Commercial Chicken Houses

[jejeffrries71]

With these commercial chicken houses going up in West Tennessee, I was wondering if any of you have experience with how this impacts wildlife behavior. Do the animals get used to the lights, sounds of the fans, the smells, ... and eventually ignore these? Do some animals intentionally avoid and proximity to the operations? Are some animals possibly attracted? What is your experience hunting where these have been built?

 

[RUGER]

I'm not sure honestly.
I know my buddy killed a 160" buck in Kentucky about 50 yards from one though.

What I hate is, I believe using their poop as fertilizer is destroying the turkey population.
Eeerrbody says I'm wrong though. Dunno.

 

[Midnight rider]

A friend of mine has these and he lets me hunt his property. I have shot several deer and turkey there and it didn't seem to bother them at all. I actually shot a very nice 8 pointer from right behind one of the chicken houses.

 

[redblood]

I have lived on a chicken farm most of my life. Other than when the chickens go out, one day every 7 weeks, no impact

 

[TNGunsmoke]

I have 3 breeder barns 500 yards from my house. I haven't noticed any difference in critter sightings since they finished construction.

 

[huntintn]

I'm not sure honestly.
I know my buddy killed a 160" buck in Kentucky about 50 yards from one though.

What I hate is, I believe using their poop as fertilizer is destroying the turkey population.
Eeerrbody says I'm wrong though. Dunno.

Me and you believe alike on the chicken crap fertilizer.

 

[Tom Collins]

I have hunted chicken farms and have a pullet farm, it does not affect hunting at all. Some of best deer hunting is at broiler farm.

 

[Thelonegoose]

There are 5 houses behind our back property line. It has never impacted deer hunting that I know of. It can be a little smelly when the wind blows in the right direction.

 

[JW01]

I don't think the litter affects the turkey. Farmers have been fertilizing their fields with litter for decades. Actually their is probably less of it being used now than before

 

[Tom Collins]

I don't think the litter affects the turkey. Farmers have been fertilizing their fields with litter for decades. Actually their is probably less of it being used now than before

It's just easier to blame farmers for all of humanity's problems lol

 

[RUGER]

It's just easier to blame farmers for all of humanity's problems lol

Not blaming the farmers at all. I blame the chickens.

 

[Volbuck777]

I killed my biggest buck a 154 inch 11 pt behind one. Plus a pile of other deer around them. Always loved hunting around them I think it masks all other smells.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Running dogs in eastern NC years ago deer would very often head straight to chicken and hog houses / lagoons to try and lose the hounds. More often than not, it worked too. In that area, deer had actually learned to use the caustic odor to escape.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

I have lived on a chicken farm most of my life. Other than when the chickens go out, one day every 7 weeks, no impact

Sane here. It attracts an occasional predator.

 

[Andy S.]

With these commercial chicken houses going up in West Tennessee...................

Whereabouts in west TN?

 

[Lincoln Co Archer]

Not blaming the farmers at all. I blame the chickens.

In Lincoln Co the turkey population decline sure looks like it coincides with the increase in chicken houses and the use of chicken litter. The turkey population is no where close to what it was 15-20 years ago.

 

[GreeneGriz]

Not blaming the farmers at all. I blame the chickens.

Weird how the decline in the turkey populations has also happened in counties where there is virtually zero commercial poultry operations. The number of operating commercial poultry operations has actually dropped dramatically over the last decade Across the state.

 

[megalomaniac]

In Lincoln Co the turkey population decline sure looks like it coincides with the increase in chicken houses and the use of chicken litter. The turkey population is no where close to what it was 15-20 years ago.

The decline in turkeys is due to overharvesting males before hens have been bred and a 10x fold increase in predators (both nest predators and predators of adult birds)

Only very rarely do young chickens get infected with Histoplasmosis which is transmitted to turkeys through litter.

 

[rukiddin]

I grew up hunting around chicken houses and still do when I go back home to NC. Zero effect whatsoever on deer hunting. Worked in the industry for several years and a lot of the farmers would let me hunt their property. And have several friends who own houses. Killed piles of deer within 100 yds of chicken houses.
Gotta buddy who had commercial grow out houses for hogs. Each house has a 4' tall chute connecting them so you can move/sort hogs from house to house. We would sit in those chutes and kill deer that came out in fields behinds the hog houses.

 

[Lincoln Co Archer]

The decline in turkeys is due to overharvesting males before hens have been bred and a 10x fold increase in predators (both nest predators and predators of adult birds)

Only very rarely do young chickens get infected with Histoplasmosis which is transmitted to turkeys through litter.

