Wild Turkey Management

[ALwoodsman]

For the last 6 or 7 years we have had a small amount of turkeys on our property. Each year up until recently I have seen or heard several gobblers in the area around my property. Last year I only saw one gobbler and this year I have seen one gobbler and a jake. There are at least 8 hens in the area. I want to hunt but am concerned that killing the gobbler would hurt my population or is it possible that a less dominant gobbler would move into the area to breed the hens once the other one is gone. Thoughts?

 

[Corbin.clay]

I have had the same thoughts, but i am sitting on 35 acres. Only saw hens the first few years, then saw a jake last year. Had the same reservations about hunting him as a gobbler this year. Turkeys home range is supposedly much larger than a deer, so i decided I would hunt him this year. As long as you are making habitat improvements that benefit turkey, I would hunt the birds you have. Low pressure hunting (like deer) shouldnt pressure the hens away.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I have a similar thing going on, but I'm up North. Very few birds on my property...a handful of hens, and a gobbler or two. In my experience the birds are very transient. Toms move in for a week or two, then they're gone. Other toms show up. I have never really worried that taking a tom on my property is going to hurt the population. I do limit myself to one tom though.

If it's a concern to you, perhaps give the birds a break early season when they are doing a lot of breeding and then hunt mid to late season after the hens are bred.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

X-2. ^^^^^

 

[shawnv]

If you have hens around, another gobbler will find them. Sounds like you may want to focus on trapping whatever may eating the eggs and work on improving some nesting sites that stay dry. Good luck!

 

[ALwoodsman]

If you have hens around, another gobbler will find them. Sounds like you may want to focus on trapping whatever may eating the eggs and work on improving some nesting sites that stay dry. Good luck!

That was my plan. I am heading out this afternoon to set some coon traps. I see way too many of them on my trail cameras.

 

[j-bird]

Well I am glad I am not the only one.....I am not a turkey hunter, but that's because deer hunting can be frustrating enough. I have a group of birds that seem to move thru once in a while.....I can easily go a month without seeing them and then boom! I'll see a group of a dozen of them. I hear the gobblers moving up and down the creek bottoms but I have never went after one. Sometimes I think they just call to taunt me...luckily I tend to be busy in the spring with deer projects enough to keep me occupied. I tend to let locals trap my creek to help the birds, but I don't do any turkey specific habitat work. I know they like to use my plots.

 

[ruskbuckss]

I not sure how it is in the south, but in northern WI the turkeys move around a lot. It seems like in spring that there is a tom every 40 -80 acres. It looks to me that a tom will claim that piece of land with the hens that are in the area. After the breeding season they seem to just travel all over and roost wherever they end up. Some years we will see quite a few and other years I wont see them on my land but there is always a lot around within a few miles. I don't think I have resident flock after spring. I wouldn't worry about hurting that population by taking out a tom, there will be another tom or jake that will claim his spot. That tom might be the reason you are not seeing any other toms.

 

[Boll Weevil]

I'm in the 6th year of implementing a plan to increase the turkey population on my farm. At the beginning it was rare to even cut a track in the roads and fields. As of this post, these are absolutely the good'ol days for me.

Focus on improving your nesting and brooding habitat, managing the predators, and building a strong hen population...they're to key to getting enough poults year after year to grow your number of birds. There were years I only killed one gobbler because he was likely the only capable breeder. If you want to hunt gobbling birds, don't shoot jakes. Be persistent in your habitat improvements, give the birds time to respond to your effort, and I truly hope your results are like mine have been.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I have never had a thought about overharvesting turkeys. Plenty in northeast wisconsin. One of these died last year. I dont have the shot on film as I had to ditch the blind and go for a sneak attack, bit I should post the video. These three ran off and I mean ran off another tom that was mounting a hen.

 

[yoderjac]

For the last 6 or 7 years we have had a small amount of turkeys on our property. Each year up until recently I have seen or heard several gobblers in the area around my property. Last year I only saw one gobbler and this year I have seen one gobbler and a jake. There are at least 8 hens in the area. I want to hunt but am concerned that killing the gobbler would hurt my population or is it possible that a less dominant gobbler would move into the area to breed the hens once the other one is gone. Thoughts?

Killing that gobbler or jakes won't hurt your population at all. Turkey range quite a distance. Gobblers can breed hens at a 30+ : 1 ratio if necessary. Jakes frequently breed by the last part of the breeding season.

Turkey populations are governed by two major factors, the number of hens that make it through the winter, and the spring weather. Fall regulations that remove the opportunistic opportunity for deer hunters to harvest hens can have a positive impact on populations. Spring weather is not something we can control. Turkey are the most vulnerable during the first two weeks of their lives. They are highly susceptible to viruses and prolonged periods of cool wet weather right after the hatch can be devastating on that year's recruitment. Poults are also highly susceptible to predators especially for those first couple weeks until they can fly up and roost in a tree. Nest predators can also have an impact on eggs.

Now, I'm not promoting shooting jakes. Just saying it is not a real factor in populations. The best reason not to shoot jakes is if you want to increase the number of mature gobblers in your area. A Jake is a one year old bird during spring gobbler season. If it is not shot, there is a very high probability it will bake it to the next spring and for many springs until harvested. Adult gobblers (1 year and older) are not highly susceptible to predation.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[John-W-WI]

and work on improving some nesting sites that stay dry.

