Tom with two hens...does this mean anything this late in the season?

[megalomaniac]

The turkey in the video is a male.

After you've looked at them for a while, it becomes very easy to tell the difference between males and females without even seeing beards.

As far as culling turkeys... sure there are males that are infertile... but WE have no idea which are and are not. You don't cull turkeys. You shoot them because they give you a great hunt and you want to put the final exclamation point on the hunt, or you don't.

But it's perfectly normal for toms to still be breeding hens right now. If he is the only tom left, killing him is not necessarily the end of the world, as right now jakes are becoming fertile and can pick up the slack (as opposed to early April when the majority of jakes are still infertile).

 

[TheLBLman]

If he is the only tom left, killing him is not necessarily the end of the world, as right now jakes are becoming fertile and can pick up the slack (as opposed to early April when the majority of jakes are still infertile).

Last Tom standing always gets a pass from me.
Don't trust the jakes to get the job done.
Time is of essence.
Ole Tom knows what to do.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

My guess is that they lost their nest and have joined back to breed again or could possibly have lost their nest and have no interest in nesting again.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

The turkey in the video is a male.

After you've looked at them for a while, it becomes very easy to tell the difference between males and females without even seeing beards.

As far as culling turkeys... sure there are males that are infertile... but WE have no idea which are and are not. You don't cull turkeys. You shoot them because they give you a great hunt and you want to put the final exclamation point on the hunt, or you don't.

But it's perfectly normal for toms to still be breeding hens right now. If he is the only tom left, killing him is not necessarily the end of the world, as right now jakes are becoming fertile and can pick up the slack (as opposed to early April when the majority of jakes are still infertile).

I agree. After seeing the video that looks like 3 toms

 

[Henry]

Yep, the three that have been here for the last 9 or 10 days plus the 2 new birds that joined in on Sunday all have beards.
I freaked my wife out and got the deer rifle out Sunday and looked at them through the scope from inside the house. lol.

The single one late today was in the valley that's in the videos and didn't have a beard and, about the same time, we heard a gobble over to the west of the valley in the woods.

My wife wants to "cull" some roosters this week so I'll be going after a turkey Friday or Saturday and we'll get the scalder heated up and get the plucker out and hopefully put our first ever wild turkey away for Thanksgiving.

 

[Henry]

My wife just drove up the lane and took this picture! We have baby turkeys!!!!

 

[Henry]

What started with a Tom and 2 Jakes two weeks ago, became 5 and is now 9!
My wife was watering the garden yesterday evening and they walked within 30 feet of her and didn't notice. She was quite ecstatic.
Had some Freedom Ranger (meat bird like a cornish cross) and some Silkie (small, but they like to sit on and hatch eggs) chickens born today. Fun things.

 

[Huntaholic]

What started with a Tom and 2 Jakes two weeks ago, became 5 and is now 9!
My wife was watering the garden yesterday evening and they walked within 30 feet of her and didn't notice. She was quite ecstatic.
Had some Freedom Ranger (meat bird like a cornish cross) and some Silkie (small, but they like to sit on and hatch eggs) chickens born today. Fun things.

Keep watching them! Before you know it, youll end up like me and not want to kill ANYTHING that calls your property home! Thats a good thing btw.

 

[Huntaholic]

Even the native Americans didnt hunt close to their homes. We save those for hard times,.

 

[Henry]

Keep watching them! Before you know it, youll end up like me and not want to kill ANYTHING that calls your property home! Thats a good thing btw.

Not hunting close to the house one of our rules too. I learned that from reading a Louis L'Amour western. The people left too late to get through the mountains to Cali so they shacked up in a cave. Instead of going far away to hunt on the good weather days, they hunted close to the cave. By the time the weather got really bad they had nothing close by to hunt. But, I'm also guessing the animals were smart and moved south to the beach for the winter so they wouldn't have been there anyway.

 

[Henry]

Keep watching them! Before you know it, youll end up like me and not want to kill ANYTHING that calls your property home! Thats a good thing btw.

The meadow in the shallow valley the males have been in every day for two weeks...has now had a momma turkey and chicks in it. I was on the porch eating dinner around 7:15 and there was what I thought was a single Jake and I just couldn't understand where the other males were. Then I thought I saw a mouse fall from the turkey's mouth, but immediately knew it was two big to be a mouse from that far away. So, I started seeing shadows in the long grass that's going to seed...it wasn't in the turkey's mouth, they were moving around her. It was very cool!

We're butchering some extra roosters today so maybe I'll get a turkey before that. I will try at least.