One Hen

Over the course of the past week and a half or so, I’m completely dumbfounded by some behavior that seems to be taking place wherever I go. Fields or forests, Minnesota or Wisconsin, there seems to be no shortage of hens where I’m hunting. However, the gobblers seem to be keying in on the lone boss hens of the group almost exclusively.

For several hunts in a row, toms have ignored as many as a dozen hens or more for a lead, vocal bird. That bird, more so than most years I can remember, has held the keys to success or failure in terms of harvesting a bird. They fly-down with her, spend all day with her, and end up roosting with her….only to do it again the next day.

Is anyone else seeing the same thing out there?

Joel

Seeing it down here as well and often times a group of jakes and a couple toms. Most days together all day strutting around her as she marches her daily path of feeding. Best bet is to found a solo in the off beaten path going to roost and rely on him for first light fly down.

Hey Joel, I’ve had strange behavior as well. Gobbling in roost not far from me, pulled my usual soft purrs and such, followed by excited putts and simulated fly down w/ wing on ground and once they fly down head different direction. As if they already had a sweetie lined up for am love? Although I did have exciting am in Friday. I had one gobble from 2 ridges over about 11am. Over the next hour, I was able to work him in. Everything was going textbook perfect. He worked in to about 30 yds. I had perfectly clear shooting lane, hooked on to bow, and assumed in about 2 more feet he would see my decoys & take a hard left right in to me and fight my jake(set up right behind breeding hen). No such luck, he didn’t even look, kept on walking into woods. I didn’t have mouth call in at time, and didn’t want to fumble w/slate call hooked on to bow. Big bummer, I should’ve shot him at that perfect opportunity, but I wanted to see a great strut/fight, then skewer him! I’ve been reliving that moment ever since.

Do you guys think this has anything to do with some of these hens “missing” their breeding cycles due to the poor weather for seasons A-C/D??

Probably is my guess.

Even if they didn’t miss, but successfully bred and nested, those nests are almost guaranteed to be wiped out. When that happens, turkeys have the ability to re-nest and/or re-breed. Because hens can store sperm to later fertilize the eggs with, I find it unclear as to why one hen would be garnering that much attention. Maybe it’s purely social? Mama’s the boss and always the boss? Who knows, but it has required a change in techniques!

Joel

maybe she is giving it up like prom night unlike the other hens?