first half of May. Dry enough anyway. I saw some early poults this year and watched some fly mid-May.

The past 10 days would definitely be rough on some fresh hatched little fellers.

In my uneducated opinion, wet weather also plays a role in higher predation of turkeys. Any coon hunter will tell you that the dogs have a tougher time tracking coons when it's dry. They do better when the ground is moist. I guess a wet ground causes the scent to stick to the ground better. My conclusion is that if dogs can smell coons better under wet conditions, then predators can smell turkeys better under wet conditions. I hope a lot of poults were big enough to fly before all this wet weather hit, but I'm afraid they weren't.

Good point! I know dogs definitely track and wind scents better when there is moisture. I hadn't even thought of it from that aspect.

You can't run a trap line in this type weather either so helping them at this point in the game is out.

I've seen over 30 poults in montgomery county so far, all within 10 miles of each other and between 5 hens. all of them were small chicken size. I'm anxious to get some cams out and see what kind of hatch I had on my other places. I don't think it's been too wet on them, it has rained often but not in large amounts

It's tough to think about but it is nature after all. Nothing we can do about the rains but hope they persevere.

I've started back hammering the nest predators in anticipation of a poor hatch this first go round. I've killed 10-15 coons in the last week or so.

Hopefully they will nest again

I wonder how well documented the relationship between weather and successful hatches really is in the southeast? Doesn't seem to be any question that wet weather really improves poults survival in the Midwest. Guys I hunted with out there were delighted with all the rain they were getting.

More rain grows more vegetation that gives poults better cover to hide and also produces more grasshoppers and other insects for them to eat. Past years of very dry springs don't seem to have improved poult survival in AL. I suspect there is a happy medium on ideal weather for poult survival in the southeast, but I am wondering if there is really anyone who can describe it with any certainty.

I could be wrong.

I think it only matters in places that flood, just my 2 cents. I will say that a wet turkey has a really strong smell versus it being dry, that could play a role

I think the cool overcast days where the sun never comes out and gives them a chance to dry off hurts more than anything.

Haven't I read where young poults catch pneumonia and die when they stay wet?

And they get hypothermia if it's cool and they are wet before they get feathers

I've read lots of stuff that turned out to not be true.

I know that after a wet spring in KS I will see 100 jakes on a 3 day hunt the next year.

Like I said, there has gotta be some amount of spring rainfall that is ideal for poult production; total drought has seemed to work all that well.

Yeah like the game check numbers!

I do not know for the southeast for certain tho in my honest oppinion(an this is fact to me in my mind) turkey here in the southeast do have a harder time raising polts in wet weather. Just my personal oppinion established from my own eye witness account upon private land which im privy to. As for the western united states and i will use south texas as an example because that is the area that im most familiar with. It is absolute rock solid fact.... If it dont rain out there from febuary to middle of june on and off you can hang it up deer will look crappy even as strict as our supplemental feed program was, if it dont rain and deer have acsess to the high protein browse out there they will flop and i mean flop bad. not just deer, its everything from turkeys to dang skeeters. Rain is the lifeblood to the west.