X_Rayted35

I guess they are his. I dont know if this pic is a good sign or a bad one. I found a turkey nest with hen on it and there were 13 eggs. If they lay an average of that many give or take a few eggs then where are the other little ones at?

Arrowmaster

Those are just his hens. The poults wouldn't be that big for this year

Topgun 3006

Most of the poults up in this part of the country are still in the egg! If the date is right on that photo, those hens probably did not breed this year or are just off their nests for a very short time. Message for the OP---You need to stay far away from where you busted that hen off her nest and hope that she came back to complete incubating them until they hatch.

X_Rayted35

Her eggs hatched and she is gone. Im glad I did find her nest. Farmer was set to disk that field after lunch. Also those seemed a bit small for hens. But they do seem a bit big for poults. My eggs hatched around 2 weeks ago so yea I guess they are hens. But the Hens I have seen either on camera or with binoculars, or just walking by my bedroom window are the size of jakes. The birds in this pic seem pretty small.

X_Rayted35

OK just got back from a walk around the farm. Had 2 Toms with 5 Hens come within 75 yards of me. Watched them with the Binoculars from the time the exited my duck impoundment and crossed the dove field into a 80 acre field where Farmer just planted cotton. The Toms stayed fanned out 90% of the time almost like they were herding the Hens around. These Hens were twice the size of the ones in my picture. Im still pretty sure those cant be poults cause like some of you said its too early for them to have grown that much. So maybe they are young Hens born last year that didnt breed this year? Most of mine are already off the nest because I have found 3 more. Two nests showed signs of predation, eggs broken and feathers everywhere but no bones.

Timbrhuntr

If the broken eggs appear to have a round opening circling close to one end and are otherwise intact they likely hatched out . Depending how far south you are it is possible that you could have some large poults running around and I would think that unless their nests were damaged and they re-nested and even then I would still think most of your nests would be hatched out by now ! But it is also possible that a few hens had their nests damaged twice and are trying again to re-nest ! This would also be a cause for small poults in the fall, that if they survived to the spring may account for their smaller size now ? Interesting though ! As far as survival I have several feeders that I set up for the turkeys in sanctuary area and every year in June, July and August I get pics of hens with numerous poults but as the poults get bigger and time passes there are less and less of them. I have seen a hen with 11 poults in july and by October she was showing up with only 4 ! Being a Wild Turkey is a tough !

X_Rayted35

How would they renest? Wouldnt they have to get fertilized by a Tom again? I guess its not too late for that since I am still seeing big Toms strutting around. Might have a hen doing just that near my house. I have seen this same hen off and on for the last month go into a thick area around the same place everytime. Its in a place we are clearing for a pond and theres a lot of timber stacked to be burned. Wonder if maybe a fox or snake keeps getting to her nest?

Topgun 3006

Sure, they can be bred again by a Tom and lay another nest of eggs. That's why sometimes you'll see very small birds late in the Fall and it's very possible that some of those small hens you're seeing were from a late hatch a year ago.

Timbrhuntr

Hens only really need to be bred by a tom once to have enough material to fertilize all their eggs that they produce. But having said that I would imagine that for a third nesting they would need to visit Mr. Tom again ! They usually lay one egg a day until they have laid all in a clutch and then they sit. I have found nests with over 20 eggs in them and observed that 2 different hens were taking turns sitting and obviously had laid their eggs in the same nest. Nests can be damaged by many things including just high water that floods them and all kinds of animals like possums, raccoon, skunks you name it !