Turkey Flocks

[Lanse couche couche]

I own some land in Richland County Illinois. While driving to it over the weekend, I counted almost 30 turkeys in a single group about half a mile north of my property.I have never seen more than about 15 in a group in that area.Is there any reason (breeding?) why they would start congregating in such a big group this time of the year.

[jghoffman12]

could be just a couple family groups that found a good food source. were there toms in the bunch or just hens and jakes. i don't know about there but here in kansas it seems they had a really good hatch. while fall hunting, all the family groups i saw had anywhere from 10-15 birds. as of 2 weeks ago the toms were still separated here.

[countrymudder]

Until breeding season..which doesnt come until march, april, and may in some areas..turkeys will flock together. The flock you saw was probably all hens, hens being the biggest flocks, and then jakes who eventually form their own flocks. I say eventually because jake flock with the hens for a while and then they will break off. Toms form the smallest flock. Usually4 to 8 and sometimes 10 to 12 rarely. Jakes will try to mix in with the toms but they will be the least dominant but that rarely happens also. The flocking insticnt helps them to survive the winter months and it helps to evade predetors. I was sittin on my deer standon a november rifle hunt anda flock of 35 to 40 hens flew right over my stand and landed directly behind me. They walked around cluckin and purrin, some knee knees, walkin around peckin at the ground. During breeding season the flocking insticnt diminishes and the toms mind is set on one thing..breeding.

[Lanse couche couche]

Even though the flock was only about 60-70 yards from the road, I didn't notice what all it consisted of. I think that it was largely, if not entirely hens. I didn't mention, but once I got to my property, I saw a small group of 4-5 more. I couldn;t tell because there was brush in the way, but I think that it was males. Turkeys are relatively new to my area, so I'm not the best person to distinguish among hens, toms, and jakes, though.

Several weeks before, I had seen at total of about 16 turkeys walk out of my land. It was several singles and doubles, then one group of about 8. They came out from different places and about 10 to 30 minutes apart.