Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs TN Study

So we are sitting at dinner tonight after my daughters softball game and my step dad hands me his phone and says “there are 2 hens nesting in that square” the square is near the road and very near one of our rental houses on our cattle farm in TN. I asked him how he knew and where the drawing come from and he told me a lady from UT had backpacks in both of them. They are from a 100 gobbler and 100 hen study where all are tagged and radio collared. These 2 hens are the only 2 that came our direction from 8 miles away she told him. They are both nested in a square that on the map she gave him that is 100’x100’ish. She is supposed to come back and flag both and will be watching them daily. I bet they are laying in the same nest. Pretty cool that they are there, but sad they may be the only 2 that have ever nested there too. Very slim pickings ever for a turkey to be in that area.

Hopefully the start of a flock for you

Surely there's a few more, just not tagged. I've seen more turkeys around the house this year than the past 12 years combined. Hopefully things are headed in the right direction

I sure hope so.

I think its pretty cool. Have you seen them Brandon?

Never heard of wild turkeys laying in the same nest.

My buddy told me they did a study of birds in Kentucky and an alarming number were sterile. Don’t know if he got good info or not though.

Follow Michael Chamberlain on Facebook, he had a nice write up about nest parasitism among hens a few days ago

In every area hes studied, there have been hens that laid a full clutch in the nest of another hen before going and laying there own clutch and sitting, which explains why you hear people talk about seeing hens with 20 to 25 babies sometimes.

I figure we’ll see some poults next week.

Pretty cool to happen on your property!
Maybe a start to good things ahead.