Starving Turkeys

I saw a hen walk up and eat 1 lone thistle by the barn, she was so hungry. And when the turkeys are walking on the roads, you know the winter has been too hard on them. Here's some desperate turkeys on 3 different roads. This is the hardest winter for turkeys in years. If they don't get food soon, there won't be many poults this spring.

DLAMA2 you said it right. looking at this from a histroic perspective, what is the histroic range of the turkey. Did it ever inlcude northern Wisc until 25 years ago? These soft winters have made many hunters too soft and forgetful that mother nature should be controlling the population. Winter has always been heck on the critters and we should appreciate the aspect of natural selection which controls populations and provides for stronger individuals within that population. Lets not get carried away with our egocentric desires of high populations for the sake of high numbers of shooting opportunities.

Turkey on roads? Why is this a big deal? I see turkey on roads 12 months out of the year. And the same turkeys are out there multiple times per week throughout the entire year. Grit for the gizzard is at least one reason or them to be on roadsides in every season. That NWTF biologist is over paid.

I thought they all starved last year.

Paul Smith - Milw. Journal Sentinel reports on birds attempting to forage at roadsides. See jsonline.com sports, outdoors. The good part is, the late spring will reduce the spring gobbler kill, all the more for this fall. And the poults may hatch before the 1st crop haying season. If it's warm and dry the first 2 weeks of June, there could be a bumper crop of turkeys this fall.

Anywhere that's getting more deep snow the turkeys will be in trouble. In lower Michigan the clubs get together and provide supplemental feed in times like this. Just saying.

I had a bachelor group walk across the road from me last week. They were all mature gobblers. Nice thick beards and spurs you could see with the naked eye from the truck about 20 yards away. There were 6-8 in the group and none of them was over 15lbs. Another winter storm warning for tonight with 6-8". My wheat patch has a 18" snow pack right now. It's getting pretty tough for them for sure.

There's no such thing as too many turkeys to a turkey hunter. Between the predators, autos, haybines, forage harvesters and a hard winter, the hens have it rough. The Fall draw could go for sure. They manage Spring as best they can.

This goes back to too many turkeys in my book.........this draw tag garboo needs to go. Survival of the fittest........and there are some area's turkeys are not going to make it every year.

The ice under the snow is the biggest problem. They can't scratch under that. Nice to hear about the dead ones in Shawano county. I'm in Waupaca County and we finally had a good hatch this past spring to get the bird numbers back up. The previous two winters and springs didn't do anything for keeping bird numbers up. 2 years ago during the summer I'd rarely see any chicks with the hens. By my house I knew of only 4 chicks around at the end of the summer.

If it's any indication how severe the winter has been in shawano county, yesterday while shed hunting our land i found 6 different dead turkeys, all jakes. Pretty disappointing---shed

Yes, thanks, really. I don't know where you live (fill out your profile), but around here, the winter severity index is getting up there. Turkeys live in upper Michigan and Ontario too, it's called Climate Change. At first, with deep snow they stay up on the roost. When they finally come down, there's nowhere to scratch for food. Here's a clue for you tt, from a good friend: "a NWTF biologist told me when you see turkeys on the roads you are probably seeing most all the turkeys in an area. This is due to their search for food and the only time they are out on roads in large numbers is when food sources in the fields and woods are not available." Judge for yourself. They don't need grit if there's nothing in their crop. I found these turkeys feeding on a farmers silage tube. If turkeys don't have farmers spreading manure or something else to feed on, they're hurting around here. You might want to go out in the country and look for yourself. It's an excellent time to scout for this spring, it's easy to see them with all the snow, you'll find new flocks you didn't know about.

They are most likely getting grit for their gizzard by picking at the exposed gravel.

Oh please, really?? Perhaps you made this post to simply draw attention but if you are serious then you need to get a clue. If wild turkeys can live in far northern Wis., then I don't think there should be any concerns about their survival rate anywhere else in WIs. Tim