Have any of yall seen many baby wild turkeys this year?

I haven't seen ANY baby turkeys this spring or summer.

Have yall noticed a decline in the amount of baby turkeys yall have been seein?

I've seen lots of hens without poults

Probably too many coon eat the eggs.

In north central WV it appears to have been a good hatch year. We hit a good dry spell around hatch time. Ironically I had a cell cam just alert me a few minutes ago and there were 3 mature hens in a food plot with at least 11 of this years young..

On the whole it has not been a very good hatch year the last couple of years though.

No, I have not seen many in Jackson County. I have a few hens in the field daily and no poults.
I did see a bunch in Wood and Lewis county.

Ok. Thanks guys.

Boco, iI know that coon possum foxes and whatever eat thir eggs but that happened every year and there are still young turkeys.

There's been no evidence of a big coon or possum population that would make me think that the predators were overly plentiful this year and it wasn't a wet spring,imo.

Do yall know if turkeys catch any diseases in the wild?

This area seemed to have a good hatch this year. Have seen lots of young turkeys. Have also seen several young grouse as well.

Here in my area of the mountains in Tucker county I have very few birds.
However, last year and this I’ve seen good hatches.
Still have a lower population that most of the state.
Had that dry spell in the spring at just the right time!
Spooked a flock recently with 8 birds and I only identified one he !!

Meant only identified 1 hen. Not 1 he!!

I've talked to a few guys in roane and calhoun co.and they've said they didn't see poultry this year where they usually do.

Lots of adult birds though.

I can't figure it out..we had a relatively dry spring but still not alot of hatching success.

Maybe it was too dry, we don’t want an overly wet Spring, but we do want precipitation. We had some serious rainfall and I mean inches at a time and was worried about the turkeys and quail, but it apparently had little to no effect based on the numbers we’re seeing. Saw a hen with 10 half grown poults yesterday.

Maybe their nesting cover or brood cover had been altered some way. They nest in one area and then once the eggs hatch they move their clutch to brood cover. If either of those changed in any way that could lead to predation.

I think it’s more predator related and not just your nest raiders. Hawks and owls will take young poults in a heartbeat. I’ve seen hawks dive bomb gobblers, so I know they take out the young.
Snakes are also another predator overlooked as egg eaters. Anyone with poultry should know that as well. Heck we found a snake in the pigeon coop. He apparently squeezed through the fence openings, but overstuffed on eggs and got stuck on the way out.

have seen a few hens with poults here in hardy county, all different sizes at the same time period. hatching must have been sporadic and over a lengthy period.

Went to my Cousins place in Ritchie county and saw three different hens and about 20 little poults. It seems to be spotty.

One of my trail cameras captured a coyote with an adult turkey in its mouth. Leading me to believe polts don’t stand a chance… Preston and Mon Co. yet to see any polts/chicks or have them on cam.

Pur turkey populating has certainly suffered this year


It'll be interesting to see if the kill numbers are down in our area this year.