Caleb, what is the most common turkey hunting violation?

This week on Kentucky Afield.

We went live on social media to answer all of your spring turkey hunting questions and we're bringing you those answers right now.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

but have you ever tried Chick-Fil-A sauce on a turkey tender?

Hello and welcome to Kentucky, Your Field.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

And tonight you tuned in for our annual spring turkey question and answer show.

Joining me as usual, I have a panel of guests to answer all of your questions.

First off, I have a face you've seen quite a bit before.

Zak Danks.

Zak you're the turkey program coordinator and you've been doing that now for quite a few years, haven't you?

Yeah, eight years.

Eight years.

So you talk about some of the trends we've had.

Also what we're looking forward to this year as far as our turkey population.

Yep.

Next up, I have Jacob Stewart.

And Jacob, you are a private lands biologist.

I know your official titles, private lands biologist, or private lands program coordinator.

So if a person out there that has a piece of property that wants to attract more wildlife in, tonight we're going to mainly talk about turkeys.

Yeah, you can help us out with that can█t you?.

Yeah, Chad.

We have a program.

We have biologists out across the state set up to help you reach your management goals.

These aint our management goals, it█s your management goals, whether it be turkey, deer, butterflies, birds, whatever you're looking for, we're there to help you along your way.

All right.

Fantastic.

I know a lot of people want to know how can attract more turkeys to my property.

So tonights the night you get the answer for that.

And then joining us on the end, we have Travis Abrams.

Travis, you█re a conservation officer out of the third District.

Yes, sir.

Glad to have you here.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Happy to be here.

Third district█s a great area to hunt turkeys.

There█s a lot of areas in the third district that get a lot of Turkey pressure.

There's also some WMAs within the third district that are pretty popular for turkey hunting.

So very glad to have you.

All right.

This year let's let's first start off with our season dates because really that's the most important.

So this year our youth turkey season starts on April the 6th and 7th.

That's the youth weekend.

Tell me tell me there, Travis, to qualify to hunt the youth season.

What do you have to do to qualify to hunt the youth season?

Well, you have to be under the age of 15 years old.

12 to 15 is a youth.

You would be required to have a youth hunting license, as well as a youth turkey permit.

Anyone under the age of 12 is license and permit exempt.

Okay, Now you still have to telecheck those birds, the daughters, you still have to telecheck those birds the same, same exact way.

Hunter Ed is required for those that meet the requirements.

Okay, So hopefully you've got your Hunter Ed certification taken care of if not, you know, you can go in there and do that online with the exception of the range portion.

Do we still have the option now, if you if you've never used the one year exemption, do you have a one year exemption available for people who have not taken it?

Yes sir.

it's still around.

You got it for a year, after that year though you█d have to go get one.

Okay.

All right.

And then the the regular turkey season this year, the general turkey season this year opens up on April the 13th.

Tell me a little bit about April 13th and how you personally picked that day.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's not about me personally.

In any given year it varies because the youth season is the first full weekend in April.

So this year you didn't get a Saturday and Sunday until the sixth and the seventh.

Last year it was the first and the second.

Yeah.

So general season is the Saturday closest to the 15th, which this year happens to be the thirteenth.

So it ranges from April 12th to April 18th.

So, when the date shifts it's based on the calendar Saturday closest to April 15th.

So this year we kind of we moved our seasons closer together because they're literally back to back weekends.

Our general season came early a little bit earlier and our youth season went a little later.

So that is 100% set by the calendar and it's been that way for how many years now?

I think since 2006.

Okay.

Was the last change we made to dates.

So a lot of times we hear people say, Man, I wish the season was earlier, or sometimes traditional bow hunters want more foliage out.

They want it to be later.

The simple fact is the dates are set by reg and regulation and they are based on the calendar.

How the calendar falls.

That's right.

Yeah.

And for a period of years in the early 2000s sometimes we█d open on Wednesday or Monday, April 15th.

Exactly.

So it would vary the day of the week it would open.

People liked the weekend opener.

We've got 23 day season, four weekends so a lot of opportunity for folks.

Yeah and you said it, 23 day season, so we're going to be going from April the 13th all the way until May 5th, so that it's a good amount of time to get out regardless of your work schedule or your kids activities.

It's a good amount of time to get out and pursue turkey hunting this year.

All right.

We've been getting questions.

We did a little thing online where we were offering hats to the first three questions that we ask.

I have three questions here that have been picked.

So if you are one of the first three questions we ask today, you will be receiving one of these Kentucky Afield camouflaged hats.

So first up, let's see, we have Gregory, and his question is, what is the overall condition of the Turkey population here in Kentucky?

A pretty broad question, but it's a question that everyone wants to know the answer to.

It is, yeah, yeah.

New hunters, veteran hunters, everybody wants to know what turkey numbers are like.

Overall, you know, the simplest answer I can give is that We have a healthy population in the state.

People come from many states to hunt turkeys here.

And, you know, we've got lots of opportunity.

A lot of public land to pursue birds.

Private lands is the majority of our state.

The numbers are down somewhat from what they were maybe ten, 12 years ago, when we kind of hit a high in our population.

But population has come down some but it is still very strong.

Other states have seen population decline, a little more severe than we have.

We█re very stable, generally speaking.

We do fluctuate some, but still a very good chance, very good flock in our state Lot of times when people ask about what the turkey populations are, they're obviously concerned about the overall number of birds.

But when you're a hunter, you really want to know about two year old male birds, right?

