Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: fishunt247 on January 07, 2009, 10:42:34 PM

Title: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 07, 2009, 10:42:34 PM: Just wondering if anybody is working any turkey feeders this winter. In Yakima Co. there hasn't really been enough snow to warrant putting feed in the feeder that my family usually does. I'm watching the snow in Kittitas because I know of a guy who has a feeder up here as well. But this snow is melting awful fast. The birds shouldn't need any help, so far, it doesn't look like. But with the snow mess in the northeast, is anybody doing anything for the birds?
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: PA BEN on January 10, 2009, 05:59:23 AM: Snow doesn't seem to harm the birds. I've seen some hard winters, and you would think it would have killed them off. But turkey's will eat anything, they fly up in to tree's and find food. They'll do fine up north. ;)
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 11, 2009, 07:18:44 PM: I just know an extended period of time with deep powder snow with no base can kill off some birds. The winter of 96-97 killed A LOT of birds in the Goldendale/Klickitat area. It was sad to find all the carcasses in March and April. I read somewhere that they can live on average 6 days in a tree without flying down. Who knows? Helping them get through the winter unscathed never hurts though.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: NWTFhunter on January 12, 2009, 03:12:57 PM: Winter feeding is discouraged by most state biologists. Turkeys are resiliant birds, despite a large winter kill turkey numbers can quickly rebound with a good spring hatch.
The thing with winter feeding is that you are only effecting a very small number of birds, and if you have a large flock of winter turkey the amount of feed required to actually sustain them is very large. More $ than most people are willing to spend. What does this do if you stop mid stream due to a financial issue. Well, if you cant afford to buy more food and have attracted a mid sized flock of say 40 birds and stop these birds now have to find a new source of food. And if the weather becomes worse and prevents birds from traveling, and finding an easy food source which they have now become accustom to, these birds will die.
This kind of thing has happend time and time again. There have been ranches that have started feeding a small flock of turkey, which over a few short years can become a very large flock of birds, several hundred if not more. This is taxing and annoying to the owners of the land and they often give up their efforts. There has been ranchers that have hundreds of birds show up in the fall that have threatened the fish and game that if they dont do something they will kill them as they are just tired of huge flocks of birds. But in this case who is somewhat at fault ? About 6 years ago there was a ranch that held over 500 birds that the NWTF had to take fast action to save birds because they would be erraticated because they had become a nuicense.
I have heard it many many times a land owner will say.. A couple of years ago we started feeding them because we liked seeing them. And now there are just sooooo many birds in our yard or barn that we are sick of them.
Now these are the guys you know you wont have any problem getting permission to hunt their land..... :chuckle:

I used to have a very detailed symposium that gave all the gathered research on survival...
Turkey can survive being roosted for close to 3 weeks.
Turkey can survive temps as low as -15 for 7 days before beginning to use fat reserves.
Deep powder snow is what prevents turkey from finding food sources. It prevents them from scratching.
A crust is actually good over deep snow as it traps falling seeds on the surface that are easily eaten.
A hen despite having less fat than a tom will usually live longer with out food than the tom.
The only reason turkey are not in Ak is because they are a non native species, and ADFG will not allow release of turkey there.
I will see if I can find that information, or request another copy to share

