Turkey decline

spencer12

Senior Member
Avian pox can be a pretty significant issue for wild turkeys. They don't have to interact with domestic poultry, song birds will often be the link between chicken houses and other wild birds like turkeys. In the case of viruses domestic poultry tend to pick them up from wild birds, not the other way around.

Waterfowl have a major role in avian flu for domestic chickens. It spreads in migratory birds, then an infected bird lands in a pond near a chicken house, that bird craps out some virus on the bank, the farm hand steps in the crap and then walks in the chicken house.
Very good information, thank you sir.
 

Resica

Senior Member
I would like to be able to learn more about wide spread disease.
Also I agree with nest predators numbers up. Not the varmint hunting goin on that I remember as a kid.

I'd like to read and learn more about turkey decline nationwide. I've never heard of that before. I was under the assumption this was just a in a lotta areas of south east problem.
I know turkey's in the North East are flourishing. They are even moving up higher and some have been seen by my cousins on the Maine Canadian border.
I watched and read how they are flourishing well out west.
To every problem blamed there is a contradiction else where in this country.
Ga is striving with trees. The plains states are not. But the turkey flocks there do well. Clear cuts don't wipe out turkeys. They'll move to roost in trees and work the clear cuts to feed and strut.
Urban sprawl doesn't wipe out turkeys. Flocks of birds will live in suburbs with people just fine. Matter a fact they mostly go unhunted in suburbia.
Ants and armadillos moved up from South and west of us. Before the decline the birds in Florida lived with the ants and dillers and flourished.
Over huntin??? I don't know. There is definetly more turkey huntin pressure now than in the past. But more success in dead gobblers??? I don't know. The biologist everyone is been talkin about has mentioned the huntin pressure while huntin peak breeding season is not good.
Most my knowledge comes from where I hunt. I got cow farms in Habersham that use chicken litter and them turkey flocks have declined. Not blaming chicken poo yet but it is interesting and I'd like to learn more FACTS about it relative to wild turkey. That flock is still good but it has declined.
Our 1600 acre hunting club is pine management and it's flocks flourish. They clear cut this and clear cut that and the birds move around and utilize different stages of forest growth differently but they don't die or take off into another dimension.

I'd like to learn more.
And I'd like to see coon huntin be MORE inviting and convienient so them folks can take out more varmints!!!

Good luck everybody!!!
You heard wrong. Turkeys in the Northeast are not flourishing. Pa. estimates are that populations are down 20% in the last 10 years. Turkeys have been in Canada for many years as well.
 

sea trout

2021 Turkey Challenge Winner 2022 biggest turkey ?
Thanks!!
I'm mildly aware of Pa decline because I've read from people on here and have heard slightly.
The MORE North East IS flourishing! Turkey flocks are moving up from mid Maine to extreme Northern Maine with the Canadian border where permanant flocks have NOT, in times we've been on earth, been flourishing before.
 
I cant believe people haven't personally attacked the OP because he thinks we are over-harvesting birds. When I said something about that 2 years ago I about got stoned to death from about 50 members of this forum. lol

To the OP you are correct. We are killing too many and we are killing them too early. Thankfully they have at least tried to do something about it starting this year. I wish they would have backed the season up 2 or three weeks and made the regulations statewide and limited it to one bird. But hey, at least its a start.

Also, if people would wait until June 15th to bush hog we would save a ton of deer and turkeys as well. Neighbor killed the only hen I have ever seen at my house this year while she was on the nest.
 
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XIronheadX

PF Trump Cam Operator !20/20
I cant believe people haven't personally attacked the OP because he thinks we are over-harvesting birds. When I said something about that 2 years ago I about got stoned to death from about 50 members of this forum. lol

To the OP you are correct. We are killing too many and we are killing them too early. Thankfully they have at least tried to do something about it starting this year. I wish they would have backed the season up 2 or three weeks and made the regulations statewide and limited it to one bird. But hey, at least its a start.

Also, if people would wait until June 15th to bush hog we would save a ton of deer and turkeys as well. Neighbor killed the only hen I have ever seen at my house this year while she was on the nest.
Wait until Ernest T Bass gets here.
 

saltysenior

Senior Member
I cant believe people haven't personally attacked the OP because he thinks we are over-harvesting birds. When I said something about that 2 years ago I about got stoned to death from about 50 members of this forum. lol

To the OP you are correct. We are killing too many and we are killing them too early. Thankfully they have at least tried to do something about it starting this year. I wish they would have backed the season up 2 or three weeks and made the regulations statewide and limited it to one bird. But hey, at least its a start.

Also, if people would wait until June 15th to bush hog we would save a ton of deer and turkeys as well. Neighbor killed the only hen I have ever seen at my house this year while she was on the nest.

there are many privately owned very large ranches and plantations in Florida that spend big bucks to keep an environment that favors quail .....it also makes it nice for turkeys..some predators are controlled , no poaching , and there is little hunting done for deer or turkeys. Yet even with these perfect conditions , many of these places have experienced large fluctuations in turkey populations....???
 

buckpasser

Senior Member
I cant believe people haven't personally attacked the OP because he thinks we are over-harvesting birds. When I said something about that 2 years ago I about got stoned to death from about 50 members of this forum. lol

To the OP you are correct. We are killing too many and we are killing them too early. Thankfully they have at least tried to do something about it starting this year. I wish they would have backed the season up 2 or three weeks and made the regulations statewide and limited it to one bird. But hey, at least its a start.