Yeah, two year and older male birds.

What's that population looking like?

It's pretty good.

So last year, 2023, was our second highest harvest ever.

And that was directly a product of a really good hatch we had in 2021.

Birds that survived, poults that survived 2021, a lot of them were males, grew up to be two year olds last year, and we have had a great season.

The hatch hasn't been quite as good the last two spring, but it's been good, stable, and there's a lot of Jakes out there right now.

So, anybody if you want to take a Jake.

But there█s a lot of jakes, so it's two year old bird numbers are still good but we've got next year is probably even brighter, I would expect.

Okay.

Still good this year though.

All right.

Next question is from Jamison Netherland, and he wants to know what is the best way to increase turkey habitat and population on private lands.

He wants to know a little bit about trapping and he wants to know if there's any ways to help keep and maintain a healthy flock of birds.

So what would you say if you're going to say two things that you need to do on a 100 acre tract of property?

What were the two things you'd recommend right off the bat?

So right off the bat, If you noticed what Zach said, the importance of the hatch leading to the number of birds two years later that we█re able to harvest.

So the most important thing we can do for Turkey population is in the state is to provide the habitat for nesting and brooding and getting those broods up to be the age that we can harvest them.

60 to 70% in some studies of the poults die.

So at the end of the day it is really important to increase the number of poults to make it to your jakes and then two year old birds that you can harvest.

So the way you do that is you provide nesting cover.

So, some thick type shrubby cover with some native grasses, that kind of stuff in close proximity to what we call brooding cover.

grasses and forbes or wildflower mix that produce insects because those first 2 to 4 weeks, or first week to four weeks, Those insects are very important for the poults.

And then really survival of a poult after four weeks is pretty well exponential on going up on survival.

So that first four weeks is, you know, crucial.

So providing some nesting cover and brooding cover are the two main things that I would say if you're going to do two things to help yout turkey population, that's the key to it right there.

Okay.

And then they want to know a little bit about predators.

Tell me some of the big predators for turkey nest and then if you if you would put a plan together to address that or if there's good habitat and they got a way to hide, so that's going to help a lot.

But as far as nest raiders, what what predators are the worst for turkeys?

Those Zak jump in here If I miss any, but your raccoons, your skunks, your opossums.

Snakes.

As far as your nest predators go, it's a big thing.

And, you know, the whole idea behind trapping, trapping is is a is just another management tool to help you get down the road.

Habitat and trapping are two things that you need to have together to really be successful.

Are really just doing one or the other is not the end end game.

There's no magic bullet to that.

And I'll be honest with you, it's a whole lot easier not to mow than to put all the effort into trapping and not mowing will equal better habitat and protection from those predators.

It's amazing.

It doesn't matter what what species we're talking about.

It could be in the fall.

We're talking about deer.

It could be small game habitat.

It really always comes down to if you have the piece property, sometimes it's less work, less mowing, less spraying, allowing certain areas to get thick to raise young always tends to be a good way to go.

In certain times a year, mowing can be extremely detrimental because the young are there and it can be really, really, really bad.

So I think that's the key, when Jacob was saying no, don't mow, he's talking about during the nesting season.

Which here is April, you know is when our first nest happen all through May and of course you█ve got hatching, so we'll have poults on the ground in May June especially, even in to July, the re-nest.

So really if you can stay off the bush hog between April and August it would be, you're uping your odds.

And then you can do mowing for maintenance or management, you know, along with other better practices that we biologist would like to see like, prescribed fire, strip disking, or real targeted specific herbicide applications.

But avoiding that nesting season is really your best bet.

But but keeping things moving you want a diversity of cover types managed different ways on any property to maximize use by turkeys.

You can have zero predators and you run over two or three turkey nest with a tractor.

It doesn't matter, you've not increased it.

You can eliminate the landscape of predators.

If you mow over the eggs, you're going to have zero Poults.

Yeah.

Some recent research in Tennessee showed a good portion of the nest loss is from mowing.

So if you did implement a trapping program on your place, which is great, do it.

But if you can expect to influence the number of predators or increase Turkey productivity 10%, that would be phenomenal.

Like, we don't even see that in research where they do real intensive predator management.

But just from mowing alone they mowed up like, I forget, 13, 12, 13% of the nest just in mowing.

Yeah.

So that alone, if we could do that across the state, do a better job at staying off it.

You know we're not unfortunately prime hay making time in this state is right during nesting season.

If you're trying to make a living growing hay, that's one thing, but if there█s fields you don't have to mow, or mow early then that's a good way to up your population.

Just stay off the bush hog.

So if you're trying to trap and you're creating shooting lanes and you mow and shooting lanes to shoot coyotes is then you, your net net loss is bad.

I mean, even if you kill some coyotes, you're probably net net if you've mowed strips and you probably are net down because you may have destroyed a couple of turkey nest.

Now.

Yeah, that can be a huge, huge loss.

Yeah.

Next question from Don Ellis.

What are the guidelines for turkey hunting on WMA█s and where are these posted for everyday viewing?

So what are the rules and regulations as it pertains to Turkey hunting on WMA█s?

And, or do we have quota hunts for turkey on the WMA█s, or is it really pretty much all open to normal statewide regs?

It depends on the WMA.

A lot of them have their own regulations that a hunter would have to follow.

Like I said, it varies, so you can find that information on our website under the Public Lands Public Hunting tab, search whichever particular WMA you're interested in hunting at, and it can give you all the regs that you need to find out, before you get out there and get after it.

