Finally made it back to the farm to do a little cutting on food plots. First field I pulled in to I saw a hen and she wasn’t moving to quick then I noticed the grass moving behind her looked to have a pile of young ones. I just stuck to cutting roads.

Also saw 3 jakes and a long beard which brings up another question. I never noticed it until the last 2 years but starting around this time I using see a couple of groups of jake and there is always a long beard in front of them. Are the long beards acting like a parent or is coincidence.

Just my opinion, but I don't think there is anything like parental guidance taking place. At some point near the end of the breeding season the gobblers start getting back together, and I think the older gobblers tend to just treat the jakes as one of the boys by that time. I suspect that the reason the groups you are seeing have more jakes is as simple as the fact that there are a lot more of them.

Those groups of the previous years jakes and longbeards will then generally stay together until the next breeding season, but I don't think they feel any great need to constantly be together. The flock might be busted up by a human or a predator and it might take them days to get back together. There might be a very attractive food source around and the gobbler flock might be mixed right in with the hens and poults for a period of time, then split up again. They don't have a rule book, so you might see any sort of group.

As far as I can tell, the only rule in the turkey rule book is if you see something that could mean danger, get out of Dodge, guick. Turkeys are not real big on curiousity

Saw poults everywhere this weekend. Had 6-8 in my neighbors driveway yesterday. Probably saw 50 or so at our club. That damn dominant gobbler is a man whore!!

On the way home from church i saw 3 hens with around 20 poults. Not on my land but is is encouraging to see good nesting success.

I wish I could get pics of them but there is a group of 2 hens on the main lease I have, that have more poults than one can count before they get out of sight. someone who has been hunting for 50 years siad its the biggest group of poults he's ever seen. I can't believe it honestly because we do little trapping and have just started to have a hog problem yet there are 5 or 6 groups of poults that have 50 + combined... the hens on this property never cease to amze me with their production rate.

Mother nature saves the day yet some state agencies will take credit for it through their season changes.

Way better hatch around here this summer than the previous two summers.

Saw almost chicken sized poults at the end of May, and saw poults less than a week old yesterday morning. Several second nest attempts appeared to have been successful around here.

Ive seen a few but i definitely dont think itll be a banner year. Glad to see the few i have though.

Finally got a pic of these 2 hens and 10 poults


And I’ve also been seeing this hen and 2 bigger poults that keep to themselves.

They’re growing

those poults look hot!!

Dang Shaun, them jokers hatched late!

Yessir

three poults but.

3 taliban!

Saw 4 behind my house Thursday. Late hatch. First I've seen this year