Also, if people would wait until June 15th to bush hog we would save a ton of deer and turkeys as well. Neighbor killed the only hen I have ever seen at my house this year while she was on the nest.

I still strongly disagree with you, and don’t forget it!

:)
 
I’m saving this post and if the turkey populations start coming back due to the new regulations we can revisit and then call it an act of god? Or a miracle? Or is that the same thing? Or will you just say they are in their bi-yearly upswing?? Lol

Denial is a stinky cologne fellers!

Just remember who wasn’t afraid to take a chance/sacrifice for change YEARS ago in the state of Georgia (and other states) because it sure as heck wasn’t the majority of guys on this forum. It was me and people who agreed with me that we needed to limit the harvest and back the season up.

Most people were not even brave enough to speak up for fear of being torched by the naysayers and the guys who hunt 1500 acre clubs with sound management practices and thriving turkey populations.

The only thing I heard out of most people on this forum was a bunch of unscientific unfounded nonsense based on unrealistic and incomparable circumstances across the state.

We shall see! If the poult survey isn’t better next spring you may flame away. Lol

and buckpasser, yes we may have to agree to disagree on this one. But that’s ok :)
 
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buckpasser

Senior Member
I’m saving this post and if the turkey populations start coming back due to the new regulations we can revisit and then call it an act of god? Or a miracle? Or is that the same thing? Or will you just say they are in their bi-yearly upswing?? Lol

Denial is a stinky cologne fellers!

Just remember who wasn’t afraid to take a chance/sacrifice for change YEARS ago in the state of Georgia (and other states) because it sure as heck wasn’t the majority of guys on this forum. It was me and people who agreed with me that we needed to limit the harvest and back the season up.

Most people were not even brave enough to speak up for fear of being torched by the naysayers and the guys who hunt 1500 acre clubs with sound management practices and thriving turkey populations.

The only thing I heard out of most people on this forum was a bunch of unscientific unfounded nonsense based on unrealistic and incomparable circumstances across the state.

We shall see! If the poult survey isn’t better next spring you may flame away. Lol

and buckpasser, yes we may have to agree to disagree on this one. But that’s ok :)

The poult numbers I’m seeing with mine own eyes this year in Brooks and Thomas are through the roof. My “pet” hen at the barn has six that are a little larger than a guinea fowl now. Two have joined forces about a 1/2 mile down the farm across a bay and have roughly 20 that are slightly younger. Three are three ganged up on the far south end and have the guinea size down to quail size. Looked like maybe 20 or so all together. There are surely many more groups I’m not seeing. I’ll do my absolute best to continue to monitor these groups, but my only fear is disease, and no season change can stop that.

If the turkey season of 2023 is an improved one, then it’s safe to say the reg changes played no roll. If it takes a while longer, the regs COULD have played a roll, but that is not a definite. Either way, the turkeys will rebound, without you, me, turkey doc or any of our infinite wisdom concerning them.

:cheers:
 

kmckinnie

BOT KILLER MODERATOR
Staff member
It’s already working for me the new regs!
I had more jakes this year and the hens looked like they hatched pretty good this spring. I killed 2 in one day and quit for the year. It was luck but I’ll take it. Separately, couple hours apart. Think next year it’s one a day.
Ok y’all can throw rocks at me now. ?
 

antharper

“Well Rounded Outdoorsman MOD “
Staff member
Plenty where I hunt also ! I did kill one on a new lease I got in , my 2nd trip ever to the property . Hunted public land the rest of the season and got my limit by April 25 . Called a couple up for my daughter that she wouldn’t pull the trigger on . Got to watch my old man shoot a couple . The new regulations will help I’m sure , when u take away hunter opportunity it’s got to help some .
 

kmckinnie

BOT KILLER MODERATOR
Staff member
Plenty where I hunt also ! I did kill one on a new lease I got in , my 2nd trip ever to the property . Hunted public land the rest of the season and got my limit by April 25 . Called a couple up for my daughter that she wouldn’t pull the trigger on . Got to watch my old man shoot a couple . The new regulations will help I’m sure , when u take away hunter opportunity it’s got to help some .
Maybe a hunter that don’t get one will now.
 

turkeykirk

Senior Member
Well next then it’s going to one turkey.
We ain’t hunting with real tree. ???

I thought you and Bill Jordan were close. Guess not close enough!:rofl:
 

COYOTE X

Senior Member
Watched three hens feed in the field beside the house yesterday. They had a total of twelve poults.
I thought of this thread and agree that numbers are way down. In normal times, I would expect to see twenty or more poults with three hens.
I was actually concerned that the poults would be picked off by the eagles, osprey's and hawks we have so many of.
Hope they make it......

COYOTE X
 
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