You know, we made the comment Look at the rules and regulations by checking out the guides.

This year, different than in past years.

Our turkey hunting guides are actually not printed on paper as what we're seeing is everyone's going to one of these and it's much easier to access an entire turkey guide.

So the best way to do it this year is actually go online and there's a QR code and we'll show you this QR code here in a second.

You can actually go on and hit that, hit that QR code and get the turkey guide on there and search through it.

It's probably the best and easiest way.

So if you're waiting for that turkey guide to hit your local retail store, it's already available.

It's just available online.

So make sure you go on there, click on it and read your rules and regulations and make sure that nothing has changed in the area that you're hunting, and refresh yourself on all of our rules and regulations as it pertains to turkey hunting.

So I always grab a guide, I always throw it in my truck or in my boat, and I've noticed that I've always go to my phone to get my answer because it's just it seems like it's easier.

And now with the fishing side, you█ve got the boat fish app, that seems to have all the information you need too, so.

If you, if that's something that you'd like to have a printed copy, you can always go online and print it off of there as well.

But I'll tell you, if you get used to using your phone it█s pretty handy.

So next question we have from Colby What are your top tips for public land Turkey?

And we talked a little bit about it.

What what tips would you give a person that's going to public land hunt this year?

Start online with our interactive map and website.

Go to where to hunt, and find a map of the state.

You can zoom in, you█ll see the boundaries.

Spend some time looking on there.

At least one of our WMA█s has additional maps, on where habitat practices are, there may be others.

And then, you know, you got your favorite app, OnX or whatever program you use.

But but be sure to look at our website because It's going to have up to date boundaries on it, because sometimes we acquire new properties.

Just want to make sure you█ve got your maps laid out right.

I think our younger generation of hunters is pretty savvy, using technology.

But anybody can get online and scroll around and look for ridges, look for saddles.

If you're in the mountains look for, you know, where the fields and woods meet, you know, think about entry points and exit points that you can use, but everybody else might use, places you might want to avoid.

Tell me, are you going to be public or private land hunting this year or a little bit of both?

Both, I hope.

Both.

Okay.

How about you, Jakob?

I do both, predominately I actually I enjoy on the public land.

I'm a I'm a runner and gunner, which means I like to mess up my own turkey hunting.

So So the the idea of public land hunting, you know, I've had a lot of good, before I took this job I ran a management area which gave me the opportunity to get out early and hunt.

And I've had a lot of really good hunts.

People think you need to go early, later in the season when all them hens get on the nest.

I've heard a lot of gobbling and had some really good hunts late, and the WMA█s really decrease number of the pressure of people coming out later in the later in the season.

So don't think it's it's a loss if you don't get there first two weeks for sure.

Officer Abrams are you're going to hunt this year, turkey hunt?

Oh yeah.

You bet, yeah.

What are you going to hunt?

You're going to hunt public or private lands?

I hunt wherever I can.

Yeah, I got.

I got a private land spot that I can go to.

Okay.

Yes sir.

Tell me how you would approach.

Or maybe it's no change.

If you think about the public land you plan on hunting this year and the private land you're going to hunt, do you alter how you hunt from public versus private land any, and all?

Think about this year, Do you, do you approach that a little different, be it the use of decoys, be it how much you move, where you set up?

Do you take a different approach if it█s public versus private lands?

Probably so, yeah.

Because I think I do that a little bit.

Well, less decoys.

Yeah.

Less calling.

I'll go later in the year on public.

Yeah.

We've had luck together doing that.

Yeah.

And this year I look forward to hunting eastern Kentucky, hunting the Mountains, which I've really done very little of.

So it'll be different there just because my private land is not there just by virtue of geography.

But yeah, it's bigger properties than the private lands I hunt.

So I can run a gun more, it will be a little bit different for me.

You think you take a different approach public land versus privately lands?

Yeah.

I think, you know, you're in private land.

You know, most people probably have an average between 50 and 100 acres.

And it can get pretty frustrating hearing that bird gobbling on the other side of the fence and then, you know, wishing it was here, which on your public land you have a little more of the ability to work multiple birds, you know, take your time spending it in the woods just trying to trying to find them.

You know, again, the thing I think the key to all turkey hunting is the idea of knowing your landscape.

That you█re hunting, to know how that bird may or may not react, where they may be gobbling.

I've had a lot of times hunting on private land, you'll sit there and there'll be a bird gobbling and strutting.

And then there's a woven wire fence and they will not come through, no matter how hard you call or what you do, it just the deters them.

So knowing that kind of stuff really helps you, you know, pick where you're going to sit up and how you hunt.

Yeah, that that's a good point if there's a barrier there.

I mean, even things that we don█t even think of as barriers, turkeys are finicky aren█t they?

There are certain things that will hold a bird up.

And you're like, what is the world that bird wants to come here.

It█s gobble like crazy.

How come I can't get this bird to finish?

It could be the silliest thing.

Like, say it could be a fence that you don't even know was there.

Can█t see it until you walk down there, and you're like huh.

Yeah, I'm trying to call this bird through here and it just won█t make it.

I've seen them hold up on creeks and just strut back and forth and you're like, you could fly right across there if you want.

You know, it's just a jump for a bird, two wing flaps.

But for whatever reason, they just they, they're finicky like that.

Next question is from Cruz wants to know if you can purchase additional turkey tags?

No, not I guess youth who don't have the youth sportsman█s, just have youth turkey permit then could purchase a second tag, that█s my understand, so they can get their second bird.

