Saw my first poults of the year yesterday, but they were only quail-sized. Hen must have had to start over or something. What are the odds of survival of late born poults in the deep south, namely Mississippi?
Good to see poults anytime. NC is doing their annual Summer Turkey survey from 1 July to 31 August. I have been involved for several years now. We have been seeing hens with multiple poults during the month of July. Hatch looks to be good. Here in Eastern NC, the poults are in multiple stages as well. Some early hatches have the long legged, long necked birds and some are late with the quail sized birds. Not sure if the early hatch was the older hens and young hens later but I am optimistic all the birds will do well. Plenty of food and cover available now. Plenty of warm summer and fall weather ahead for birds to develop. Mississippi birds should do well as long as hurricane season doesn't dump MANY inches of rain and drown the young birds. My 2 cents.
I also saw quail sized poults near my house (MI) this week. 3 weeks ago I saw a hen with grouse sized poults go across my driveway. Also this weekend I spotted a hen pheasant with at least 10 chicks, haven't seen that in years around here.
I would think survival rate of your brood in the south would be excellent.
It's good to see poults this time of year, means they made it to fly-up age. Quail size poults would be born when, late May?
Quote from: bbcoach on August 02, 2020, 07:09:30 AM
Good to see poults anytime. NC is doing their annual Summer Turkey survey from 1 July to 31 August. I have been involved for several years now. We have been seeing hens with multiple poults during the month of July. Hatch looks to be good. Here in Eastern NC, the poults are in multiple stages as well. Some early hatches have the long legged, long necked birds and some are late with the quail sized birds. Not sure if the early hatch was the older hens and young hens later but I am optimistic all the birds will do well. Plenty of food and cover available now. Plenty of warm summer and fall weather ahead for birds to develop. Mississippi birds should do well as long as hurricane season doesn't dump MANY inches of rain and drown the young birds. My 2 cents.
I personally think this pretty much sums it up for all of us here in the SE (I`m in GA). I would think ANYTIME that you can get young birds fledged is good. And right about hurricane season!
It's good to see poults anytime and I'm sure they will manage alright especially in the south
Turkey hatches and deer births are pretty much on a bell curve. My wife saw a fresh road-killed fawn yesterday which she said couldn't have been over ten pounds.
P.S. several years ago, Labor Day weekend, I jumped a hen w/poults. All they could do was flutter ten yards or so. Had to be in that 2-week area.
Here in southern Ohio I haven't seen many poults and the few I've seen are very small. They're the size of a quail or smaller. Here's my thought on why. Locally we had a nasty rain of 4"-7" in 2 hours. That will wipe the nests clean. A few miles north and south and it didn't rain at all. I believe that hens had to start over and nest again which caused many of them to hatch extremely late. Add in the surge in Cooper's hawks and bobcats in this area and it makes for a hard time with hens getting their poults to adulthood.
Poults look to be doing well up here in New England. As mentioned above, hawks and other predators thrive when their prey does as well. Saw 2 hens with some grouse plus sized poults this weekend. 20 plus poults so they did well. I also have a dam bobcat around my house now, as well as a pair of broadwing hawks. Those are bad news for small critters. The bobcat has already gotten some kittens and has been reported to Fish and game. They wont issue me a special permit to trap it until it has 3 offenses in our general area. His days are numbered if he bothers my pup. I always go outside first in the dark. We are past the egg eaters, lets get past the chick eaters. God Bless, Al Baker
Quote from: Turkeyman on August 02, 2020, 12:52:20 PM
Turkey hatches and deer births are pretty much on a bell curve. My wife saw a fresh road-killed fawn yesterday which she said couldn't have been over ten pounds.
P.S. several years ago, Labor Day weekend, I jumped a hen w/poults. All they could do was flutter ten yards or so. Had to be in that 2-week area.
As an addendum...darned near hit a fawn Sunday morning. Quite big but nicely spotted. Had to be a very early birth...mother nature spreads things out.
I live in the southern part of Kentucky i'am seeing lots of hens but no poults I hope it's not a bad season next next spring...
Always great to see these poults .....