Due to calendar shift, Kentucky’s spring wild turkey season opens and closes as late as it can be.
By regulation, the season starts on the Saturday closest to April 15 and runs for 23 days. This year’s season starts on April 18 and will continue through May 10, 2015.
“I know we’ll get some feedback from hunters (on the late opening day),” said Steven Dobey, wild turkey program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “A lot of it is psychological, in their minds they think they’re missing something, but the birds are still out there. Late in the season, when the hens go on the nest, gobblers are by themselves and roaming.”
Kentucky’s spring wild turkey season is timed to coincide with the second peak of gobbling.
“We try to set the season so we’ll have good hunter success, and to allow the majority of hens to be bred before the gobblers are removed,” said Dobey. “The timing is real tricky. It’s better to have the season a little later than too early.”
A lot of factors play into the harvest, particularly the weather, because it impacts how the birds act during the season and the number of hunters afield.
“Last season breeding was delayed due to the cold,” said Dobey. “Hunters had better success at the end of the season.”
Heavy rainfall means fewer hunters afield and flooded creek bottoms not only impact turkey nesting but drive the birds from their preferred habitat as the spring green-up progresses.
Uptick in Reproduction
Dobey said the staff is excited about the upcoming turkey season because of the continued uptick in reproduction. Reports from biologists and law enforcement officers in the field, summarized in the annual brood survey, estimated 2.1 poults per hen in 2014.
“That’s not as high as we would like to see, but it’s higher than 2013,” said Dobey. “The best news is we’ve had a steady increase in turkey production since 2011.”
The brood survey is conducted during July and August each summer, and the number of adult hens and poults observed are recored on data sheets. The tabulated total of poults divided by hens, is how the ratio is determined.
“Usually the poults per hen estimate is a pretty good predictor (of the harvest) for the upcoming fall season, and the spring season in two years,” said Dobey. “The survey gives us some trend data.”
Kentucky’s spring turkey harvest has been stable in recent seasons. Hunters have taken more than 29,000 turkeys the past six seasons, and four times during that period the harvest surpassed 32,000. The season’s record harvest of 36,097 occurred in 2010.
Kentucky’s turkey flock is estimated to number about 200,000 to 220,00 birds, Dobey said.
A majority of the gobblers taken by hunters are 2-year-old or older adults, as most hunters continue to pass up juveniles (jakes).
“The hunter success rate has been stable in recent years at roughly 30 percent,” said Dobey.
The bag limit for the spring season remains two bearded turkeys.
Cicadas Emergence May Benefit Turkey Reproduction
Turkey flocks in western Kentucky are likely to experience higher than normal reproductive success and brood survival due to a cicadas emergence this spring.
According to the University of Kentucky Department of Agriculture a periodic cicadas emergence on a 13-year cycle will happen west of Interstate 65 in the Green River basin and Purchase Region beginning in late April or early May. Mature nymphs will begin come out when soil temperature reach 64 degrees.
The millions of cicadas are feasted on by turkeys and provide a bountiful and reliable food source for poults, ensuring a high survival rate. The result is more birds on the ground in future seasons and a spike in hunter harvest.
“In 2008 we had a statewide emergence of cicadas and that was followed by a record turkey harvest in 2010,” said Dobey. “Hunters in western Kentucky can look forward to the 2017 season.”
Kentucky Remains a Top Turkey Hunting Destination
Kentucky remains a top wild turkey hunting destination in the region.
“Year in and year out we’re No. 1 or No. 2 in birds killed per square mile, among the adjoining states,” said Dobey.
Last season a total of 29,943 turkeys were taken in Kentucky and Tennessee hunters bagged 32,634 turkeys. In both Kentucky and Tennessee hunters bagged .80 birds per square mile (640 acres).
“Missouri was the next closest with a .65 turkey harvest per square mile, and in the five other adjoining states (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia) the harvest rate was much lower,” said Dobey.
Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for KyForward. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.