In my experience…turkeys are just fine places they have always been…now theys some places that historically hadem an something happened..timber cut an nobody manged it or invasive vegetation just made it non conducive and they moved somewhere else..people think they died..when they probly just said..this place sucks…an i got wings…now there are places that theg totally disappeared off the landscape and they didnt just move up the road…the place im alluding to was covered up with turkeys all through the 80’s an early 90’s..the population began to grow in the 70’s..my daddy said they widnt a bord nowhere an then all at once…boom..they were everywhere…an not only that they started huntinem an killinem…daddy said they only increased in number every year. My grandaddy hunted them there as well..he told me he saw 49 in a winter flock deer hunting once..an he was a turkey killin machine in south alabama. They were plentiful up til the mid 90’s an daddy said he went to listen one morning an only heard a few..used to hear 8-10 on a good mornin..then it got fewer the next year…an thwy about quit seein them deer huntin too…i remember the last one i ever saw..it was a gobbler by his self..he walked across the road in front of us when we went to get a chistmas tree..probly 2003..maybe 2004….i remember when i was in kindergarten they was about 10 crossed the road in front of the school bus..that was..98 or 99..thats the last decent group i know of anybody ever seein..rogue hen spotted a couple times recently.. other than that..nothin🤷🏻

We’ve had a growing population within a half mile of my house and land over the last several years. This year? They’ve flat disappeared after February. They don’t get hunted. Only change has been a farmer putting out chicken cake litter instead of composted. On another 400 I do hunt, it was loaded with turkeys year around and they were on camera in February 30min after we cleaned out the deer hunters’ feeders before the season. Now? Zero turkeys. No litter there. No pasture at all. All woods and cutovers and edge. No idea what’s going on. Just some data. No clue what it means, but it’s frustrating.

We did a scientific study here in this forum a few years back that proved chicken litter is having a negative impact on turkey populations in AL. I won a commentation from a major university for my role in designing and carrying out the study. Unfortunately, the Chicken Mafia got involved and made sure that the results were suppressed.

But here's a nice summary that was put together by another aldeer member:

If you’ve got a legible copy of that or can send it, I’d appreciate it.

Sorry, it looks ok on my computer screen, but not on the phone. Here's a text only copy:


A Study of the Perceptions of aldeer Turkey Forum Members Regarding the Use of Chicken Litter and Wild Turkey Populations

Study Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of members of the aldeer turkey forum regarding turkey populations on lands treated with chicken littler and lands not treated with chicken litter. There has been a growing belief among turkey hunters that there is a direct correlation between the increasing use of chicken litter as fertilizer and a decrease in nearby turkey populations. Numbers from the study cannot be extrapolated to the entire state because study participants were not chosen randomly. However, since other research organizations in the state appear unwilling to carry out a study that might anger Alabama's powerful poultry lobby, it is left to the brave Scientists of PCP Enterprises to provide valid research in this important area.


Methodology

All visitors to the turkey hunting forum of aldeer from 4/24/16 til 4/28/16 were given the opportunity to participate in the study. Participants were asked if the tracts of land they hunted had turkey populations that were either above normal, normal, below normal, or way below normal, and whether or not each tract was close to land that had been treated with chicken litter. Most participants hunted on more than one tract of land, and each response was recorded separately. It was left up to the participant to determine if chicken littler was close to the tract, and the turkey populations were only the perception of the participant. The participants are known to be avid turkey hunters, though many of these goobers are not able to follow directions at all. When it was seemingly apparent what the participant meant by the response, it was counted even when not in the requested format. When it was unclear what the participant was trying to say, the response was discarded. This is part of the difficulty of being a Scientist dealing with laymen, but the research must go on.


Results

This study proves beyond a shadow of doubt that there is a direct correlation between the use of chicken litter as fertilizer and the decline of wild turkey populations in nearby areas. 79% of the participants who hunted close to areas treated with chicken litter reported turkey populations that were below normal or way below normal. This figure breaks down to 50% reported below normal and 29% way below normal. Only 17% of those hunting near chicken litter reported normal turkey populations, and a mere 4% reported above normal populations.

In contrast, study participants who hunted in areas not treated with chicken litter reported that 69% of the areas hunted had normal or above normal turkey populations. This broke down to 53% perceiving normal populations, and 16% that were above normal. Respondents from untreated areas reported 21% of areas below normal and 10% way below normal.

The study found that 76% of the hunters reported their hunting being in areas free of chicken litter, while 24% said their areas were contaminated with chicken litter. Combining all responses, participants reported that 57% of the state is either normal or above normal. It is critical to note that a full 19% of the state is experiencing a decline in turkey numbers due to the use of chicken litter.


Conclusions

This study indicates that some declines in turkey population in AL can be blamed on chicken litter. The state should take immediate steps to put a stop to this toxic practice and pass laws requiring chicken manure to be burned on site. Hunters should become more politically active in demanding these changes. PCP Enterprises will be happy to provide scientific support; for a small fee, of course. We will conduct any study you want and guarantee the results you want in advance. Anyone quoting this study should refer to its publication in the "Scientific Journal of PCP Enterprises". It is in the April edition.

About Us

PCP Enterprises is an organization with many branches. Our Wild Turkey Research branch exists solely for the purpose of trying to keep the eggheads from ruining our turkey hunting history and culture. We believe, as did Charles Kelley, that the key to abundant wildlife is to give landowners the incentive to manage their land for wildlife, knowing that they will have the opportunity to reap the rewards for their hard work. The idea that you can regulate your way to more turkeys is a fallacy that we will continue to fight.

