Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Another Bad Hatch?

Been seeing a lot of hens without chicks lately. Saw two flocks, one with about 8 hens, and another with a dozen or more, and no sign of little ones. I've heard one report of a hen with chicks being seen. I did run over a nest when I was cutting hay, but she should have time to nest again.

What's it like where y'all are?

Rarely will they nest again this late

I destroyed that nest a little over a month ago. I've seen them nesting on up into July. As you said, it's rare, but it does happen. My concern is that whereas I used to see hens and poults frequently here during the summer, it's very unusual to see them now.

Here in my area of northern California a late large amount of rain all but wiped out our hatch, I have not seen a single hen with chicks, Its a shame as they were just starting to make a comeback after a couple of bad years with a good hatch last year.

I haven't been out and about to see anything for myself. I've heard tale of some broods. But as f'n wet as it has been ALL season up until now...………… I can't see how things can be too good.

I am seeing hens as well but no chicks. Hope I am just seeing the chicks but have seen several hens

Just saw one turkey hen with a single poult cross the road this evening coming home from church. Skinny hen. Poult was maybe cardinal/starling size. Poult barely able to fly up on a branch about 4ft off ground. After I got tired of waiting for it to follow the hen, I started to pull up. It about flew thru the open passenger window into the car.

Surprised at the small size of the turkey poult. Canada Geese chicks on the pond at work are already half the size of the adults, or more.

Saw three hens together the other day, What seemed like two of them had chicks trying to keep up.

I have not seen any yet but am hearing pretty good news from others here in VA. Last couple of years have been a bust but there are a lot of big hens so maybe that will turn around.

Turkeys have a really high morbidity rate. The gobblers spend pretty much every night of their adult lives on the roost. The hens spend 5 to 6 weeks on the ground some years it must be a pretty stressful time for them.

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

here in north central Minnesota hens are coming to my feeder alone, i assume chicks will be coming out soon too ? have plenty gobblers around my place yet.

Walked out on the porch and it took awhile to reconcile the sound I was hearing around the side. Took a look and she had around 10 chicks, but by the time I got the camera they were moving into the trees.

Thought they may reappear, but had to take the pic out the window....

That is good to see !!!

My mother has a huge yard in the middle of the woods. It's a turkey magnet. She's having all kinds of hens in the yard........but has not seen one poult, yet.

There were about 25 total.

Nice.!!!!!!

Things have been looking up around here...... Couple weeks ago I went for.a quad ride and saw 3 clutches totalling 22 poults. Another guy I know is watching 3 hens with 33 or 35 poults between them.......and another big group.

👍👍

So far, I've yet to see a hen and poults. Have seen a number of hens. I hope the poults were there and I just didn't seen them. But, I'm doubting that.

I'm in western MD and SW PA. Only seeing a handful of poults and a number of hens with none. Third year with tropical spring rains. Plus, I hear west nile could be a culprit. PA is doing some research on that now.

Today saw two hens with perhaps 5 poults tagging along.

Saw 3 hens mid last week below the house here. Looked to be somewhere between 6 and 10 young uns with them. I'm overall very pleased with what I'm seeing considering the crappy, wet spring we had. 👍

Loads of them up here this year.

Had a 12" snow in late May. Wondering if that killed off the local little ones. So far have not seen my first baby turkey of the year here. Seems odd.

Been seeing a pair of hens fairly often, one has 3 poults, the other 2. Occasionally see two or three others with none.

Piedmont of South Carolina here. Have seen as many hens and poults this summer as i’ve Ever seen. Fingers crossed the population is on the rebound. Last spring was good after a couple of down years.

Here in Indiana, I saw 2 hens with 12-15 little ones in tow. We have had a wash-out spring this year, but it doesn't seemed to have affected them very much.

JamesJr,
I’m a little North of you, but I think we came out a little better concerning the hatch. We’ve been working on food plots here for about two weeks so I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods and field edges lately. I have seen several hens with poults of all different sizes and many turkeys in general. They may be making a comeback here after a few down years.

Saw my first little ones of the year today. They were about half grown, and not close to home. I still haven't seen any here at home, although most of the farm is in corn and beans, and I couldn't see them anyway. I'm hoping it's just a case of me not seeing any, rather than there not being any, although I have had turkeys on trail cam, hens and gobblers, but no little ones.

I was out yesterday evening here in Northern VA and saw more little birds than I have seen here in some time. I didn't see any last year. There were 3 that looked really small. I'd say no more than 6"s or so tall. But the other batch at least 4 were already trying to fly.

Good luck and shoot straight y'all

2 hens with about 9 poults in the field across from my place in NE Wisconsin yesterday. Also saw an adolescent bald eagle too, poults better watch out!

I am going to have to retract my last statement, I am seeing turkey's everywhere. I think it was a late hatch or something because they are showing up in several places.
I am happy about that for sure.

Lots of large clutches of chicks around here in western South Dakota. The young ones are already big and I'm also seeing lots of beard dragging gobblers. We have a good grasshopper hatch with our continuing rains and I believe that is why we have such a healthy population.

I finally got to see some of this year's hatch on the property.

Last night, I went down to open the gate to the back 200 and I startled a whole herd of them. They were close enough to the house that I was able to go back to the security camera and see them in detail.

There were a total of 12. 2 were hens. The rest were evenly split between poults and whatever you call them after they get their first set of normal feathers-- the 2/3ths scale turkeys. So I guess what happened was one brood came through in the normal way, getting laid in April/May, and the others hatched late.

This is better than I'd expected. Last year, I saw one very late brood. I've been seeing mostly late broods as I've been out driving.

in the last 2 weekends I have see more turkeys on our lease than the last 5 years . to much rain in spring and summer. the hens I saw had more chicks with them than I have seen I years . we have not hunted them in a long time