Managing for turkeys

[Bobcat]

Anyone out there managing for turkeys? Especially interested in cases where the turkey population was limited and there was success in building a stable population. What were your cornerstones in building habitat or food sources?

[ItsLeo]

Plant Chufas and kill raccoons.

Raccoons are the biggest threat to a nest of eggs there is. They kill more turkeys than anything else.

[ajavelina]

Need roosting sights, you can build elevated feed stations, and massacre every coin or predator you can

[bloodtrail18]

Plant Chufas and kill raccoons.

Raccoons are the biggest threat to a nest of eggs there is. They kill more turkeys than anything else.

This^^^^^

[jay07ag]

Depends on where you are...are you east Texas managing for Easterns or managing for Rios in the other parts of the state?

[Chase This!]

Predator control.

[Bobcat]

This would be managing more for Rios. Predator control, feeding platforms and roosting areas are important. Did any of y'all start with a marginal situation and assist in developing it into a turkey producer? How did cattle come into play?

[Dale Moser]

Put some milo with the corn in all the feeders.

Corn/milo areas away from feeders with a road feeder...a lot.

We wound up with thousands doing this, so we quit.

[Sippy]

Predator control is key. Raccoons, skunks, and possums should be your enemies.

[Dale Moser]

This would be managing more for Rios. Predator control, feeding platforms and roosting areas are important. Did any of y'all start with a marginal situation and assist in developing it into a turkey producer? How did cattle come into play?

Cattle are bad for just about everything during a drought, especially when over grazed. Need nest cover for hatching, and some for the polts to hide in.

Get some of those dog proof coon traps and bait with sardines.

[popup_menace]

For us, keeping feed in the feeder and making sure they had places to roost helped out a lot.

[jay07ag]

In order to have a healthy, growing population of birds you will need the following:

Roost site(s) - if you don't have good roost trees on your property, you've gotta hope your neighbors do (or you can put together artificial roosts if you're really serious about it)

Food - even if the birds aren't roosting on you, they will travel a long way to come to a good food source. In the summer and fall birds tend to eat a majority of forbs, seeds, grasses. In the spring, it's incredibly important to control your cattle grazing and allow grasses and food plots to grow, for two reasons: 1) you have to have cover for nesting hens and her poults. 2) a young poults diet consists of over 90% bugs, and if you don't have grasses and other vegetation, you won't have bugs (or cover). "Bug out zones" are crucial in the spring for reproductive success. Of course turkeys will eat any supplemental feed you put out for them, whether it's food plots or feed stations.

Water - If you don't have water year round, your birds won't stay year round

Predator control - kill every coon, skunk, coyote et al that you see. All are nest raiders and Yotes, foxes and bobcats will kill poults and vulnerable nesting hens

If you implement a good management plan and constant do things to improve your habitat, you will increase your chances of holding birds. Hope this info helps, good luck!

[30-30]

What are these elevated feed stations? Does anyone have pics?

[Fling em]

This is our 2nd year on this place and we didn't see any turkey during the year and during hunting season we might have seen 4-5 turkey.
Now we have a water station at every feeder (7 locations) and we see turkey all the time. Even the land owner said they have never seen this many turkey on the place! If I had to guess I would say the water has played a big part in that!

[jay07ag]

http://www.nwtf.org/NAWTMP/downloads/Literature/Texas_Rio_Turkey_Habitat_Management.pdf

Here is some good literature from TPWD on Rio management.