Poults mortality?

Woods and water

Ten Pointer
I have been a serious turkey hunter for quite a while now and would like some honest opinions on the survival rate of poults. There was the best hatch I've ever seen on coastal plains this season. No major rains and warm weather. I tend to keep the four legged predators thinned down but have no control over the airborne ones. I was seeing lots of poults with almost all the hens but the poults are gone and the hens are alone. What's your opinion on the rate of poult mortality that I'm seeing?
 

Woods and water

Ten Pointer
I don't know what is going on. I have seen poor hatches multiple years but I haven't ever seen a such rapid decline once they reach the size of a pheasant. I've seen over 125 poults disappear in three weeks on one farm . Multiple hens on another farm that are easily recognized have lost all but one or two. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever seen this kind of decline with poults of that size.
 
Ol Copper

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
Just my opinion here...I believe that this years hatch was the best that I have ever personally seen here in the mountains. Multiple hen sightings supporting extremely large broods. I have particular interest in one large brood just because they are so close to an in-laws house that they can easily be watched.
After they hatched and grew to the size of adult quail we had that huge weekend storm that yielded over 12" of rain in 2 days. That hen led every poult to the highest point in the pasture and covered them with her body. They all made it. I didn't think they would, but the temps were also very high that weekend so there was zero chance of hypothermia. There are also coyotes all over the place in this area and they have claimed none. Its actually comical to watch because they will try to sneak in but the mother hen just moves the flock along in a timely manner whilst awaiting the .17 to dispatch said coyote. ?
Flash a little forward...this brood has been subjected daily to the attacks of a pair of hawks for the past 5-6 weeks. They sit and watch while the turkeys bug in the pastures. Once they set their sights here will come one. The hen does an excellent job of keeping watch without appearing to. When one of the hawks sets its wings and begins its attack, then hen will wait until the hawk gets to about 6' away and then she will pitch straight up in the air with wings extended and flog the hawk in mid-flight. It usually works, but not all the time. Her 12 young are now down to 7....
I know nest raiders and weather can be rough before a hatch, but you will never convince me that they are the main reason for mortality. Over the past several years I have become more sure that avian predators take out more young poults after the hatch than nest robbers do before the hatch.
The midwest is slam full of turkeys that have the same predators that we do, even in more larger numbers. Except in the mid-west I see far more numbers of hawks, eagles and owls hanging dead on farmers fencelines. ??
 

30/06

Twelve Pointer
Good hatch in middle of the state too. My 2 backyard hens still have all 5 poults with em. Maybe most of em will make it.

I agree with hawks and owls being a huge threat., probably more so the hawks Was speaking to my wife's oncologist a few years back, we spent a lot of time with him over several years and got to know him pretty well. I never heard him say a negative thing about anyone or anything. One day we started talking about his chickens. I said guess you have a fox or coyote around, he words were no, its the fu$%&( hawks. They got every damn one of my chickens!
 
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ol bob

ol bob

Six Pointer
From what I've seen around here I would say its about 90%. The bad thing this year I have not seen a single poult.
 
41magnum

41magnum

Twelve Pointer
20 yrs ago, before coyotes were here, Mike Seamster, our state Turkey Biologist, told me if 2 out of 10 poults made it to winter, it was a good year.
 
stilker

stilker

Old Mossy Horns
I personally had a hawk many years ago catch 17 bantam chickens in under two weeks,actually a pair of hawks.
 
Familyman

Familyman

Twelve Pointer
hawglips said:
Coyotes tend to get the blame for keeping turkey populations down. I think hawks and owls do way more damage.
Click to expand...
Agree. I was slipping in amongst the barred owls one morning right at dawn and came upon a fresh....I mean fresh....turkey hen carcass that I'm pretty sure one of those owls took off the its roost limb just a short while before.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
well my random mind now wants to ask the turkey hunters a question.
This past season did you hear plenty of owls, about like normal, maybe even more?

I only asked because i sure did waste a lot of time this past season waiting on owls to crank up gobblers. :)
From Sc to VA they were awful quiet when i was hunting.
anyone else notice a lack of owls?
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Thank you wolfman because it was really noticeable to me. Now i dont feel quiet as stupid for mentioning it.
i know that my limited observations arent indicative of owl populations. :)
 
Familyman

Familyman

Twelve Pointer
oldest school said:
well my random mind now wants to ask the turkey hunters a question.
This past season did you hear plenty of owls, about like normal, maybe even more?

I only asked because i sure did waste a lot of time this past season waiting on owls to crank up gobblers. :)
From Sc to VA they were awful quiet when i was hunting.
anyone else notice a lack of owls?
Click to expand...
I had quite a bit of owl action this past spring at the places I hunt in NC & VA. I'm pretty sure I heard them most mornings, in fact.
 

BASSFAN07

Twelve Pointer
One around the house always make it.
6f55335b453cb2f21a416d4070fa7772.jpg


This was tonight while I was sighting in crossbow. Poults getting big.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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