Ron & Tes Jolly
It’s just like “turkey math,” if you take habitat, plus food, plus water…that equals more turkeys. Wild turkeys spend their lives in a home range. When poults first hatch, their home range can be as small as 100 acres. As they grow older and larger, the hen leads them where they need to go to find food, water and cover. Basically, she is introducing her young to her own home range, which can be as large as six square miles.
By the time poults reach breeding age, they have adopted the area in which they were reared as their own home range. They will likely breed, nest and rear their poults in that same area. If your desire is more wild turkeys on your property, the best way to accomplish that goal is to provide everything possible that turkeys seek in their home range. Here are a few tips that will make your property more attractive to wild turkeys.
1. Create the Best Nesting Cover
Improve nesting cover by selecting areas on the edge of hardwoods. Use the hack-and-squirt method and kill undesirable trees. After treated trees are dead, drop a few randomly with a chainsaw. This adds cover, creates a trellis effect for vining plants and speeds the natural regeneration of understory vegetation.
Allow natural vegetation such as dewberry, blackberries and briars to grow along fence rows and field edges. Hens are attracted to this type of cover when searching for nest sites. Not only do they provide cover for wild turkeys, but they are also good on a bowl of ice cream, too.
2. Make Your Food Plots Turkey Friendly
Mow lanes through food plots and clover fields to allow young poults easy access for bugging. A lane that gives you easy access to a deer stand can double as a good lane for turkey to use. A lane to a water source is also a good idea. Young poults can easily follow a mowed lane to and from food plots and water.
Dusting is an important turkey behavior that helps control external parasites. Turkeys seem to enjoy a dust “bath.” Disk strips along field edges to provide dusting areas convenient to feeding locations.
3. Controlled Burns
Cool season fire is an excellent tool for managing unwanted vegetation in pine plantations and naturally regenerated areas. Fire also enhances the soil, releases the natural seed bank and encourages the growth of grasses and forbs sought by turkeys in early spring.
If you plan your early season burn well enough, you can hunt the burn when turkey season opens. Burns are a magnet for turkey and they will frequent the area even after it has grown back. If your property lends to it, you can burn a different section off each spring.
4. Clover-Bugging Bonanza
Turkey poults need protein to survive — and after hatching, insects provide a high percentage of their diet. Clover Plus, which is a blend of perennial red and white clovers, are legumes that attract and hold hordes of insects in addition to succulent small-leaved white clovers which appeal to the adult birds. Clover mixes produce nearly year-round nutrition providing an excellent food source and attract turkeys from all age groups.
It is also a low-maintenance option. If Mother Nature cooperates, there is little for you to do after it’s up. Of course, that makes it an economical option as well. It’s also a draw for other wildlife as well. The deer will thank you especially.
5. Edge Management
As young turkeys mature during the summer, they cover a lot of ground, moving through grassy areas stripping seed heads as they go. Along the way, they’ll find larger insects such as protein-rich grasshoppers and crickets. Designate “no mow” areas along edges and allow grasses such as bahiagrass to produce seed heads in late spring and throughout the summer. With the price of fuel these days, “no mow” areas can save you money as well.
The edge of creek banks is a great place to let grow — especially if there is a stand of oak trees growing along the creek. Acorns are a great fall food source for turkey and deer alike. The tall grass around the edge of the timber and creek banks will attract grasshoppers and other bugs all spring and summer. If you know turkeys are roosting in that area, you're best to tread lightly.
6. Manipulate Food Plots
Food plots planted with cool-season seed mixtures or cornfields planted to attract deer during fall and winter are excellent food sources for turkeys. These mixes include some annual clovers, brassicas, oats and wheat.
Throughout late spring into summer, mow strips to scatter the matured grains. When most of the scattered grain has been eaten, mow another lane. These grains help attract turkey and hold them on your property.
BioLogic’s Wildlife Chufa is a great addition to any managed property. Chufa is incredibly nutritious. When planted in a new area, lightly disk a strip after the plants mature to expose the tubers and attract turkeys.
7. Maximize Native Hard and Soft Mast Production
Native hard mast thrives and produces more when competition from other plants is removed and fertilizer is applied. Clear brush and saplings from under good-producing trees to eliminate competition and provide easy access to nuts. The amount of hard mast in the pictured turkey’s crop verifies the importance of this food source.
Soft mast such as blackberries and wild grapes are an important food source to wild turkeys. Periodic mowing or pruning and fertilizer application helps boost production of fruit. Blackberries especially are easy to grow and provide cover for quail and rabbits as well.
8. Putting Down Roots
Each year, plant groupings of hard and soft mast trees and shrubs on your property. Within these groupings, mix soft mast species such as persimmon, apple, plum, mulberry, pear and crab apple trees with your hard mast varieties. Planting trees with varying fruit/nut drop dates ensures food is available to turkeys from late summer through the winter months.
9. Turkey-Friendly Water
Natural creeks, streams and ponds provide water and the vital grit and gravel necessary for the turkey’s digestive needs. Take note of where turkeys prefer to drink and get their grit. Keep the edges around those areas cleared for easy access. Edges around water holes located near nesting areas should be open to allow easy access and visibility to see predators for hens and young poults.
Products like the earth pond are great if you're not raising cattle on your property. They provide water in places where turkeys need it most. They are also critter-friendly and easy for wildlife to use and get in and out of. The drawback is you have to haul water if there is not enough rain to keep it filled.
10. Declare War on Turkey Predators
Raccoons, opossums, coyotes and bobcats are known predators of turkeys and turkey nests. A regimented trapping program should be employed during late winter, prior to nesting season.
Feral pig damage accounts for untold amounts of damage to the environment. They are a little-known turkey nests predator. Consider trapping them as well, especially in areas where turkey and hogs share real estate or areas that turkey are roosting.
In Closing
Sighting a wild turkey hen and her brood on your property is a very rewarding experience. Likewise, so is a handsome gobbler strutting amid clover blooms in the spring. It takes time, thought and effort to build a sound turkey habitat. As gamekeepers, our responsibility is to make the land the best it can be. With a little effort, these tips will equal more turkeys.
