I’m just trying to wrap my head around what it would take for breeding and nest initiation to be significantly delayed……It seems like as of now its just a theory that its an issue without a single piece of evidence to back it up as actually occurring. Nothing seems to support that being the case

I see many trailcam pictures over the course of a year from friends that feed corn. In almost every picture there are coons eating on the corn as well as the deer. I made the comment once that they were killing their turkeys by feeding the coons and keeping their population in great condition. I really believe folks are decimating their turkeys by helping the coon population!

Since Colbert went to no supplemental feeding because of CWD I want to see if this has any effect on turkey recruitment. The only problem is that folks are still feeding during the hunting season. The outlaws around here always have and always will feed whether legal or not. I haven't hunted a turkey in about 20 years and I really miss it.

Baiting disrupts nature terrible. It isn't right but it's lining the pockets of our crooks in the DCNR.

It's a double edged sword. It also makes trapping them much easier if you are willing to spend a little time fooling with it. You can set a half dozen DP traps on a feeder for a week and do some real work on your coon population. There is no doubt that if no trapping is being done that it's helping the coon population and most likely hurting nesting hens

You could set a dozen dog proofs around your feeder and prob catch every coon coming in one night. No reason not to do it.

Both my places have good populations. I can’t remember the last time I went hunting and didn’t hear multiple birds gobble.

Rarely are complex problems solved by simple solutions. To quote Mr. Gump, I'm not a smart man, but it makes sense that one thing or mgmt deployment isn't going going to solve much of the problem, "silver bullet style". It's a ground nesting bird.. everything is impacting them. Loss of habitat, booming nest predators, increase in turkey hunter numbers, decrease of statewide trapping activity, increase in firearm effectiveness, disease prevalence, rising sea levels, man made global climate change, wind turbines, solar flares, the coke zero formula... etc.

Do what you can where you can, but I suspect the most effective "local" solutions are going to require multiple actions at landscape level.