Correct, for the youth.

But everybody else would just have, the only option would be to get a bonus bird on the federal property Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, One of the auctions we have for a commissioners tag.

Yeah.

But yeah, otherwise your statewide license covers the two tags that you get.

Okay, and we always get this question.

We do allow two birds in Kentucky.

They have to be taken on different days.

They can't be taken at the same time because we get that question a lot.

Other states, I guess, do allow multiple birds to taken in one day, but not here in Kentucky.

It has to be two separate days, right?

Yeah.

There█s a number of states that would allow you to take both, but most states are one per day.

Yeah.

Just way to spread the pressure out.. Yeah.

The next question.

Can you hunt with a bow or a crossbow instead of a firearm?

Tell me about it, first off, what's your answer?

Can you.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, it is totally legal to use a bow or a crossbow.

Either bow or crossbow there's no minimum draw weight.

You█ve got to be careful with your broadheads though.

So it can't be a barbed broadhead and It has to be no greater than 7/8”.

Okay.

Okay.

So tell me a little bit about.

And you said no greater, no less than 7/8”?

On Broadhead?

No less, no less.

Yeah.

I think you said no.

Great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It has to be, it has to be at least 7/8”, right.

Yes.

Okay.

Gotcha.

How many people do you see out using using a...

There's not many.

Yeah.

Not many people using a string.

It's tough.

So you know whenever I see I kind of tip my hat to it.

For most parts, people using shotguns.

Yeah.

Next question.

We're getting questions about Turkey banding.

Turkey banding.

We actually did a show.

We went out with you guys.

I think we were in Woodford County, if I'm not mistaken.

Yep.

And Turkey banding involves turkey baiting and I've learned really fast why baiting turkeys is illegal because man, when you get the birds to start coming, you get them all.

Don't you?

You get a lot, yeah.

We went out there and set up a trap and, and put some bait out and it took a few hours but when they came in we were able to take quite a few turkeys and put bands on them and release them back out.

Tell me a little bit about banding and what's going on in the world of banding turkey and what we're learning.

Yeah, so the banding project is designed to help us understand harvest pressure on the population.

we do this for all kinds of wildlife.

Turkeys are difficult because they're hard, too hard to get that many birds hitting the spot consistently.

Have them out there the day that you're out there and catch them, there's a lot of effort that goes into that.

So that show right there, you know, we were just there one day, but Joe Lacefield and helpers.

Landowners have been baiting the site for a while, you know, sometimes to takes birds a while to find it.

But, you know, by putting bands on these male birds when they're the subject of harvest, we can look at the percentage of them that get harvested that that helps us estimate what the harvest pressure is like for the greater population, because we█re doing this research all across the state.

And that's really in my mind, it's been the first step in research to help us understand well are regulations where they need to be.

Let's do some let's do some research to find out.

And, you know, because there's a lot of factors that influence turkey populations, but the one thing we as a department control are regulations.

And in order to understand that lets go take some measurments.

In this case, the measurements of the bands and the number of them that get harvested.

What what type of percentage of hunters that take a banded bird do we think reach back out to us, and are there any incentives for them to do that?

Yeah, Yeah.

So everybody that reports to us gets a certificate, telling them information about where the bird was banded and how much it weighed, it's kind of a nice keepsake.

You can put on your wall, if you█d like to.

There are a percentage of them that are reward bands as well.

And you know, so far we think that our estimates of harvest rate and recovery rates on the fans are about 20 to 30%.

Research still ongoing, so we won't know for another couple years.

This, this year that's pretty much just wrapped up turkey banding with our third season, next year, our fourth season will be the final year of the project.

We'll put all that data together.

Our research partners at Tennessee Tech University will crunch the numbers for us, do some fancy statistical modeling.

Help us understand where we are and the state of Tennessee is doing the same thing.

So yeah, when that's completed we will have a better sense of where things are actually at.

Get some hard and fast numbers to go with the other data sources like our telecheck information, brood surveys and reports from officers and biologist in the field.

All right.

The next question is coming from Ethan Blair.

With the national decrease in Turkey population, where does Kentucky stand in that?

And first off, is there a national or is it regional?

What is going on with the national Turkey population right now?

And then break it down kind of close for us here in Kentucky.

Yeah, there's pretty much consensus.

Turkey populations across the eastern U.S. have come down some from highs seen 5-15 years ago depending on where you are exactly.

The Southeast seems to have the most severe declines.

The Midwest is seeing some sort of decline in several states.

The Northeast is not not declining to the same degree.

We have seen some of those numbers in some of the mid-Atlantic states.

But by and large, there is concerned hunters all over the country The sky is not falling totally.

Turkey populations are dynamic, just like all wildlife populations are.

But a lot of Kentucky hunters and hunters from others states are saying, you know, just not seeing the birds that I saw 15-20 years ago, what's going on?

There's got to be something going on?

Well there█s multiple things going on.

And so it's a no silver bullet fix.

But, you know, we build more and more houses every day.

We simplify our landscape and there are a lot of predators on the landscape.

Part of that is because we don█t trap and we make landscapes really simple, and make it pretty easy for those predators to thrive.

Sometimes we concentrate animals around the feeders that we put out, probably has implications for predator populations and how abundant they are, and are affecting Turkey movements.

So there's a there's a lot of things that go on, that are going on with turkey populations, and nobody's really got it figured out.

