Wild turkey habitat

[Allen]

YOUNG wild turkeys (Jakes and Jens) are fantastic. Older toms, well...they can be a whole lot of tough and dry. You can help that greatly by marinading and smoking them, but if you just try to bake one you will likely regret it.

I have turkeys intermittently at my place. A couple years ago there were 50-80 of them running around here on a regular basis. This spring? I've seen the same pair of jakes twice, but 50 yards off of my place I was seeing them regularly early on this spring. I dunno, maybe the foxes are back...

 

[Trip McNeely]

I see deer and turkey eating together out of the same food plot online. That's what makes me wonder why they don't stick around.

Deer and turkeys are like peas and carrots. They go well together and neither bothers the other. Only issue we have is when the turkeys get pushed in to where we hunt mid Oct they absolutely hammer the bait piles and eat the feed out from under the deer so to speak…. Gets spendy fast. Come spring they leave and spread out a few miles every direction but a few hens stick around and nest every year so it’s fun to watch the poults chase bugs……they are a fun bird to watch. Goofy as hell.

 

[Rowdie]

Never tasted wild ones , all I have heard is that they are dry. Butter , olive oil and bacon grease can fix that.

You can take a wild Turkey breast and use it instead of chicken in any recipe and no one will know. My mom stuck a couple breasts in the cavity of the Thanksgiving Turkey and no one knew the difference.

 

[Trip McNeely]

Two things I will add for you. 1. Turkeys love oats, so if you can plant some nearby or put out some oat bales, it should attract them. 2. Turkeys do not like barking dogs, so if you have a protective dog around, it will likely keep the turkeys away. Good luck!

This is a good idea to try to get some overwinter. That’s probably where I’d start and worst case you end up feeding deer or elk throw out a few round oats bales with some screenings/corn around it during the winter months. Might be enough to pull some in to winter and stick around to nest….

 

[Davy Crockett]

Two things I will add for you. 1. Turkeys love oats, so if you can plant some nearby or put out some oat bales, it should attract them. 2. Turkeys do not like barking dogs, so if you have a protective dog around, it will likely keep the turkeys away. Good luck!

Good ideas but have tried that too. I used to plant Oats for food plots , I had "Paul oats" it's hull less oats and the deer love them but the raccoons went crazy over them. It is a tall variety with thick straw and the coons would tramp it down and eat most of it so ended up switching to Barley. I have since rented out the farmland so I put a variety of grain, scraps, hay and straw out in the winter . The last dog we had died in the mid 80s and never got another one. Guess we will see if these ever stick around but I'm guessing they were just passing through. KDM might be on to something with the cows , the area that I see them a mile south is cow pasture and I have a hunch they scratching in the cow crap for some reason.

 

[Maddog]

Question for you turkey hunters. I've read a bit about turkey habitat and the habitat we have here seems excellent but no turkeys hang around. One mile south, I've saw flocks of 50+ in the same habitat and they stick around that area. I wouldn't mind having a spring turkey hunt weekend for our grandkids but turkeys don't stick around. The only turkey I've ever seen on the farm was back in the mid 60s and I chased it away . My wife got a pic of these ones moving through on April 2 this year . The only difference in habitat is that we have more creeks and ponds . Wondering if anyone has a clue what would be a good food plot or whatever would make them stick around.

One of the keys is they do NOT like human interaction. (unless you are feeding them .... ie a corn pile). Unlike a whitetail when disturbed, a turkey will usually vacate the area for greener pastures. They need food and water too. And like was posted, taller trees to roost in.

 

[SDMF]

Especially in the winter yarded cattle equal:

Food, baled grains, fed grains, spilled grains, and of course, undigested grains.

Water

Usually fewer predators

Usually some manner of “roosting trees”.