End of study



In all seriousness, it does appear that there might be a connection between chicken litter and the decline of turkey populations. Its something that deserves to be researched by a real organization. I'm not optimistic about it happening, but I would love to be proven wrong.

Edit - I hope you can see that the guy who wrote this up was making it mostly a joke, though the actual study questions and responses were real.

There’s definitely some takeaway, if there’d ever be a serious study/sampling allowed. I’ll go one deeper in the conspiracy theory angle with another hypothesis: the rise of large scale chicken farming in the south roughly correlates to the beginnings of rapid quail decline.

We had turkeys on a piece of land that we hunt. We would see a gobbler and hens regularly. They left and haven't been seen since. No litter has been spread as this is mature hardwoods forest.

Talked with a guy for about an hour yesterday. He has land in TN and Al and runs with those guys I know that had a tone of land in TN I’ve mentioned before. After catching up with how everyone and how they’re doing.
He was looking for more turkey land to buy. The guy with him grew up around the farm and kept talking about all the turkeys he recalled seeing until 10 or so years ago. All of his family has land in the area. A lot of land. I said well look around, doesn’t this place look like there should be birds. I’d walked 5 fields and never saw a track. I heard one gobbler across the hills and 3 up front by the black top.
They cut timber, hardwoods about 200 acres and may have driven birds away this year. 🤷‍♂️

We’d been talking about David’s video of those 83 longbeards. He said he had that many on his place and so and so and so and so had that many other places too.

I asked what do you think happened. Chicken liter was his quick response answer. He said he’d asked the right people and never got a solid answer and smelled of not telling the truth. Those guys planted corn and chufa fields every year and I mean fields not food plots and had used chicken liter to build soil.

I’m not gonna say litter hasn’t killed a few turkey. But after what I’ve seen this year and especially the past few weeks, predators are number 1. Hunters being at the top of that list. I’ve seen more out of state tags on pieces of public land than I’ve seen locals in the past ten years. And hunters aren’t stopping at their legal limit. Starting season early. I’ve heard of several people killing well past their limit already and mostly over bait… social media has sky rocketed the number of hunters and kills imo the last few years. A lot more needs to be addressed before the litter.

This is dead on! There's ton after ton of litter spread in south Alabama. I can name 3 pieces of land that gets spread 3 times a year and both are loaded with birds. All 3 also get trapped hard!

Yep!! People are a lot of the problem. It’s unbelievable how many turkeys are getting killed before season opens, over bait or by this new rush of hunters because turkey hunting is cool.

Theytaste really good too but im not fixin to decimate a population because i like eating them.

I haven’t mounted a bird jw bc they don’t give you the meat back. This year I have one that I will get mounted and I’m gonna make sure the taxi at least eats it… I know one fella says he has killed 9 in two states and I know 1 state is a 2 bird limit… predators

And it’s not just hunting it’s fishing as well… just this week 2 guys took hook 60 over the limit. 3 days later they get their limit by 8am. And are going back to the lake at 1… it’s the outdoorsmen that are doing a lot of the damage, not the law makers. I’m sorry I got on a rant this evening. Just been doing some riding and observing on my off time, taking a break from hunting.

I’ve always said hunters are at the top of predators but it gobbler a for the most part

I don’t necessarily adhere to a dominate gobbler theory just as much as I think there’s a lot more to a gobbler being only needed for a short period of breeding. I mean if hay happens when the gobbler
Is killed and the hens nested is busted up. Who does she breed to now. Guess that goes back to the dominate gobbler possibly lol

The properties in TN I’m mentioning is similar to what I mentioned here. 5-6 main players as far as owners and leasing properties and they all were close by. They lost their birds relatively at the same time we did here 10-15 years ago. It started happening sooner but took a while to see the dwindling downward.

I though the OP as gonna mention the company that was making chicken liter into pelletized fertilizer. I don’t remember if they made her run the shoals or was distributed by someone here. 20 plus years ago we put it out at the club one year and seemed to work. Seems like they processed the liter and combined with lime to make a pellet. The pellets didn’t stay together to well.

The shear numbers of takers competed to just 10 years ago is astounding. Go back when I started in the early 90s and I bet it’s honestly tenfold.

The worst thing for turkey hunting in the last decade or more has been COVID in my opinion. COVID shut the world down right at the beginning of turkey season and many people obviously were not working therefore they took up hunting. I imagine many of these people took whatever means necessary to kill a turkey/turkeys and they don't know how to hunt without bait and fans. This method of hunting is the only method they know and therefore continue to hunt that way which generally tends to up the odds of success. Then like mentioned above there are a lot of people who kill well over the limit just so they can brag about how many they have killed/can kill.

I've heard 2 stories this weekend that show an utter lack of regard for the resource. One guy hunted a gobbler 2 mornings and couldn't get him in range. Day 3 he carried a 22 rifle and wounded him; turkey ran off to become coyote bait. Another one, 2 guys had a strutter over 100 yards away. Both shot at the same time and actually killed him. How could they be proud of that?

At least they were only killing one turkey at a time; chicken litter has the possibility of introducing a disease that wipes out a whole flock. I have no idea how often that happens, but I believe that it does happen. A few years ago a biologist on here said one of the Ag schools in TN had proof of it happening, but a report doesn't seem to have ever been published.