But we talked about habitat earlier, and biologists like to talk about that, but keep in mind that we're talking about a specific deficit on the landscape for a real important life stage in Turkeys, and that's nesting and brooding time period.

So if we█re mowing up nests before they have a chance.

Then we're forcing that hen to re-nest, which she can do it, but, you know, that's just rolling the dice.

And so, I do think habitat across our state and other states is part of it, and it just feeds right in to the high predator populations.

So there's a lot of a lot of issues.

Weather really impacts the hatch, we think that from past decades, that's highly variable.

So when we get lots and lots of rain in April and May that can be really detrimental to nesting hens, and then of course to little poults that can█t thermo-regulate.

Lots of factors.

So we're seeing this national decline, but from what I'm gathering, it's not like biologists that are out surveying the landscape.

You're not finding dead or deceased mature birds.

The decline is happening at a nest or poult stage.

Yeah.

We█re not making new turkeys like we should be.

Gotcha.

There's a host of diseases, hadn█t mentioned that, that can affect turkeys.

And we have research partners from several states looking into that as well.

I'll just say this.

Any hunter that sees a sick or diseased turkey, please call us.

Yeah, especially ones that have wart like growths on their head and that look really abnormal.

Those are ones that we really need to try to, try to sample and test.

So well, all Turkeys look like they have wart growths on them, but this is a little different when you're talking about... Yeah, these are obviously not normal turkeys.

Yeah, they're not common, thankfully.

But, if you encounter one we would want to know about it.

all right, next question.

This is a this is a great question.

Why does turkey taste so good?

And what, they want to know what are some of our favorite ways to cook wild Turkey.

What█s your favorite way to have wild turkey?

Fried man.

Yeah.

I grew up in Kentucky, it█s just what I like.

It is hard to beat.

Yeah, I can't, yeah Kentucky Colonel flour and rolled up fried.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I█m right there with you.

Yeah I'll tell you what if you if you guys ever tried the, I hate to be advertising for a company, but have you ever tried Chick-Fi it can't be that bad.

That's for sure.

It█ll ruin you.

Yeah.

I█m just telling you, fry some turkey tender strips and put a little Chick-Fil-A sauce on them.

I'm like, wow, this is, I give them to my kids.

I think they thought they were getting something from a fast food restaurant.

They█re really tasty.

So I've tried it a bunch of different ways, but it always seemed to tend to go back to the the fried, the fried strips of turkey seems to be my favorite way to have them.

Pretty simple, and in a hurry usually, so yeah, go with what you know and it█s easy.

next question is from John Bagley.

How old does a youth have to be to need a youth license?

We talked about this earlier, but refreshing us on this.

How old does a, when do you need to buy a license for a youth?

Once a youth turns 12 years old.

Okay.

And until he's 15.

So once he, or once they hit 16, they█re no longer consider youth for licensing.

So 12 to 15, anything before that they█re exempt.

So and if you're if you buy a license, if you buy youth license and then turn 16, how does that work?

it's good for the whole license year.

Okay.

So if you can buy a youth license during the time you can purchase the youth license, that's the license your hunting on the entire year, right?

Yes sir.

So an individual that is ten years old doesn't need a license, but that doesn't need a license for or a turkey permit.

They're still good for two birds throughout that season, correct?

Yes sir.

Yep.

And then once you acquire a license, there is a youth license out there that's one bird, right?

Correct, so if they just bought let's just say hypothetically, they had a youth hunting license and a youth turkey permit, that youth turkey permit is only going to cover you for one turkey, either during the spring or the fall, I know we█re talking about Spring so we will stick to that.

Yeah, let's just say they shot at Turkey and they wanted to go kill another one.

They could buy another youth permit, youth turkey permit, and get after it.

Yeah, yeah.

So if you got three different ways there if they're youth, they don't need a license or you're under 16 and you can have a youth permit or you can have a youth sportsman's license, right?

So you got three different ways that you can kind of get this done.

So depends on what works best for you.

If you know, if you're going to do deer hunting and you're going to do all the rest and you might have a better go ahead and get the youth sportsman█s, right?

Now the youth Sportsmen does have two turkey permits on it.. Yeah.

Okay.

So there you go.

Next question from Tim Fannin, and he wants to know, can a youth take their hunter safety course as young as nine years old?

What's the, what what is too young to take hunter safety course?

So they need to be at least nine years old.

Okay.

That█s what we ask, so if he█s nine, or she, then absolutely.

The main thing is that you have to be able to read, right?

You got to be able to read you█ve got to be able to understand it, you know, it is important.

And the youth, these youths, they█ve got to know that.

It is an important thing that we're teaching and of course there is a range day involved with it too.

So yeah.

You know, it gets younger than nine years old, It's a little bit tough for them.

Yeah, Yeah.

next question is from David Beard.

Is it possible that bag limits will change in the future?

It's possible, yeah.

We don't have plans at the moment, but that's again back to the banding research.

The reason we're doing this research is, turkeys are cool, and I love to learn things about animals just because, but we're not doing this research just because.

We█re doing it to understand the pressure we put on the population, and depending on the findings it might suggest the regulation change is in order, and one of the options would be a bag limit change.

So it's a possibility, just not something that we█re entertaining this season, or probably next season.

So many factors go into bag limits and people think that all the time, that the bag limit is is the easy and quick fix to Turkey populations.

But it really, you know we've seen it in deer, that sometimes we can offer unlimited does, but the simple fact is is that people go out and once they take their their buck, they're kind of done.

You're like, you can go for unlimited does, and only one buck and we end up with a 50/50 split.