I'm not going to pretend to be the biggest turkey guy around... but I'm curious, what kind of nesting sites do they prefer? I'm sure google would tell me, but why ask google when I have resident experts here? :)

-John

 

[shawnv]

Early successional growth is what they love at my place. I have blackberries in and out of the woods and they love that too. Sometimes it may be just a matter of letting a hay field stay overgrown until late june. I also have seen nesting on the edge of hinge cuts inside the woods. The biggest killer for eggs is moisture and the heat from the hen nesting where it causes the eggs to rot so anything you can do to promote higher, well drained spots with grasses would be a good thing.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm not going to pretend to be the biggest turkey guy around... but I'm curious, what kind of nesting sites do they prefer? I'm sure google would tell me, but why ask google when I have resident experts here? :)

-John

I'm not an expert, but I have been involved in more spring gobbler surveys than I can count and have worked with biologists that have done capture and gps tagging and tracking. Here is my take:

Everything is about poults. In the spring, Gobblers root sites are governed by proximity to hens and safety. Hens select root sites that are proximate to both good nesting and brooding cover. Good nesting cover is thick. The same kind of early succession we think of for deer is great for nesting cover, but it does not need to be large blocks. It can be in smaller quantities. Overgrown fields, field edges just inside the woods where light gets in, stream buffers where enough light gets in, are all good for nesting.

Good brooding habitat consists of many of the same things we plant for deer, but arrangement is more important. First, it should be close to the nesting cover. Young poults can't travel that far. If you look at a turkey poult's diet, 90% of it consists of insects. Clover greens up early and is a great attractant for insects and makes great bugging. You don't want grasses that lay down like fescue. Young poults can't travel through it. They move best on bare ground. However, they are very susceptible to avian predators when exposed.

So, I start with clover and then plant something with vertical cover next to it. I use bicolor lespedeza. It grows 6' tall but has plenty of bare ground under it and is a low maintenance perennial. It also produces millions of tiny seeds that both turkey and quail eat. Every time I mention bicolor, I want to caveat it with saying that it is non-native and can be invasive in some habitats. I've used it for well over 10 years with no expansion from the planted stands and have been able to re-convert stands back into crops with no problem. That may not be true in other areas, so check it out before using it.

There are many other options, RR soybeans work well as they will have lots of bare ground under the canopy. Placing these next to clover allows poults to approach the clover under cover, bug in the clover, and get back under cover when threatened.

There is no need to plant to feed adult turkey. They will eat just about anything that doesn't eat them. If you want to hold turkey on your place during the summer months, plant buckwheat. They will bug in it, but they seem to just love buckwheat seeds.

I found nothing that will keep turkey off acorns when they fall. This doesn't mean they won't eat stuff in the fields on occasion but acorns seem to be the favorite in the fall. NWTF has really pushed chufa and if you only care about turkey or ducks, there is nothing wrong with planting it, but there are so many crops we plant that turkey love and also benefit deer that unless you have more acres to plant than you know what to do with, I would not dedicate any acreage to chufa.

Only last thing. Many folks used to believe that turkey needed large blocks of mature forest. We now know that they support lower turkey densities than mixed habitat. Blocks of different age class pines, hardwoods, and fields with some creek bottoms makes outstanding general habitat.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[sandbur]

Turkey management for me would be getting rid of every one of them. They are not native to most of our state.
I will take partridge (grouse) and pheasants over them every time. Even pheasants have been here about 90 years, turkeys for about 15 years.

Are there discussions in northern Wisconsin about turkeys hurting grouse populations?

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Are there discussions in northern Wisconsin about turkeys hurting grouse populations?

Hey sandbur...I've seen statements to that effect here and there on different forums. I even it saw it claimed once that turkeys EAT young grouse poults. Could the observation that turkeys are hurting grouse pops. simply be a case of two data sets being correlated, but not causal? I can imagine a situation where perhaps the forests are maturing (much like here in the Northeast) and that is not benefiting grouse populations. But at the same time those older forests are better habitat for turkeys. So turkey pops. are up and grouse pops. are down...and the observation is that turkeys are hurting grouse pops.

 

[Buckly]

I'm not going to pretend to be the biggest turkey guy around... but I'm curious, what kind of nesting sites do they prefer? I'm sure google would tell me, but why ask google when I have resident experts here? :)

-John

I'm not sure turkeys have an innate ability to pick out the best nesting sites every time. The better nesting of course is in brush and blackberry thickets and they will nest there however many, many times I have seen them nest right out in the wide open woods. Usually up against a big tree.

 

[bowhunternw]

Used to be all hung up on deer hunting but I know for sure I had more fun chasing turkeys last year than I did deer hunting. They seem to show up around my property from time to time but don't feel like there is a huntable population there yet. Hope someday I can harvest one out there.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm not sure turkeys have an innate ability to pick out the best nesting sites every time. The better nesting of course is in brush and blackberry thickets and they will nest there however many, many times I have seen them nest right out in the wide open woods. Usually up against a big tree.

Good point. This is particularly common for inexperienced hens with their first brood. It also occurs more in big woods where canopy prevents better cover. The number of open nest sites are also probably over represented in our anecdotal observations because they are much easier to find. Also, keep in mind that there is some natural variety with turkey like deer. If they all had the exact same behavior, the population would be much more fragile. Having said that, you will find that the majority of hens select the denser cover we described.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[nchunter1989]

So in a clear cut regen habitat- would converting some areas to grasses be better? Or give them access through the thick regen? We have 8-10 birds that cruise the property, another 30-40 birds in the neighborhood.


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