Tough weekend on the turkeys

I had 42 degrees yesterday morning in the valley, OUCH! With early June being right down the middle in terms of young poult rearing, the cold rain and overnight lows may have been the end to an otherwise successful hatch. It’s too soon to tell, and we also had some very cool weather earlier in the spring, but to those little ones, only snow/freezing-rain is worse.

Joel

guy from work saw a hen with 5 poults last week

I was thinking the same exact thing this weekend Joel as I was sitting in the cabin watching the rain come down in 36 degree temps…ouch!!!

By the way, the other thing I was thinking about was how nice a day like this would be in early November while sitting on the bow stand!!

Hollar at me LIP!!!!!

This crossed my mind too as I was freezing my butt off yesterday on Mille Lacs. Let’s all hope these low temps will not affect the little poults running around.

we did have lite frost here 3 days last week also cant be good

We had a cold rain like this a few years ago in late May, and two days later while bowhunting the last few days of the season, I found two dead poults. Nothing had eaten at them, just died from exposure from the looks of it. Those birds were probably early hatchers, and about the size of a softball or two.

I know a few biologists at DNR, and will probably give them a call to get their opinions. Hate to be a downer, but this isn’t looking good.

Joel

Let us know what they say. Would be interesting to know what the survival rate will be.

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Let us know what they say. Would be interesting to know what the survival rate will be.

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I spoke to a few different sources, most notably Gary Nelson, who helped oversee the original transplant and turkey season in Minnesota down in the Whitewater area.

In summary, we had cooler temps, and rain, but the weather warmed up in the southern portions of the state to near-50 degree daytime highs. Because there was little wind with the rain, it was Gary’s thought that this wouldn’t be too big a bump in the road. However, for the northern portions of the turkeys range, where there was also the heavy rains, the story could be quite different. Daytime highs in many of these locales struggled barely past the 40 degree mark.

Gary mentioned that this first week in June is right at the heart of hatching and early rearing. Some of the late hatchers will be well served by their mothers still incubating nests. Due to a later than normal spring, there likely won’t be as many early birds that hatched well before this cold/rain period.

As far as monitoring a hatch, there’s not a solid way the DNR can assess this over large areas. If you know of an area where a hen was nesting, you might go out there right now and keep your distance at first to make sure she’s not still sitting on eggs. The nest, if it was predated will be in a disarray, with eggshells smashed all over. If they hatched, it should be a neat configuration of half-eggshells put to one edge or side of the nest.

There’s a wealth of information out there folks, for those interested in doing the asking. Lots of people will complain about the DNR and the way they manage a resource, but my experiences with almost all DNR employees is that they’re dedicated, and motivated individuals who have a true passion for their jobs.

While the news isn’t all bad, it isn’t all good either. Hopefully those northern birds were still incubating! We’ll find out next spring by seeing what the jake-crop looks like!

Joel

Thanks Joel. At least it doesn’t sound like a total wash then.

Here’s another great response from DNR Wildlife Research Group Leader, Dick Kimmel. Dick is a very well respected turkey expert nationwide, and has been recognized by the NWTF and other organizations for his outstanding efforts. He gave us permission to post his response:

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Joel –

Thanks for your email about turkey reproduction and cold/wet weather. You might also want to communicate with our Turkey Biologist, Eric Dunton.

From your email, you are aware of the situation. Early June is the peak of hatch for wild turkeys in Minnesota. Cold and wet weather is particularly hard on turkey poults until they become able to maintain their own body temperatures (thermally independent from the hen), which is when they are approximately 6-8 weeks old. After hatching the birds do not have energy reserves, so they must eat to survive. Thus, they must spend time at regular intervals searching for insects. When temperatures fall below 60 degrees and there is rain, turkey poults will not survive long without brooding under the hen. It is a ‘catch 22’ with the poults not surviving if they don’t feed and not surviving if they do feed and get cold and wet.
The result is many hens losing all or most of their poults. With temperatures in the 40’s and lots of rain, we likely lost poults over the past week. In areas with breaks in the rain, poult survival would be better than with constant rain. One advantage this time of year, is that a hen would be able to cover all of her very young poults to brood them. This is not the case when the poults get larger.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Dick Kimmel
Wildlife Research Group Leader
Farmland Wildlife Populations & Research Group Minnesota DNR
35365 800th Avenue
Madelia MN 56062 USA

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Good information Joel…thanks!

Thanks of posting this Joel and also for doing your part as a concerned outdoorsman!

I suspect most states above the Ohio River are going to have some hatching concerns this year.