Right?

If you offered people three or four birds, some people wanted one bird and they're done anyway, right?

Some people might take more.

It's never a really good, it's hard to figure out what you're going to get in that situation.

Like right now, our our overall number of people that are purchasing a turkey tag and hunting turkeys, is it increasing or decreasing overall?

We haven't seen a whole lot of change, pretty much stable, just in general in the eligible sportsman.

So that I can't tease out hunters like, you buy a sportsmans license or.

Yeah.

Senior.

Yeah.

I can't tell if you█ve turkey hunted or not but you█re eligible.

The sales of those those licenses have been very stable.

And what percentage of the people that have a turkey license harvest a bird?

Success harvesting at least one bird, probably between 30 and 40%, that█s what our surveys suggest.

Oh okay.

Now, of the successful people, of the telechecked birds, 25% of those people kill two.

Two birds.

So if they're if they're hunting and they're avid turkey hunters, it's a pretty long season.

They're there.

Most of them are successful in taking two.

Yeah, yeah.

But if you got a piece of property and you feel like, my gosh, we don't have enough turkeys and you hear a bird, you get out there and you're hunted and you harvest a bird, but you think your numbers are down hunt a WMA, go out there and enjoy the birds without taking the shot.

You can always, if you own the property, you can make the rules and restrictions more, more tight..

Right?

Right.

So I did that this past year.

I went out and took the bird on a piece of property that I'm used to seeing quite a few birds had another piece probably that I could hunt, didn't hunt that farm anymore.

After I took that one bird, I was like, You know what?

There might be 30 more birds over there.

There may not be many mature male birds.

We elected to hunt a different piece of property, it was actually two years ago.

So hey, you can always be, you can always be.

You don't have a lot of science on your side, but if your know what your eyes are seeing and you know that, hey, I know I'm allowed to kill two birds.

But I've got me and my brother and his sons, they're all going to go kill two birds.

And you don't think the land can sustain it, then hunt somewhere else or go out there without taking the bird?

It's obviously an option, right?

Yeah.

It█s in your hands.

Yep.

Next question is, can I set up a hunting blind the same day of a turkey hunt, or are they too skittish?

This is a good question.

Have you ever went out and set up a turkey blind and hunted it that day, the day you put it up?

Yes.

Have you had luck doing that?

Yes.

I have too.

Yeah, I sure have.. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now what I prefer to get is set out there and brush it in a couple of days early.

I would, but there have times where, you know, you can put it the greatest game plan together and know exactly right where you're going, right where they're going to be, and then they're not there.

And you want to make a move if you think you need that blind.

If you got a youth or something and you think you need to make a move, you can certainly put a blind up and kill a bird day of, after putting that blind up.

Sure.

George Phipps once know Why does Tennessee and Virginia open Turkey seasons before Kentucky every single year?

Well, Tennessee actually no longer opens earlier.

As of last year, they moved their season to coincide with our ours.

Okay.

They open exactly when we do and they lowered it to the two bird limit.

They used to be four bird limit we've always been two they used to open two weeks earlier, no they open right when we do.

Yeah.

So it's in response to these populations declines people are talking about, so they moved their season back to where we are.

Virginia is a little bit earlier.

It's not that much that much difference.

Again, the exact date that you open the season is probably pretty arbitrary.

You know, some states open it on exactly a specific date every year.

So the day of the week will vary, and some will pick a weekend, a reg like ours and it will always open on weekend.

It's it's more important that you generally in mid-April you know because we're trying time our hunting in relation to the nesting season to make sure that breeding occurs before we start harvesting these gobblers.

So any given state is going to have potentially a little different regulations.

But Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia are all kind of on the same latitude.

So generally our seasons, although they're a little bit earlier, they're not that much different.

Well, and as you go further south, like Florida, Florida, it's open.

It's open.

So if you go further south, those birds are... Mississipi is open.

They've already started their breeding season.

And so it's it's it's open, right.

So yeah, yeah.

But Tennessee being south of us, it makes sense that they've been there but now they're moving and as I'm sure this is a response to lower turkey populations, right.

Yeah.

It's just a concern to try to do what they can to see if, you know, we can allow home breeding to happen if that's going to make a difference, I don't know.

But, you know, there seems to be change in the coming years.

You know, this is all adaptive management.

All the states are undertaking.

Caleb, what is the most common turkey hunting violation?

This is a good question.

It is.

I'd say a lot of times I see where people forget to plug their shotguns.

Yeah, obviously a shotgun can't hold any more than three.

So that includes one chambered, two in the magazine.

People a lot of times will go out and buy these new shotguns and forget to put a plug in it.

So they█ll go out there and have five in their shotgun.

That's illegal, that█s a problem and can█t have that.

So that's probably my best answer for them.

Yeah the unplugged shotgun that goes for a lot of different game species but obviously turkey hunting for the shotgun make sure that it will only hold three.

Yes sir.

Not that you could have three in it, it can only hold three.

So you got to make sure that you try to put that fourth in there and it won█t take it, right?

Correct.

Yup.

Ammunition, we're getting, you know, all of these variants now of these heavy loads be it tungsten and all the things that people are using now to shoot turkey.

Some of these shots have some wide range of different ammo.

Five, six and seven and all these different combinations.

What is the rule and regulation for shots size that you have to watch out for?

When you go out and you buy a box of shells and take them out in pattern of the shotgun, then you realize, wait a minute, this may or may not be what I'm looking for because some of them are lead combinations with tungsten in there.

