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

Got my first poult pics of the year!

Finally saw some at my place near the house. Was afraid we had a total nest failure this year. Looked like 2 hens and 8 or more young turkeys. Jumped them out of a Chufa plot regen from last year so didn’t get a good look at them.

They showed up again yesterday afternoon. How old do y'all think they are?

In addition to the first group, which I’m guessing are 6 weeks old, I saw another hen with a brood I’m guessing is about a week old. They were maybe 3” tall and there was about 6 in that group. There was another hen with her, no idea if she has any or not. So I’ve gone from expecting a total recruitment failure to seeing 2 different broods today.

The block of pines where I saw the youngest brood was first thinned last year and hopefully gets a burn in the next 9-10 months. Also planning some disking and spraying in some nearby areas to further improve the habitat.

I was texted from two different landowners pics/videos of 6 in one and 10-15 poults in a video in another. Both are places I hunt so I’m very happy lol

This morning in central Ms!

I’m getting tons of pictures of hens with no poults. I had one pic in early June of a handful, but none since. Doesn’t look like I had much survival this year.

I've seen way more than I expected to with all the rain

Too wet. Too dry. Who knows. Rain is not necessarily a problem for poult survival.

Avian predators starting with crows when they are still in the egg, crows and Coopers Hawks as poults then owls as adults. It’s a wonder any make it to adults.

Looks like 6-7 of them have made it so far

I saw 7 hens and 19 poults this morning.

I had that situation last year, a ton of poults that made it to basic adulthood. Not sure what happened though as this year I had the same 4-5 hens as usual but no poults. Hopefully they are around and just good at avoiding my cameras or found greener pastures.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but turkey’s disperse differently than deer. The Jenny’s disperse and the Jake’s hang around.

Here’s a pic of the poults I saw in early/mid July. Thinking it had to be a 2nd nest attempt with a hatch late June or early July. You may have to zoom to see them.

Definitely had to be a second nest as small as they are 👍

I had a pic this week with 11 hens and zero poults. Disappointing.

Been seeing a ton the last few weeks

Caught polt leaving road while running traps

On the public land I've been on in the last few weeks scouting for deer and dove, I've seen more juvenile turkey than I've ever seen. Yesterday I was in a dove field and heard a hen kee kee'ing and sure enough out she came with 6-7 good size juveniles in tow. Was really cool to hear how vocal she was.

I was spraying food plots last weekend and jumped up three poults that could only fly about 10 feet. Also jumped a covey of quail that had 4-5 that were tiny.