Turkey numbers

[turkeywhisperer935]

Have any of you out there ever had a good producing piece of land that held lots of birds to go to having barely any? If so, can u give me a clue as to why? These spots held birds year after year and then just stopped.

[Mike Honcho]

Where  I live and hunt in Northeast  Kansas our populations are down in my opinion 50% from 4-5 years ago. My friends  who hunt in this region agree with  that number.  We think predators are a large part of the problem.

[nyhunter]

our turkey numbers here in NY have dropped off dramatically over the last few years. I hope they can figure it out soon. 

[Clif Owen]

Not sure what happened there but a buddy of mine let several jakes (like 8 or 9) walk a couple of years ago in 2 spots. The next season, not a single gobble was heard nor could any tracks be seen anywhere. It was a real puzzler.

[Bowguy]

Northern NJ and southern NY where I hunt used to be loaded. Numbers have dropped, I think its a combo of bad winters, hatches and predators. This year seems like the hatch was good, numbers seem up

[MK M GOBL]

Can't give you a State (or your states) wide answer but our area numbers seem to fluctuate mostly by what the spring hatch was more than any other factor. Yes predators do effect population through nest predation and poult survival but weather seems to have the most to do with it and I see these results over a 3 year cycle.

Here is what I see.
On a year with a wet/cold spring the hatch is down (nest survival goes down)
On a year with a good hatch (nest survival goes up)

What this leads to is when these years are linked together (too many years of bad hatches and overall number drop)

So here is how this relates to us when were hunting, this past spring season we had seen a lot of jakes around (i.e. 2 years ago good production) and will lead to a lot of 2 year old birds running around this year. And this is how the 3 years in this cycle works.. year hatched / jake (10 months old) / "2" year old tom.

Put a few good years production rates high and lots of turkeys around.

Yup we would all like to blame the number of predators around and trying to control their numbers to effect turkey population would be a massive undertaking and would have to be a continuous on going plan...

In the end Mother Nature controls the rate of production. 

Just my read on it...

Now "where" turkeys are is a whole other story.

MK M GOBL

[Gooserbat]

Lots of factors, I personally think disease is a bigger factor than most state agencies are willing to admit. 

[stinkpickle]

Yes, and biggest factor I've noticed is several late spring flooding episodes over more than three years in a row...especially those sweet Missouri river bottoms that I used to love. 

[Tail Feathers]

I wish they would figure it out.  They've closed many counties around me to turkey hunting all together recently.  They are now trying Super Stocking. 
I hunt one of the few counties left in E. Texas where it's legal to hunt turkeys.  If they shut that down I'll be in a pickle.

[VaTuRkStOmPeR]

Avian pox and other diseases are not popular topics of discussion but I believe them to be more pervasive and catastrophic on turkey populations than wildlife agencies realize.

Mortality rates on turkeys from natural predation are roughly 30% but the evaporation of turkey numbers in what were once high density areas can't be explained by that anymore considering where the numbers once were.

The glory days of turkey numbers are definitely behind us, boys.  Winters seem more severe, the springs seem to come packaged with lots of flooding, diseases seem more rampant among turkey populations and there are more turkey hunters than ever using tactics such as decoys, blinds and fanning that promote higher success rates.  None of this is good for the long term outlook of the grand bird.

[turkeywhisperer935]

Whatever it is guy's I wish they'd figure it out and try to fix it. I was just wondering if they was known to just leave an area and move on.

[saltysenior]

this thread parallels one i started named ''turkey population '', last replied to on 1/10/16....seems like the negative sightings are ahead about 10 to 1.....I don't go any more ,but if i did ,I would be more concerned about this problem and start asking folks who should know for some answers.....seems like most are worried more about what kind of camo to wear and stuff like that..     

[1tiogabowhunter]

I agree that goo hatches are needed to get back on track - however if you think of when populations were at their peaks in the 80's fur prices were high and almost everyone had a coon hound or trap line or predator hunted.  These days the areas i hunt where there are pockets of predator hunters have srong populations areas with no predator hunting seem to be worse

However - it also seems that some areas in the south just continue to pump out large numbers of turkeys regardless

Who knows for sure

[buzzardroost]

Avian pox and other diseases are not popular topics of discussion but I believe them to be more pervasive and catastrophic on turkey populations than wildlife agencies realize.

Mortality rates on turkeys from natural predation are roughly 30% but the evaporation of turkey numbers in what were once high density areas can't be explained by that anymore considering where the numbers once were.

The glory days of turkey numbers are definitely behind us, boys.  Winters seem more severe, the springs seem to come packaged with lots of flooding, diseases seem more rampant among turkey populations and there are more turkey hunters than ever using tactics such as decoys, blinds and fanning that promote higher success rates.  None of this is good for the long term outlook of the grand bird.

totally agreed. The newer tactics definitely hurt. Used to be a turkey hunter was a separate breed, now everyone that hunts also turkey hunts.


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[born2hunt]

Avian pox and other diseases are not popular topics of discussion but I believe them to be more pervasive and catastrophic on turkey populations than wildlife agencies realize.

I have kept chickens all my life and just got a little hen and jake this past fall. Recently I had a few young chickens that were in a separate pen start dying off with cold like symptoms, (raspy labored breathing and sinus drainage). I have tried some antibiotics with little effects. Well just today I found my hen turkey showing these same symptoms and a hour later she was dead.  I have the bird in the freezer and Im gonna try to find somewhere that will run some tests and see what I'm dealing with.
If stuff like this makes its way to our wild flocks its gonna be a wrap folks.