Yeah, they can be lead or steel.

There's no restriction on that.

It cannot be any greater than a size four.

Size four?

Yes.

And that's, some of these combination loads I think are made for duck hunting.

We'll have three, but then they'll have tungsten loaded in two.

So you've got to be careful when you go look at those.

Because you█re like, man, this is great.

I get the combination of both lead and tungsten, but you got to be careful if it's got something smaller, or larger than four, which would be a smaller number.

Right.

Then you█ve got to, that's not for turkeys, right?

Yes sir.

All right.

I ran into that.

So I thought I thought I would throw that out there.

Brad, let's say you have a Tom gobbling on his own really well, you move close and then you try to call to him and you never hear that bird again.

What's your best opinion on why they went silent?

So you hear a bird, you make your move, you start calling and you never hear them again.

Where, how do you think you messed up?

Or do you think that bird is still there?

All the above.

Yeah.

It's just hard to know.

Sometimes you're not as concealed as you are and they're going to see you.

Sometimes they've just been called to so much and they get nervous and, you know, you'd be better off not trying to get so close to them.

Because when they, if they respond to you, they know where you are at that point.

You need to really think about, be real strategic about when you call, and where you call from because he's just honed in on you.

If he has responded, he knows right where you are.

And it may take him two hours, four hours, good chance he█s coming.

This is a good point.

So if you're in the morning and it's it's dark and you hear one gobbling on the limb, and it's still dark, how close do you like to get to a bird still in the tree before you setup?

I█m always aftraid i█ll bump them, I don't know.

I mean, 100 yards,, maybe, rule of thumb.

It just depends on the landscape too, is it hilly, or flat, or... You know, is there traffic around and they█re use to vehicles?

I mean.

Now what about a bird already on the ground gobbling, like it's midday and you hear one gobbling.

How close do you like to get before you set up?

I mean, it depends on that cover, it's early season leaves aren█t really out yet you got to be real careful.

Yeah.

Try to use that terrain to your advantage whenever you can.

Maybe a couple hundred yards at that point, once they█re on the ground.

Yeah.

Yeah because if he can hear you then it's just whether or not you can pull them away from whatever hens he's got.

Eventually you might be able to.

Yeah.

So what's the, what's the furthest you ever seen a bird call to come to a call and finish out all the way to the where you wanted them?

Me personally it█s 200 or so.

Yeah.

A place in Fayette County I hunted one time.

Yeah.

Some people talk about them coming further.

Yeah it can happen, but it's not necessarily going to gobble the whole way.

They may be.

I like to know the number of people that have called and worked the bird until they thought that bird had gone and the bird wasn█t respond anymore.

And they picked up to move and they see the bird take off.

Man.

They will.

They will at some point in time.

A lot of times they'll go quiet on you and they're not going to necessarily gobble on a string right to you.

So when in doubt, if you think that bird could be potentially around, give it more time.

Because I've seen that happen myself, several times, unfortunately, it's frustrating when you when you think you got a bird committed and then they go quiet and you give it another 30, 40 minutes and you think, well, that bird is not coming and then you see the bird, It can happen.

Next question from Andrew.

How long does mating season for turkeys usually last?

if you've been outside in the last month, you've seen breeding behaviors, but probably not breeding yet.

Although it█s possible most hens are not receptive yet.

Actual breeding is probably going to happen in April, April or May.

But you know places that don't hunt turkeys, unhunted populations, then they're potentially breeding, certainly gobbling well into June.

So the actual main part of the breeding, that is going to happen in April.

It's kind of like the rut, same deal.

I mean the rut is a long period of time.

There's a peak rut, then there's a secondary rut.

And so it's kind of the same for turkeys, because you talked about re-nesting.

So a turkey that loses a nest can re re nest again.

Now that requires a secondary breeding or can they re-nest without a secondary breeding?

They can do it without.

Yeah.

Yeah Yeah.

Okay.

They can do it.

Okay.

Very cool.

Next question is from Ty.

He said he's getting his degree in wildlife conservation and would like to find a career in the field.

Any advice from the panel on how to get into this field?

I would say, you know, if you have a niche that you like, you know, if it's turkey.

So we have turkey biologist Zach or small game people or private lands management stuff, call them up, talk to them, see how you can get involved.

And actually over the past three or four years, the agency's hired more people than in the past 15 years.

I've worked with agency as far as biologists go.

So, you know, if you're on the career path for that, I'd say reach out to the agency, talk and talk to the biologists that you might be interested in and get involved.

The the more you're involved, the better better off you are as far as preparing yourself.

So getting some real life field experience, even though it might be a temporary position man, that█s really good When you when you can get some real hands on experience with the technician out in the field and we have we have interns for certain biology fields, right.

That they can get involved.

Yeah.

At least volunteer opportunities as far as interns, not so much.

But there, there's a lot of opportunities from prescribed fire to pulling CWD samples to a, you know, doing certain kind of bird counts, that kind of stuff.

So there's all kinds of technology involved and learn.

Yeah, just get involved in some form or fashion, reach out to the department and ask that question.

And I'm sure that, you know, you don't have to just catch these these panel of people that a lot of people work for, the Department Fish Wildlife that always reach out on our call info line and and ask to talk to the biologist and leave them a voicemail if they're out in the field and I'm sure they'll get back with you and I'll help you out.

Next question from Terri Cox.

What is the range a Tom Turkey will travel during the season?

