Educate me on turkey nesting and raising young

[j-bird]

So I have only a few turkey on my place so I don't hunt them and have never really dug into what they do and why and the like. However I have a new interest as I found my very first turkey nest over the weekend on my place. I am concerned about disturbing the hen too much and I am not sure if she should still be on eggs this time of year and what the time frame will be before they hatch and how she will care for them before they can fly.

Here is the nest she was on before I spooked her off.


The nest is right at the edge of a small clearing in the woods where I am trying to put in a small kill plot. a few weeks ago the weeds where waist high and I killed them with gly, but saw no sign of the turkey. Now the weeds are burned down and I spread my seed and weed-wacked what was left (not near the nest).


So I assume she will come back to the nest. However, should she still be sitting on eggs? It seems late to me. How long will it take them to hatch? Once they hatch will she continue to keep them in/near the nest for protection until they can fly? I don't want to disturb them, but I have other things going on (cams to check) where I need to be in the general area.

 

[yoderjac]

The biggest factor by far in turkey populations is weather. Cold wet weather when they are in the first few weeks kills a lot of poults. In years when the weather is favorable, populations recover quickly. In years when the weather timing is bad, populations can drop quite a bit. If a hen's first clutch of eggs or poults is lost, she will often next a second time. In my area in VA, it is not uncommon to see a hen with poults almost as large as her (early nesting) and young poults that can just fly up into a tree. The hen will return to the next if only spooked once. However, an adult hen that can nest again in future years is worth much more than a clutch of eggs. So, if she gets spooked of the nest too often, she may abandon it.

It will take a couple weeks for them to fly once they hatch. She will not necessarily keep them at the nesting site for those first few weeks. She will take them to brooding ground. That is why when managing for turkey it is important to have nesting cover proximate to brooding ground. They poults are at risk when traveling between. She will continue to roost on the ground in cover with the poults under her wings until they can fly and roots in trees.

The primary diet of these young poults is insects. They can't negotiate thatch type grass like fescue well when young. Clover, bunch grasses, canopy crops like soybeans, and similar things where there is bare ground underneath allow them easy navigation. Crops that provide them vertical cover help protect them from hawks, owls, and other avian predators next to good bugging ground is important. Until they can fly, they will flatten themselves to the ground when danger is near and the hen will try to distract the predator. A human can get much closer to a hen with poults than at any other time of the year. She will even play injured sometimes.

I would give the next a wide birth if you want the hen to continue to sit them.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[j-bird]

The biggest factor by far in turkey populations is weather. Cold wet weather when they are in the first few weeks kills a lot of poults. In years when the weather is favorable, populations recover quickly. In years when the weather timing is bad, populations can drop quite a bit. If a hen's first clutch of eggs or poults is lost, she will often next a second time. In my area in VA, it is not uncommon to see a hen with poults almost as large as her (early nesting) and young poults that can just fly up into a tree. The hen will return to the next if only spooked once. However, an adult hen that can nest again in future years is worth much more than a clutch of eggs. So, if she gets spooked of the nest too often, she may abandon it.

It will take a couple weeks for them to fly once they hatch. She will not necessarily keep them at the nesting site for those first few weeks. She will take them to brooding ground. That is why when managing for turkey it is important to have nesting cover proximate to brooding ground. They poults are at risk when traveling between. She will continue to roost on the ground in cover with the poults under her wings until they can fly and roots in trees.

The primary diet of these young poults is insects. They can't negotiate thatch type grass like fescue well when young. Clover, bunch grasses, canopy crops like soybeans, and similar things where there is bare ground underneath allow them easy navigation. Crops that provide them vertical cover help protect them from hawks, owls, and other avian predators next to good bugging ground is important. Until they can fly, they will flatten themselves to the ground when danger is near and the hen will try to distract the predator. A human can get much closer to a hen with poults than at any other time of the year. She will even play injured sometimes.

I would give the next a wide birth if you want the hen to continue to sit them.

Thanks,

Jack

Thanks Jack. She was not going anywhere until I got within about 20 yards of her. But I don't want to push it. I'll find a long way around to get my cam.

 

[SwampCat]

Hens are very prone to nest abandonment due to human intrusion. In my part of the world (Arkansas), studies have shown, by far, the preponderance of nest failures is due to predation. Adverse Weather directly results in very few lost nests - again - in my neck of the woods. Cold rain is definately a factor in poult mortality for the first month or so. I have found summer plots of browntop millet to be very well used by broods of turkeys - for insects and seeds. Turkeys will renest several times if their nest is destroyed. Not uncommon at all for second or third attempts to hatch in July down here. Average hatch date here is first week of June. Turkeys benefit from many of the same management practices you would use for deer. Turkeys on my place typically favor more weedy woods for nesting than pure grass fields. I have never had one that I know of attempt to nest in nwsg. Never had anything I know of nest in nwsg. Turkey hens may travel great distances to find suitable nesting habitat.

 

[H20fwler]

It's not to late to be nesting, they will re-nest clear into early August if the first or second nest gets destroyed. I found a turkey egg middle of August last year in the edge of my pond with a fully developed chick in it that a coon must have dropped.

Agree, hen turkeys are very spooky. I have had them nest in our orchard a couple times, every year I get them in the clover along woods with poults chasing grasshoppers in the tall clover. They will make a much bigger loop than you would think traveling pretty far in a day. I get hens in late summer joining their broods up into small flocks feeding together...they are like clock work coming through same time every day.

