swampbuster

I am four days into our season and still havent heard the first gobble

BetterBirddogs

If anything here in SE KS with it being warm all winter I have seen bachelor groups of toms still that aren't even interested in a hen decoy. I think it might set them back. Just in the last week I have seen them really amp up and strut and gobble. I think it will be fine.

huntrfishr

Ditto that doetrain imagine your decoy the only available hen in the country for those still horny Toms....

Maddad

Central Illinois started out terrible for me. Day 1 was 30mph winds, no sign or sound of turkeys, an early coyote cruised through and my chair broke! Day 2 was picture perfect, but nothing. I went to work today, decided to not waste anymore v-days, but will still get out there early and see if I can't take a coyote down. Does anyone think its possible that the coyotes have cleaned out the woods of turkeys? Or did the early warm weather just shut them up already? Suggestions?

earnabuck

From what I have read and been told by some very experienced hunters as well as biologists and folks that were integral in introducing turkeys back into Wisconsin. Weather has nothing to do with breeding, it will make them gobble and show their faces more because it is nice but amount of daylight triggers the hens to be ready very much like the rut.

doetrain

I contacted our local Biologist here in Indiana and he said the same thing,they are on tract in his opinion for a normal season. But he said the Toms will gobble and strut a little more of less due to what they sense the weather doing. The early growth and warmth will help the hens with cover and productivity on the nest. He is a hunter as well and thinks the more hens getting tended by the Toms makes them an easier target later in the morning when the hens wonder off.
Stay out till noon and tease them with your calls,and be ready for silent Toms at any moment. I got the bird in my avatar at 9:45 or so by the Hen he was with checking out my lone decoy and the soft clucks and purrs I was making 50 yards away.

huntrfishr

Yes the amount of light affect the pineal gland hence the timing of laying eggs on birds so geographically it will be different on the location. Our hens are just starting to lay. My only concern is during the haying time as there are a lot of birds get killed when cutting hay on the nest.
Haying seems to coincide at the time the hens are sitting on eggs in our parts.
And the hens do not run away from machinery especially at the later stage of sitting.