Saw 2 hens with 16 total poults.... I'll stop grinding my teeth at night now

I busted up a flock yesterday afternoon, and the poults looked nearly grown. They sure were stupid; kept walking up to the field and making the kee kee call with me standing in it. Several of them just looked at me from 30 yds away.

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Just got my chufla In The ground Saturday PCP - hope to get some rain - we got 1 small rain and 1 decent rain last week

Wish ours were that size. The ones I saw were no bigger than a quail.

Ive seen a couple longbeards this week and they let me drive within 15 yards of them. Then they stand and watch like they are mad I found their favorite berry patch.

Good luck! I hope you get more rain than I have. I planted on 5/28 and it hasn't rained since. No rain in the forecast this week, so it's gonna be well over a month with nothing. Looks like that was several hundred dollars just thrown away.

I think I am going to give up at the Perry county place. It's the driest area in the state and too big of a risk for any summer crops. My little patch at home looks good.

That’s crazy my place in heiberger has had rain regularly while at home we’ve had less than an inch in a month.

Got this picture today in my chufa plot on my little home farm. I guess my trapping efforts of ridding that property of as many nest predators isn’t producing any results I had 10 jakes on this farm this spring so the future looks bright.

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Very nice

Hope I hav a Jake this year

We have hardly no nest predators on my 40 and the adjacent 80 but I never have seen hatches like that.

Nice! It would really be something if trapping really helped

Sj22 I can tell you or anyone else willing to listen trapping doesn’t hurt. In my personal it’s the most important thing you can do for yourself if you want more turkeys and that’s the only thing you can control. This property 5 years ago had a few birds around. With trapping and managing a few small open areas for nesting cover it has helped this property. This land is most creek bottom land which is very wet at times. It’s a coon paradise as the habitat is perfect for them.

Trapping definitely helps and it's just another piece of the puzzle. For some people, such as lease holders who can't manipulate the habitat, it's the biggest thing that can be done. It's time consuming and not a one time thing, but I've personally experienced the turn around in nest success. The spring after we removed 150 coons and possums in a little over a year I saw a couple of hens with 18+ poults. Was there a third hen I didn't see ? Maybe, but either way it was a good hatch. Have also seen good hatches the past two springs and we continue to work on nest predators all we can.

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve seen a huge difference on one of my places but it tickles me that the experts say it’s not that big a deal, you can’t convince me that it doesn’t help

That’s a great hatch. I hope most of them make it to adulthood. Hard to say which is tougher, surviving the nest or making it to adulthood after hatching. Neither come easy for them it seems

That's encouraging. Great work Squeaky!

Experts = DGT = fuzzy math

Trapping = more hatched eggs = redneck math

Pick a side…….

Squeaky what are you calling a few birds, when you say it had a few birds around it? What animals are you guys trapping?
We have killed 200 ish coons and 60 ish possums in the past 3 years, have tried trapping coyotes and bob cats, but not succesfully. But then you have hawks, eagles.ants, snakes, floods etc.

We have planted 9 chufa patches the last 3 years and most of my hen pics in chufa patches look like these below. I will say chufa seems to attract a few more turkeys but really do not see any increase in poult numbers from what we can tell.

Ben all I have trapped is coon and possums on this property. When I say a few I mean it did not have a huntable population on it when I moved back home. I'm not sure how long it was like that. I do know my best friend did allow another mutual friend and his son to turkey hunt during my absence. I was in Alabaster for 10 years and the turkey management suffered in my absence. Those guys that got to hunt were of the type that take and don't do anything to help the population. Add another neighbor into the mix with the same mindset along with the predator numbers and that might have led to the decline.

This is private land that I have some say into what takes place on it. The only thing I have done is plant 1.5 acres chufa, burn the planted pines every 3 years and plant some/maintain 2 acres of Yuchi arrowleaf clover. The hens on this property absolutely love to nest in this two acre clover plot. It is thick by the time they start nesting, it's full of grass hoppers and offers a readily available food source for the nesting hen. She doesn't have to leave or go far to get some food.

The habitat is mostly hardwood that is on the wet side. Lots of water oak and whiteoak but in my opinion it has thicker understory. There has been some timber harvest over the years by the neighbors but nothing on this place in 20+ years.

I say you are doing a solid job on your property from what I know. There are other factors that is still contributing to poor poult production on your place. What that might be, who knows. I will say one of those hens appears to be a young jenny (middle pic) and they don't typically hatch a clutch.

The good and the bad, the hen I had on camera actually has 6 poults (if they’re all hers) but there was another hen with her. Then I saw another hen with 0. So it’s gone from 5 poults per hen to 3 poults per hen to 2 poults per hen.

Just got hammered by a good rain - Chufla been in Ground a week - maybe it will do good - we will see