Now, you've been doing some studies on this as well, right, with some of this banding, you know exactly the location where they were banded and, you know, the location that bird was harvested.

That's not the maximum range.

But we know what the range can potentially be.

What is a Tom█s range?

We had some banded birds harvested up to eight miles away.

Okay that's rare the most them within a mile.

Yeah.

So typically that same general area that they were banded in, but a few years ago we had a bird move.

It was about seven miles down river from where it was banded on opening day.

We banded it as a Jake and it's a two year old bird and it makes the movement a couple weeks before season.

On opening day It's shot at about seven miles down river, so.

Wow.

Pretty neat.

But it's not that common, usually it█s in a smaller area.

So we had a couple questions earlier about about youth season and we had questions about blinds, hunting from a blind.

When you take your your youth out this year you will be hunting from a blind?

Probably some of both.

I don't like being confined to a blind.

They█re great tools, but.... Usually I'm too indecisive in the moment and that's what a lot of what I'm hearing and what I'm feeling.

And I like to be able to move.

Plus I like being, I like the added challenge of being exposed to having to be still.

Woodsmanship is something that I think we should try to pass on to youth, new hunters, you know, you've got to be still.

Whether that's turkey hunting or deer hunting.

It takes practice to get still.

Yeah.

Especially when the pressure is on and there█s a bird right there.

What about you, think you'll plan to use a blind?.

You know I think I always start off using a blind, but then I always get out of it and...

I think it's always good idea to have a blind out there Yeah, no, it is.

Especially for youth.

I mean, getting the idea of, you know, of the excitement that they're going to feel when that turkey comes in and, yeah, know, to be able to move and get around And I it's an added challenge to take somebody else and, and get them on a bird.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what blind is really good.

You get all of a sudden that little pop up shower and you get a downpour and you got a place to jump in there real quick and stay somewhat dry.

It makes for a little more a little more pleasant experience than getting soaking wet.

So I like to have a blind out there.

I don't like being confined to the blind either, but for me, it all really depends on how good is this youth hunter?

Can they be still?

Because it's you almost have to bust a bird to experience how still you really have to be, because you think that when you're deer hunting you can be still.

Turkey hunting is a different ballgame isn█t it?

It is.

Yeah..

But as far as being still, you're on the ground level with them.

And early in the seas They they're pretty slick.

They█ve got great eyesight dont they?

Sure.

It█d just be nice to be prepared.

Depends on what the property you█re hunting is like.

Yeah.

How much much flexibility you have.

Different spots you have, you might be relegated to a blind.. All right, here we go.

Nathan Wants to know can you explain how reaping works?

Now reaping is a technique of luring a bird.

Tell me a little bit about this technique.

Reaping.

Yeah, so it's using a fan and put in front of your body and your essentially trying to convinced that bird that there█s another bird, you█re it, and sometimes that can really elicit aggressive behavior and they can come right to you on a string.

Yeah.

It can be very effective.

It can also not be sometimes.

It can also be very dangerous.

Yeah.

It's not something you're traditional turkey hunters, guys that started hunting 25, 30 plus years ago.

It wasn't even a technique.

And a lot of your purist, traditional guys don't even consider it.

They would prefer to call to the animal and bring it in.

In some ways, it's it's a little truer to the biology because they are aggressive, males are aggressive.

But again, you've got to be very careful.

If you█re going to do this on a WMA man, one, I just absolutely don█t recommend it.

You need to know where every hunter is out there.

You need to make sure that you're in a situation where you're.

Plus the bird could come in to you so close that you may not be able to get a safe ethical shot at it.

It may be too close, and you can easily missed or wound the thing.. And so you've got to be you you got to be prepared for it, work real well and sometimes it doesn't.

It seems to me like, you know, everybody's got very high quality cameras on them right now.

And reaping seems like it's a technique that everybody's like, oh I want to try to get a bird real close on camera.

And it's becoming kind of popular because it's it is up close personal experience that you can get a bird right on top of you, but you might scare them away to the other hillside, too, because they have to you have to convince an animal that's got excellent sight with this tail for this tail fan that you're a turkey.

Right.

Which is.

Yeah, it can go good or bad.

So you got to be cautious of that.

So if you're going to a WMA I do not recommend trying that out because if you're good enough to fool another turkey, you might be good enough for another hunter.

And that would be the absolute ultimate worst case scenario.

Right?

It would.

Yeah.

Well, guys, I learned a lot about turkeys today and I appreciate you guys coming in.

If you have a piece of property that you're out there that you want to have a biologist look at to help with any of your wildlife needs, please reach out to Jacob and his crew and they'll be glad to come out there.

And it starts off with the forum right.

They█re going fill out a form and you're going to kind of figure out what they're trying to do with the property, what tools they have, and put a plan together.

It's not as, if you're trying to do it for this year you're probably late.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's for sure.

For the future that's a great way to go about it.

And if you kill a banded Bird, we want to know about it.

If you, if you see a sick bird, which we've not been getting any reports of sick birds and adult birds, we get a handful every year.

A handful.

So it's something we expect a lot.

But if you get it, we definitely want to know about it.

Right?

For sure.

So.

All right.

And keep those plugs in the shotguns.

Right?

Right.

Hey, it's been fun and hopefully, hopefully you've enjoyed this turkey question and answer show.

And, you know, turkey season is right around the corner.

Make sure you get out and get your license.

It's always good idea to pattern that shotgun And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next week.

I'm your host Chad Miles, and I hope to see you in the woods or on the water.