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North Carolina Had Good Spring Wild Turkey Hatch

December 2, 2004 -- Mike Seamster can breathe a sigh of relief - for a little while, at least. Seamster, the N.C. Wildlife Commission's upland game-bird biologist, recently released the results of the 2004 wild turkey summer brood survey report, and there was good news - especially after the general failure of the 2003 hatch.



"The news is good, really good," he said. "I guess I'd anticipated it being a little better than what it really was, but it was a good hatch. We needed it after last year." Seamster said approximately 1,200 participants reported their observations of summer turkey movements, and more than 5,000 turkeys were seen, with hens averaging around three poults each.



"Anytime you can get above 2 1/2 and close to three poults per hen, that's a good hatch," Seamster said. "If we can get two like that in a row, that puts in pretty good shape." The survey indicated nearly 70 percent of all hens observed had poults, with an average of around four poults per hen. But the 30 percent of hens that didn't have poults - many of them juvenile hens - lowered the overall per-hen total of 2.8 for the state. The best hatch was in the Piedmont, with 3.0 poults per hen, compared to 2.8 in the coastal region and 2.7 in the mountains.



"It was absolutely important for us to have a good year this year because of the bad hatch last year," Seamster said. "We'll have fewer 2-year-old birds in the woods next spring - not as many as normal - but the thing that would tend to make up for that is having a good crop of jakes coming along. That may take up the slack. "If you have two or three poor hatches in a row, that's when you really see a real decline in the harvest. South Carolina had that happen a few years ago."



Seamster said having 70 percent of all hens observed raising poults was an excellent percentage. "Last year, it was in the 50s, and a lot of years we're between 60 and 65 percent," he said. "Above that, that's real good because a lot of juvenile hens will not have poults. They're not experienced nesters, and they aren't as good at taking care of their poults. Most studies show that adult hens are much more successful at nesting and raising poults than juveniles."



Observations in the three areas of the state were similar, although a higher percentage of hens had poults in the coastal plane (76), but those same hens had a lower percentage of poults (3.7 per brood). Sixty-nine percent of hens in the Piedmont had poults, an average of 4.3 per brood. Sixty-eight percent of mountain hens had poults, an average of four per birds.



Contributors observed a total of 5,552 poults, 1,938 hens and another 904 gobblers



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