First Turkey Poults of the Year

DoradoDreamin

I saw the first turkey poults of the year this past weekend. Looked to be less than a week old, still small and fuzzy looking. They were with two hens and to my surprise a single gobbler who was still doing some strutting when I first saw them. Is it normal for a gobbler to stay with the hens/poults when the poults are vulnerable or does this mean something else is going on like some hens who had failed nests are still trying to nest? Thanks

huntmstr

That tells you the hens only began nesting the last week of the season in your area. Same thing here. Poults I've seen are anywhere from just hatched to 2 weeks old.

Pescado

me too

huntmstr

It's not normal for the gobblers to be with hens and poults. Most likely there are still hens without poults who lost their first clutches of eggs and they are trying to breed them again.

AllenR

I saw a hen and poults in New Tampa 2 weeks ago, and the poults appeared to be about 2 weeks old then

huntmstr

AllenR wrote: »

I saw a hen and poults in New Tampa 2 weeks ago, and the poults appeared to be about 2 weeks old then

That would make the breading date around April 9 (within the last 2 weeks of the season). There's always going to be some earlier and some later than the bulk of the hatch. But by and large, the main portion of the nesting activity began the last week two weeks of the season and peaked right after it closed.

DoradoDreamin

Thanks for the info! I didn't think the gobblers normally hung with the hens and poults but wasn't 100% sure. Nice pic Pescado!

milkman2231

I saw a hen with poults on two different occassions in green swamp. The first sighting was the third week of the season and then I saw one again the next week. God gave gobblers the urge to breed long before and after the hens are willing. I'm sure there is breeding still going on.

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redfishrob

Was hog hunting last sat and had a hen and some young ones come to the feeder. Must have been a early batch

bswiv

Louann and I were picking WILD blueberries on our place Sunday morning when we wandered up on a hen with some little ones. She flew off a ways and we moved away from the chicks so she could come back to them. Took her maybe 5 minutes to start calling and moving back to where we had spooked her.

She called in that general area for just a few minutes, which we assumed was how long it took for her to gather them back up and then all was quiet again.

Most interesting part was how CLOSE she was when she flew off. Kind of like a giant quail busting out of cover. Fairly obvious that he first plan was to just hold tight and let us go on by, which raises the question of how often and how close do we come to them and never know they are there?

Derek Arsua

Lol! I jumped 2 in one day walking through the grass that was mid thigh deep and same thing almost ruined my underwear twice in one day. It's good to know some have made it this far I hope the breeding season was good this year and we continue to see the increase we have been over the last few years. I really appreciate seeing the birds in good numbers and health

DoradoDreamin

Derek Arsua wrote: »

It's good to know some have made it this far I hope the breeding season was good this year and we continue to see the increase we have been over the last few years. I really appreciate seeing the birds in good numbers and health

I'm hoping it was a good year but I'm not sure it was. I backed off quick after I saw the birds but I only counted 3 poults (some could have been hidden by vegetation). Last year I saw hens with way more poults....