EVERYTHING...eats turkeys!

 

[j-bird]

Thanks guys. I'll steer clear as much as I can. The corn is tall enough here to hide them once they are on the move so if she can get them that far they should have a decent chance. I just like seeing other critters taking advantage.

 

[cavey]

In a hypothetical world if a guy had access to an egg incubator.... hmmm the possibilities.

Every once and a while - cutting hay you run through a nest.. if any eggs make it there done for anyways. Had a buddy who collected close to a dozen eggs off an exposed nest and raised them... he released half and ate the other half. I realize the legality issues but in the country sometimes these things happen. He said the birds got a bit sporty with him when they got older during feedings.. I think he ate half of them just to get even for the beatings.

 

[MickT]

In a hypothetical world if a guy had access to an egg incubator.... hmmm the possibilities....

That was every state’s thought in the early days of turkey restoration, but they failed miserably trying to farm them. Little turkeys need big turkeys to teach them how to be turkeys.

And I agree with the others, turkeys and quail are very prone to nest abandonment from disturbance. The closer they let you get, the closer they are to hatching usually. Give her a wide berth and hopefully you’ll have a dozen or so following her shortly.


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[j-bird]

I don't like the idea of people raising "wild" animals. Now, that makes me a hypocrite to a point and I understand that. However, I feel the best option is to let turkeys raise turkeys. Only if I felt the nest was abandoned would I consider intervening. I'll do the best I can in the situation and leave her well enough alone.

 

[yoderjac]

You can't really raise wild turkey poults. You can keep it alive in a pen and clip the wings like a domestic turkey. Otherwise your not raising a wild turkey, your raising predator food.

 

[H20fwler]

Buddy of mine has about ten adult peafowl loose around his barnyard, a couple years ago he found a turkey nest that a coon or skunk had raided with four eggs still in it. He put the eggs under a sitting peahen and three hatched. The young followed her like she was their mother until they were around 5-6 weeks old then they took off.
I used to raise pheasants and have done same with pheasant eggs under free range game hens with same results..they leave when they are still pretty young. Only a few of my pheasants made it to fall that I could tell but not through winter...can't say about the young turkey poults, he never saw them again.

 

[sandbur]

Think carefully about doing things to encourage the turkey population.

I just don’t like them around and long for the days when they did not exist in my part of the state.




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[cavey]

Think carefully about doing things to encourage the turkey population.

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Years ago I was sitting around a camp fire talking with a very large cash crop farmer from south western Wisconsin - the Mayzo-Black Earth area of the state... an area with well established and large pops of turkey... knowing the general reputation of turkeys and crop farmers - I heard him talking about all the turkeys he's been seeing ... thinking it was a good opportunity to expand my turkey hunting chances in another part of the state I point blank asked him about hunting them..... His response was not the one I expected "WHY, would I let you.... kill the birds that eat the bugs that eat my crops????"

 

[SwampCat]

Think carefully about doing things to encourage the turkey population.

I just don’t like them around and long for the days when they did not exist in my part of the state.




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You just dont have enough coons and coyotes. Our turkeys are about gone - going the same way as the bobwhite quail.

 

[ksgobbler]

I am restoring habitat for turkey and quail.

 

[j-bird]

I do not have a lot of turkey currently and I see them as a sign of better or improved habitat. My son hunts them, but has been unsuccessful thus far. Seeing turkey on my place is improving, but still fairly uncommon. I would agree that the quail population is in the tank here as well, but again .....every once in a while I see or hear them. I like the diversity....and deer are pretty adaptable critters, much more so than turkey or quail. I can't say I focus on turkey habitat, but if I can help this hen by staying away....then that is what I will do.

 

[SwampCat]

I do not have a lot of turkey currently and I see them as a sign of better or improved habitat. My son hunts them, but has been unsuccessful thus far. Seeing turkey on my place is improving, but still fairly uncommon. I would agree that the quail population is in the tank here as well, but again .....every once in a while I see or hear them. I like the diversity....and deer are pretty adaptable critters, much more so than turkey or quail. I can't say I focus on turkey habitat, but if I can help this hen by staying away....then that is what I will do.

Compared to deer, turkeys and quail have a tough row to hoe. In the east and south, there are probably only three or four common deer/fawn predators. All kinds of animals eat turkeys and quail - and even more eat their eggs. Tall Timbers Plantation, in FL, where they do a lot of quail research, even has video of a doe whitetail eating quail eggs. I think back in the good old days when a coon hide was worth $25, turkeys and quail could successfully nest in in mediocre habitat. Now that predators go largely unabated, it takes perfect habitat or an extreme amount of luck for an egg to lay on the ground for nearly 40 days and something not eat it.

 

[ksgobbler]

I had quail in the yard last night. THe bird dog found them pretty quick. Also had them come down to the pond the night before while fishing. Took some video of the bobwhite whistle very close to me in the brush. I said in another thread I had been thinking about starting a thread dedicated to my quail habitat restoration. I may get around to it this evening.

 

[j-bird]

I had quail in the yard last night. THe bird dog found them pretty quick. Also had them come down to the pond the night before while fishing. Took some video of the bobwhite whistle very close to me in the brush. I said in another thread I had been thinking about starting a thread dedicated to my quail habitat restoration. I may get around to it this evening.

I would be interested to see what you have done...... I was always told.....if you have lots of quail and rabbits, you have great overall wildlife habitat.

 

[ksgobbler]

I’ve got a metric crap ton of rabbits