I can agree to a limited extent with your post Mega regarding predation, and I certainly cannot argue from an infectious disease perspective. From the 50,000ft up POV, having seen the glory years of turkey hunting in our county I simply cannot agree with the overhunting aspect. The pressure the turkey population received was probably as much or more than anywhere else in the country, and the turkey population sustained if not grew. And then in a matter of a couple of years the population nose dived.

I do think that from 1995-2005 were the absolute peak years in turkey numbers and that there are natural cycles in population. However this doesn't "feel" right. There are many areas of the county that are void of turkeys now that carried hundreds of birds per square mile. I believe that it would be hard to prove that natural predation could have that impact.

 

[catman529]

I can agree to a limited extent with your post Mega regarding predation, and I certainly cannot argue from an infectious disease perspective. From the 50,000ft up POV, having seen the glory years of turkey hunting in our county I simply cannot agree with the overhunting aspect. The pressure the turkey population received was probably as much or more than anywhere else in the country, and the turkey population sustained if not grew. And then in a matter of a couple of years the population nose dived.

I do think that from 1995-2005 were the absolute peak years in turkey numbers and that there are natural cycles in population. However this doesn't "feel" right. There are many areas of the county that are void of turkeys now that carried hundreds of birds per square mile. I believe that it would be hard to prove that natural predation could have that impact.

Lot of theories out there, but no straight answer why the flocks disappeared so quick in some areas. We have a whole lot yet to learn about the wild turkey. On a positive note, southern Lawrence co had a really good hatch this year. Not sure about the other southern counties but it looks promising.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

In Lincoln Co the turkey population decline sure looks like it coincides with the increase in chicken houses and the use of chicken litter. The turkey population is no where close to what it was 15-20 years ago.

They aren't allowed to say it due to the money involved. It'sa political thing and that's that. But overlay declining populations with areas with chicken houses and tell me what you see.

 

[Popcorn]

I ordered and either spread or composted 1000's of tons each year From 2011 to 2019. Broiler house clean out was trucked from 50 to 90 miles to our site and we stockpiled there between clean outs so we had a constant supply. The site was 5 acres out of a 100 acre row crop field surrounded by 1000's of acres of pine stands and hardwood hollows. We had deer on the site every night. They damaged our tarps and covers constantly. The turkeys often bugged the native grasses surrounding the site. There are 4 farms that started a soil improvement program between 2011 and 2013 that ran thru 2019 that I am still involved with in Trigg county KY and Stewart county TN both have seen constant and sustained increases in turkey populations to the point that believe are near a healthy capacity. We have seen large improvements in habitat but a reduction in trapping of predators. I see no signs of disease from applied fresh, aged or composted litter on thes properties. I won't deny that it happens there can be great variations in barn cleanliness affecting bacteria development but I will add that massive habitat improvements and never over harvesting or taking of hens seem to be a factor. Three of my most productive setup areas during the last 10 years are all within 1/8 mile of where we stocked litter.
On a side note the only issue we found was the bedding growers used (rice hulls and cleanings) contained seeds of pig weed, amaranth, Palmer, water hemp and other hard to manage weeds. The fresh (not composted) litter would spread these. Even after being warned a lot of planters wanted the nitrogen content so they spread it anyway.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

The population did nose dive and i don't know why but i feel confident that it had nothing to do with poultry farms. There were a large amount of these farms well before we had a strong turkey population.

 

[BigAl]

Whereabouts in west TN?

I was wondering the same thing. Haven't seen one around here. Perhaps they're a little farther North.

 

[Tom Collins]

I was wondering the same thing. Haven't seen one around here. Perhaps they're a little farther North.

Tyson built a large processing center in Humboldt. They (Tyson) prefer to keep growers within 50 miles of the plant.

 

[Swampster]

Whereabouts in west TN?

Ones I see are East to Southeast Madison County and Henderson County.

 

[Uncle Jesse]

I raised chickens from 1990 through 2012. We spread litter on our hay ground every year except we sold all of it the last 2 years

We didn't see any turkeys on our land until about 1999. In 2003 my wife killed the first Turkey here and we didn't hunt it anymore that year. In 2008 I killed 2 here and started hunting it some every year after that. Now I don't hunt anywhere else besides our farm and the one joining us. Now we ain't spread litter on it since 2010 but I watched them increase all those years while we were spreading. Y'all gonna have a hard time convincing me that chicken litter affects the turkeys