Ok, I will shut up for now.. ;)
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 12, 2009, 05:28:51 PM: Good info. The feeder in Yakima Co. is not near any private land, is not a private feeder (state I guess), and the feed we put in there is provided to us by a WDFW biologist. These birds, unlike the birds up north, will NEVER reach the size to become a nuisance due to where they are located, deprivation, etc. And there isn't anyone around for them to annoy either.
Really all the birds that were transplanted into Yakima Co havent done great. Some flocks have done better than others, but none have exploded.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: boneaddict on January 12, 2009, 05:40:13 PM: No need to shut up NWTF. GOOD INFO. They were taking a beating in the NE corner. Should do better now.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: NWTFhunter on January 12, 2009, 08:56:47 PM: Thanks guys.. When it comes to turkey I can get on a roll.....LOL
I read anything I can get my hands on when it comes to turkey. I have stacks and stacks of Turkey Caller, that I can read time and time again.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: shorthair-on-point on January 14, 2009, 09:00:01 AM: That is some good info. Thanks
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: PA BEN on January 15, 2009, 06:04:29 AM: When the turkey's started to show up in numbers around Chewelah, people started feeding them in the winter. They would sit in there house, drink coffee and look at the pretty birds. Just a few at first, then a few more, then 100's. They roost on your TV antenna and break it off, they roost on your deck. And yes turkey *censored* everywhere. I knew a guy who fed them until his wife slipped on turkey *censored* in the drive way and broke her ankle. It use to be, "can I hunt the turkey's on your land", "no way", "we love to see the birds." "If you kill them there will be no turkey's." Now, "it's come and kill as many of the SOB's you can", they call the game dept. because there's to many turkeys at my house. The game dept. tells them to stop feeding them. They'll go away.
Also, turkey's will stay and move to food sources. They will keep the snow beat down, but if you feed them, you lock them in an area where the snow gets deep. If you stop feeding them, they are stuck in the deep snow and aways from the next food source. BTW, the winter of 93-94 and the winter of 96-97 didn't hurt the birds in the Collvile valley at all. And the snow stayed deep from Nov. to March.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: Gobble on January 15, 2009, 06:14:22 AM: Good info, Thanks for sharing. ;)
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: Big10gauge on January 15, 2009, 06:20:08 AM: I've had them sitting on my chimney pipe before, That's the easy way to have smoked turkey, :chuckle: They can be really destructive, but I still enjoy watching them.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 15, 2009, 11:21:02 AM: In Yakima Co, there are only a couple spots where there are actually houses in turkey country. But its really odd how different the birds are in the Goldendale area vs up northeast, despite both being merriams. Granted in Goldendale there aren't near the amount of birds, but they don't visit the fields in droves like they seem to up north. And they don't seem to be around houses too much (though around like Centerville they are). Maybe there are less houses in the Goldendale area too, I'm not sure. Too bad those birds can't be transplanted from up north like we used to do in the Yakima Chp of the NWTF. A lot of other places could use the boost of new blood. Anybody know if any chapters are transplanting birds still?
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: bowhunter/taxidermest on January 15, 2009, 10:07:51 PM: some good friends are, they have been for a long time they are more like pets though to them cuase they come everyday at the same time its kinda bad, but its only a small flock of about seven to ten birds. the long beards never mange to make it to long living and liking the pet life it seems :bash: :bash: :bash: but it dosent matter cuase i know where they are going they seem to seperate from the hens and young and never make there way back.....but i have sucesses every year i have gone, so i shouldnt be complaing,
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: PA BEN on January 16, 2009, 05:23:23 PM: The birds in Yakima Co came from the Colville area through the trap and transport program w/ the NWTF.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 16, 2009, 06:55:18 PM: Yeah I know, I was on three of those plants that I remember, maybe more. I know I was on some of the Tampico, Rattlesnake, and Teanaway plants. My dad was the chp. president of the Yakima chp, which is who did those plants. I was just wondering if anybody was doing that anymore?
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: NWTFhunter on January 16, 2009, 10:30:26 PM: Quote from: fishunt247 on January 16, 2009, 06:55:18 PM
Yeah I know, I was on three of those plants that I remember, maybe more. I know I was on some of the Tampico, Rattlesnake, and Teanaway plants. My dad was the chp. president of the Yakima chp, which is who did those plants. I was just wondering if anybody was doing that anymore?

Not sure what the current status of trapping is, but if you call Dave he could answer your ?'s
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: PA BEN on January 17, 2009, 07:10:30 AM: Quote from: fishunt247 on January 16, 2009, 06:55:18 PM
Yeah I know, I was on three of those plants that I remember, maybe more. I know I was on some of the Tampico, Rattlesnake, and Teanaway plants. My dad was the chp. president of the Yakima chp, which is who did those plants. I was just wondering if anybody was doing that anymore?
I heard 4 years ago before I left Chewelah, that the Game Dept. didn't want to deal with the damage complants that turkey's cause, and quit funding the program. It's totally up to privet funding to trap and transport. If they plant them and they cause damage people blame the game Dept. No one pays my Dad (THE FAMER) for the wheat that the turkey's eat and destroy. They became a big problem in some area's. BTW, the game Dept. found a way to make more money off of tags and local business's make a lot of money off of the turkey's
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 17, 2009, 02:34:12 PM: Alright thanks. Too bad they don't want to fund it anymore, some of those plants worked extremely well. Others, fair at best. It would be nice to put fresh blood into some of these flocks though.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: Turkeyman on January 17, 2009, 05:15:30 PM: To bad we all cant work togethere so we can have birds like Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, all these states have allot of farmers and a ton of turkeys.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: NWTFhunter on January 17, 2009, 09:06:16 PM: Ben, actually the chapters of the NWTF got the WDFW to start the current turkey tag sales. We agreed to split the $ with them with the agreement that that money be used strickly for conservation work, not to go to the general fund.
Ca regional biologist is trying to implement the same thing there with tons of opposistion.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 17, 2009, 09:43:22 PM: Seems this thread has gone into a general discussion of turkey...and I love it. I've been talking about it to my roommate all day. To add to the randomness, I think getting rid of the free turkey tag was the greatest thing our game dept has done, ever. Obviously for the reasons you stated, for sure, turkeys need our money/efforts too. And it got rid of some of the craziness of those free tag years. We saw some guys in jeans and flannels hunting them like they were pheasants... pushers working down a canyon, blockers at the bottom or top. It was nuts. The number of guys in the field since we went back to buying them seems fewer to me.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: NWTFhunter on January 17, 2009, 09:58:37 PM: That was one of the top issues in discussion. It seemed that some people thought just because they held a tag that they would give it a try with no knowlege of what the hell they were doing.
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: Turkeyman on January 17, 2009, 11:28:26 PM: Best thing that has happend I'm surprised no body got killed. >:(
Title: Re: Anybody working any feeders?
Post by: fishunt247 on January 18, 2009, 11:19:52 PM: No joke. Like what modern elk is (or so I hear). And though I am a somewhat selfish man, its great that a few more people got into the sport, because it is great. Hopefully a few that got in it for the right reasons stuck with it and the "other" guys quit.