Way to help the hatch

QuietButDeadly

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Skunks, possums and coons are definitely nest raiders. Once they find a nest, they will clean it out for sure. Bobcats are also hard on turkeys and you can not rule out the occasional coyote kill as well. So a good, overall predator trapping plan will give them a better chance.

But, unfortunately, the avian predators are protected and they pick off lots of little ones and juveniles. Hawks by day and owls by night. And the ever increasing number of eagles prey on the adults as well. Suitable habitat that provides food and cover is about all we can do to help them avoid the birds.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
Work on improving the habitat first. An inconvenient truth is that your average person is not going to have much effect on the predator population. It takes a fairly high level of effort to really make a dent in the local populations.
You would need to focus on all mesomammals, black snakes, great horned owls, ect to effectively reduce depredation. Without lowering all major predator level over time you are just reducing competition for the other species.

If you work on habitat you increase food and cover which increases the health and survivability of the entire population. Poults have more food to grow faster, hens have more cover for better nests, the list goes on and on. If we take it one step further and ensure most hens are bred by the time we remove gobblers we can do our part shorten the breeding window. The more narrow the breeding window the greater likelihood we achieve predator satiation. The more poults we can put on the ground at one time the better chance for survival.
 
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turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
What wildlifer said. most people underestimate brood range doesn't do lot good to protect nest unless you have good brood range like west nc ntnl forest. Eastern nc turkeys are doing well for a reason even in areas that may not look pretty to the average person like big mtns hardwood firesy. eastern has brood range which equals more turkeys
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
According to Turkey Doc, black snakes are the #1 nest predator.

They are efficient for sure. Every time we have birds nesting in flower baskets around the house, there are snakes trying to get them.
 

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
According to Turkey Doc, black snakes are the #1 nest predator.

They are efficient for sure. Every time we have birds nesting in flower baskets around the house, there are snakes trying to get them.
Everything adds up, but when I was coon hunting on the big quail plantations in Ga and turkeys were a close second in their management program there they said snake were high on their list as predators.

Those guys down there were serious about predators, they worked on everything. Some things I just had to make sure they didn't let me know about. LOL But it obviously worked, they sure had birds.
 

Lucky Clucker

Old Mossy Horns
Of it can eat a egg or turkey kill it.Inraise game chickens and snakes and coons opossums get alot of nest and hens and most are in and around house in and on pens and ground .Just think how hard turkeys have it.Im glad this dam cold rainy weather is gone I'm sure it has done a number on several.
 

Shamrock7326

Four Pointer
According to Turkey Doc, black snakes are the #1 nest predator.

They are efficient for sure. Every time we have birds nesting in flower baskets around the house, there are snakes trying to get them.
Heading out to the farm today to check my stands, got the public defender with plenty of .410 ;)
 

bowhuntingrook

Old Mossy Horns
According to Turkey Doc, black snakes are the #1 nest predator.

They are efficient for sure. Every time we have birds nesting in flower baskets around the house, there are snakes trying to get them.
Same if you have chickens, you will have snakes, get rid of chickens, see less snakes.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 

Firedog

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
One way to help would be for the WRC to not do controlled burns on GL while they are still nesting or the polts are too little to fly out of danger.. got a note that they were burning part of Butner right after the season went out (My FD covers that area and we get notice due to all the smoke calls)
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
One way to help would be for the WRC to not do controlled burns on GL while they are still nesting or the polts are too little to fly out of danger.. got a note that they were burning part of Butner right after the season went out (My FD covers that area and we get notice due to all the smoke calls)


big time - Sandhills getting burnt a lot lately,,,fort bragg as well
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
One way to help would be for the WRC to not do controlled burns on GL while they are still nesting or the polts are too little to fly out of danger.. got a note that they were burning part of Butner right after the season went out (My FD covers that area and we get notice due to all the smoke calls)
Dummies...
 

30/06

Twelve Pointer
After seeing a hawk slam my decoy on opening day I have no doubt that hawks make a dent but not much you can do about that. The number of coons around these day’s is crazy too.
 
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