Turkey Season is Too Late, Again.

[redneck2]

I have fives acres. Pretty rural. An open ditch on the back property line, then a ten acre field past that that’s surrounded by woods.

Turkey breed there every year. Saw my first ones this morning. I’m guessing one of the gobblers was at least 26#. He was huge.

Few years back, one of my friends that lives a few miles away took two over 30# off their farm. Relatively flat land, lots of grain fields, and good cover let them grow big. I think we also have relatively low hunting pressure compared to the population

 

[buck460XVR]

My oldest son lives in Upstate New York, on one of his rides last week he seen a few turkeys with pullets.
Thier season doen't open until May 1st.

In ideal conditions it takes about two weeks for a hen to lay a clutch of eggs and about a month of incubation before they hatch. That means those hens had to start laying the first part of February and temps at night, at least until the first part of March, could not have gotten below freezing, or the clutch would be destroyed and the hen would have to start over. Possible in Upstate New York, I dunno. Then there's the clutches found by raccoons or other ground dwellers that like eggs for dinner. Breeding here in Wisconsin, because it is stimulated by daylight, does not start till April. But Toms have been displaying and strutting since early March. Hunting late seasons here(end of May) I have seen hens still going to the Toms to be bred. Our first modern Turkey season was in 1983 here in Wisconsin. I got my first permit in 1984. Over the years the opportunities and the amount of birds available has mostly increased due to diligent management. It's not always a perfect scenario, but it is pretty good.

 

[redneck2]

Our season opens in two days. Tomorrow we’re are supposed to get 2” of snow. Of course, it was 80 last week

 

[Armored farmer]

We are all caught up on spring tillage and fert applications. Planters are shut down due to the prediction of snow and freezing temps for the next 48hrs.

I'm headed 25 miles north to our northern zone farm. It is loaded with turkeys and hopefully mushrooms

 

[Chuck R.]

Ours are active, from this morning's hunt:



Sole Tom that came into a small group of hens. Probably saw 20 birds total including a bearded hen.

 

[Captcurt]

We are all caught up on spring tillage and fert applications. Planters are shut down due to the prediction of snow and freezing temps for the next 48hrs.

I'm headed 25 miles north to our northern zone farm. It is loaded with turkeys and hopefully mushrooms
View attachment 993491

We didn't have any luck yet with turkeys but my hunting buddy has found 153 Morels in 2 trips.

 

[redneck2]

Went yesterday, opening day. We were on the north side of the woods. Best friend’s son n the south side got a really nice gobbler about an hour into shooting time. He called it across a hay field. He’s hunted two years and gotten two birds in total of about 2-3 hours all together.

We only saw one bird, a hen. She came out and stood statue still for 45 minutes right in our decoys. Moved her head a little but didn’t take a step. Then she moved to the edge of the woods and did the same thing again. We got out to get our decoys and she just stood there, maybe 30 yards from us.

 

[22250Rem]

Turkey season starts May 1st and this past Wed., April 21st, we got one of those springtime snow squalls. I saw a flock of 5 or 6 out back and one walked by a trail cam about 100 yds away from the house. Wonder if this weather is gonna upset their schedule and maybe make things better for me next month? The only turkey hunting I've ever done is when it's a beautiful, mild, spring morning in May. Don't know how cold affects turkeys movements or anything. Perhaps May won't be seeming too late this year like it usually does. Got above freezing by afternoon, melting the snow, and the same cam caught one of the local foxes out and about. ... .......

 

[redneck2]

I think breeding is triggered by photo periodic stimulus rather than weather.