Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: Gobble Doc on June 30, 2013, 08:41:42 PM

Title: Heat
Post by: Gobble Doc on June 30, 2013, 08:41:42 PM: Is the hot weather hard on the turkey popuation? Or do they generally weather it pretty well?
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: dontgetcrabs on June 30, 2013, 08:44:37 PM: You tell us, you are the gobble doc. :chuckle:
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: KFhunter on June 30, 2013, 08:47:38 PM: they love it

the grass hoppers are coming on now, huge protien source for em :tup:
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: Gobble Doc on June 30, 2013, 10:36:24 PM: Gobble doc doesn't have a clue! I proved that by getting blanked this spring.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: turkeydancer on July 01, 2013, 07:46:15 AM: They know where it's shady and cool ... I've hunted early fall with it being in the nineties and they handle it a lot better than I do ....
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: Tom Tamer on July 01, 2013, 10:59:43 AM: Quote from: turkeydancer on July 01, 2013, 07:46:15 AM
They know where it's shady and cool ... I've hunted early fall with it being in the nineties and they handle it a lot better than I do ....

Remember that a couple years back, we were banging are brains trying to find where they were. And we saw that tom laying under that small pine limb? They handle it pretty well I think.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: turkeydancer on July 01, 2013, 12:45:41 PM: Yep ... they are very resilent critters for sure ... seen them in 14" of snow and 10 degrees too ... of course they'ld shake a leg every once in a while to get the snow off .... :chuckle:
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: CedarPants on July 01, 2013, 01:03:39 PM: Several years ago it was unseasonably hot for a good stretch toward the end of the spring season. The hoppers weren't out yet and I wasn't seeing much of anything in the open fields during the day, so I decided to sit near a fairly heavily wooded creek one afternoon for a while. i was there for maybe 10 minutes when a group of hens showed up, feeding their way through the creek. At the rear was a nice tom, which I harvested.

Upon inspection of what he had been eating, I found his crop full of snails, a couple small frogs, and a salamander.

I'm convinced these things can adapt to anything
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: NRA4LIFE on July 01, 2013, 01:08:17 PM: I used to do the same thing, I always wanted to know what they were eating and when. And I too have found them to eat almost anything. The most interesting was a Tom I killed in the fall in Missouri. It's crop was packed solid with walking sticks. I think they are immune to almost any weather.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: Gobble Doc on July 01, 2013, 03:19:13 PM: Glad to hear that they are heat resistant. I was thinking about our chickens and they seem to quit laying eggs when it gets too hot which made me wonder if turkey also exhibit some kind of heat stress.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: Yelper Guy on July 01, 2013, 03:36:26 PM: Gobble Doc, don't give up. It took us 4 spring hunts to seal the deal.
This spring was truly hunting for us, not just filling a tag like some of the previous years.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: Gobble Doc on July 01, 2013, 09:02:43 PM: Yelper Guy,

Thanks. I've gotten spring birds before, just not this year. Hopefully my bow skills might be improved by the fall hunt.
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on July 05, 2013, 05:11:47 PM: Quote from: dontgetcrabs on June 30, 2013, 08:44:37 PM
You tell us, you are the gobble doc. :chuckle:
:chuckle: :chuckle: :tup: they be fine as long as they have water :tup:
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: HUNTINCOUPLE on July 10, 2013, 09:53:27 PM: We have a auto waterter near the chicken coop and the turkeys come by all the time to have a drink with the chickens. They know where all the goodies are! :tup:
Title: Re: Heat
Post by: turkeydancer on July 11, 2013, 07:17:29 AM: My first turkey harvested was just above some farms that were along the LPO river. When I opened the crop to see what he had been eating I was expecting to see grains and bugs, but I was shocked to see it full of hard corn he had been "stealing" from the chickens down at the farms. I'm glad I took that 20 lb thief out at 7 yards, and made life better for the farmers chickens ..... :chuckle: