Confirmed sighting of poults already on the ground in Covington Cty. I was working the dirt in my chufa plot attempting to get it ready to plant next month. I was also hoping to expose some more chufa for the turkey to eat and I flushed a hen in the process out of the ankle to calf deep grass. I immediately stopped the tractor and I could see little poults scattering through the grass. I stopped what I was doing and got out of the area. Hopefully the hen went back to look for them. The poults where very small so I’d guess a couple days old.

I learned a valuable lesson today! Stay my butt off the tractor this time of year! I need to get my dirt work done much sooner so I lesson my chances of disturbing the hens nesting and the young poults I know better to bush hog this time of year but I never expected to disturb a hen and tiny poults in my chufa plot. The grass was full of grass hoppers so they were in it bugging. I feel like a turd and got sick to my stomach!!

Yessir. I stay away as hard as is to do. We’re finding nests out in wheat fields well be combining in 30 days. I just hope they hatch and fly by then cause a machine with a 45ft head in it moving 5 mph in wheat dust you can’t see hens or poults. Some wil die I know.

They were back together just a few minutes after you left the area guaranteed

Or he might have killed a couple of them.....

No guarantee though

Na, mom knows what she's doing. Watching them regroup is an amazing thing if you've never seen it.

We almost ran over a hen with about 8 poults this morning. Actually the poults, we clearly saw the hen

I feel confident I did not get any of the poults but as you stated no guarantee. It’s a lesson learned moving forward I will do my best not to repeat.

I’ve never really thought about it but does the hen sit on the nest during the night before they hatch or fly up to roost somewhere and when they are born how long does it take them to be able to fly. Do they just hang out in the woods while mom is up in a tree

I believe once she’s laid a full nest of eggs and starts sitting on them, she won’t roost again until the nest is lost or, if it hatches, until the poults are 10 or so days old (and able to fly short distances). I think hens take short breaks from sitting on the nest most days—to go feed—but not at night.

Yea they stay on the nest the whole time except for an hour or so a day to feed/water/dust and what not. Generally around the 2 week mark they can start getting up on some limbs.

This is the crappy part about planting summer plots this time of year. I am planning to plant the weekend of the 22nd I hope they are out of the fields by then.

I've got some tractor work that needs to be done. May put it off for another couple of weeks and use this as an excuse.

Bumped a hen off a nest with 15 eggs on Monday in north Dallas county and saw a hen with fresh poults yesterday a few miles away. Always good to see them this time of year.

I saw a hen with a bunch of poults in my garden Sunday afternoon. Monday morning I heard her putting loudly and went outside and saw a predator of some sort attacking the poults. I thought it was a big house cat but it could have been a fox; I only caught a glimpse of it. I grabbed a gun and went running to her and got up within a few steps of the hen and she made no attempt to run from me. I circled around her looking for the predator, but it was gone.

I would say that the hen somehow knew I was trying to rescue her poults, but it's more likely she had the remaining poults crouched around her and wasn't going to leave them. I haven't seen them since; I hope the varmint didn't get them all. Life is tough when you are a poult who can't fly yet.

I saw 12 little ones today, but they were in my brood box

I got 4 that are 3-4 weeks old myself.

Just got this picture. Hopefully this is the hen and her poults I almost got with the tractor and tiller. She’s must be a pretty good momma because we have had a lot of heavy rain lately. I hope she can keep them safe a few more weeks until they can fly.

I love to see that squeaky!

Absolutely. Most excited I get about game cam pictures are ones like that one.

Great to see, thanks for sharing