has this happened to you?
 

have you seen toms and hens in the same flock eating in a field? or is that just not possible?

or

used a owl call which made a real owl hoot causing a tom to gobble in the fall.

all i am trying to say is can toms and hens be in the same flock in the fall. i'm talking late fall. and can a owl hoot cause a tom to gobble in the fall like at a little before or after sunrise?

i had someone in the chat "Ridge Runner" say all this was not "real life"

thanks guys

besides the spring

and i swear both have happened to me.

I have seen the toms and hens mixed in the fall but usually they are in batchelor groups by now. Just yesterday I saw a group of 7 long beards all together and later a mess of hens and growing spring birds in a different spot. I have heard toms gobble in the fall but never tried the owl hooter at that time of the year because I don't hunt turkey in the fall just spring.

Turkeys will typically flock up in the fall in numbers as high as 100. This is common practice for them and yes the males will be in there as well. I grew up in upstate NY and If you drive by any dairy farm in the winter you will see them in the fields picking, especially after the farmer has just finished spreading. Now as far as Longbeards or Jakes for that matter, yes they will gobble in the winter. I have sat in my treestand on opening day (end of November) and had them crank up first thing in the morning. Pretty cool to hear them but it is basically meaningless this time of year. I would suspect more of an excitement of the flock waking up and waiting for it to be light enough to fly down. Now you will also see those bachelor groups especially in early spring but as the days get longer (not warmer!) it turns on the breeding season on and they will fight and eventually break up. A common misconception about turkeys is that if it gets warm they will breed. Wrong! It is the length of the day and how many daylight hours they receive that turns on the breeding season. I hope this answers your question.

Best of luck to you in the spring!
Mack

A few years back I was duck hunting around some islands on the Arkansas river. As daylight broke you could make out hundreds of turkeys roosting in the trees on the island. When they flew down all the hens went one way and the gobblers went another way. When ever someone would shoot at ducks the turkeys would shock gobble.

Danny,

In the late fall the winter groups of family flocks and gobbler flocks can mingle in ther same feild feeding. Remember gobbler flocks are very small to the hen and poult flocks so there would not be a large number of gobblers in the feild. so the answer is yes they will eat together in the same field...

As for the owl calling shock gobbling a gobber in the fall, I would have to say on a very rare occation a gobber may gobbe back to an owl call but the chances are very small so I would have to say that it is seldom unheard of....

Yeah Pretty much these guys covered it. I have definitely seen toms with hens in the fall. Usually when there are all feeding in the same field though. And yes, I have heard gobbles several times in the fall. I have heard them shock gobble at owls too. It doesn't happen everyday, but is very possible. Turkeys are still turkeys and gobblers are still gobblers in the fall.

thanks guys.