Attracting Turkey - Seed vs bushes

Bushes vs Seed

What works?

We cannot bait ...but can plant attract .

Chufa, if you can keep coons and hogs out of it.
Clovers and field peas are good as well.

But most importantly good nesting cover.

I have not planted specifically for turkeys but they really hammer my clover plots in the spring. Almost every spring gobbler killed on my property is chuck full of clover when I cut them open after harvest to see what they have been eating. I plant all my clover in the late summer/early fall with a wheat nurse crop. The next spring the wheat gets seed heads just before I mow it off and it seems like the turkeys key on it then but it is at the end of our season and a short window. Our season runs mid April to mid May now.

I do plant some sorghum, milo, etc for the game birds in the early summer but most of it is gone by the time our fall turkey season roles around in October.

I have been wanting to try chufa but haven’t gotten around to trying it

You're gonna need some sandy soil or at least loamy soils for chufas. They will grow in clay but turkeys cannot scratch them up.

What sort of bushes do you mean?

I forgot about that. I've only planted them in lower alabama which only has two soil types rock hard red hill clay or sandy loam. You don't even try planting on the hard stuff.

Berry bushes

I can't think of any berry bush that's worth planting for turkey food. Not that they won't eat the berries, but they don't produce anywhere near the amount of food that an annual crop will. And berries aren't nearly as preferred as grains and seeds.

I was just wondering .
Farm yard SW. Of me had 8 Turkeys eating out of a Crab tree

Any seed that generates a heavy insect population, millet, clover, prairie grasses- etc.

I have 100's of apple trees on my place of different varieties but most are "wild apples" and the fruit is small, like dime sized. I have a heck of a time with the turkeys getting into them and busting them up. Having turkeys here is a new thing, in the last 4-5 years. I planted the apples for the deer and the grouse and most now have the tops broken out of them.

Your grouse are going to suffer as the turkeys take over. I hate turkeys and now we have the stupid things all over N.WI.

They're only expanding and Grouse are still cycling up and down

I hated them at first ...they kept deer away from my bow stands. Now they feed with the deer

Not sure if hazelnut would work for turkey but it works for ducks.

I bought some from Gurneys couple years ago. They were tiny and died. I got replacement s they died


I will look for some hazelnut trees locally

Thanks

Sawtooth oak, the gobbler variety with smaller acorns.

I don't have time for an oak

Sawtooth are fast. Almost as quick as fruit trees. Definitely less than pecans, which are another good turkey food in the smaller varieties.

Warrior, I have two bur oaks up here and the turkeys like them enough to spend time breaking them down and fighting the white-tails for the acorns...Yup perhaps too long out for 330, but the next generation of hunters will like them...

Yep, I've put in 5 years enhancing this area.. it's coming around though for Deer and Turkey.

Same here 330...I kind of smile and wonder what it may look like in 42 years...

Sawtooth is really popular down here. There's two cultivars one with a big acorn for deer and the gobbler variety with a smaller acorn.

So popular it's planted as an ornamental/street/shade tree in the cities. Then folks complain about the deer on their lawns, lol.

But I've noticed that they are rather short lived as a street tree.

Urban Planners!!

I need a feed. Draw in smorgasbord this year

Oaks need plenty of room for their roots and don't like a lot of traffic on them.

Yup, but these city idiots don't know no better.

Citidiots

Durana or Patriot clover, as much for the insects such as crickets as anything else. Heck, buy a thousand crickets and dump in your clover field.
Standing corn or beans if you have the food plot acreage so it will carry through the winter.
As previously said, Chufa is King if you can grow it.

Funny side story, saw several turkeys in a pasture next to a creek standing in flood water. After they moved on I checked it out, it was a bunch of small crawfish there. Best I could tell they were feeding on them.

Thanks^^^