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.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Tonight you have tuned into our spring turkey question and answer show.

Hey, this this show is actually about a week later than the previous years.

Our turkey season is upon us, isn't it?

The youth season is right around the corner.

Better be ready to go.

I'm taking my nephew, Braden Holly, here next weekend.

Speaking right here, we have a familiar face.

Zak Danks, who is our turkey program coordinator.

How you doing?

Doing great, Chad.

Right here.

To his left, we have Merle Hacker, who is the Southeast Regional biologist.

How you doing?

Doing great.

Now, you live in London, but you're from Eastern Kentucky.

Born and raised in Leslie County, yes sir.

Leslie County, thank you for having you aboard tonight.

And then answering all our legal questions, we have Officer James Brace, who is a conservation officer right here in Franklin County.

Yes, sir, That's right.

Thank you for joining us.

Say, hey, youth season█s here.

And the opening of the general season is right around the corner.

April 15th through May the 7th, You guys doing any scouting, picking out anybody to turkey hunt, asking permission?

What?

What kind of phase are you guys in right now?

Yeah.

Never quite out of the phase of asking permission, you know.

Oh, yeah.

Anywhere you get a chance.

But luckily, where I live every morning, I can get up and do a little listening, so.

Yeah.

So you're hearing many gobblers already?

Yeah, I've been hearing some birds.

All right, good.

Top secret, though.

That's the beautiful thing about Turkey hunting.

I'll tell you, it's a game that can be played with your ears.

And you're looking for birds all the time And, man, when you're calling a bird and you're acting and interacting with that bird as it comes closer, that's where it's all at is it?

That's why it's so exciting.

It is really intense.

I know a lot of people out there, a lot of men and women across the state of Kentucky that turkey hunt, for a lot of them this is their favorite hunting season.

It is.

Yeah.

Very passionate, very passionate group of hunters.

We have a ton of questions that have already come in and I've already read some of them.

We got a list of great questions.

So question number one, Jordan Schaffer wants to know, what do you think is worse on the turkey population?

Either nest predators or cutting during the nesting season.

So lawnmowers versus nest raiders.

That's going to be a tough one.

What do you think?

Well, a good question.

I guess I would sort of rephrase it.

It doesn't have to be an either or.

A lot of times they work together.

When we mow at an inopportune time, you know, besides destroying the nest, you've just potentially wiped out nesting habitat, brooding habitat.

So best to wait until outside of those seasons.

But certainly predators are responsible for the majority of nest losses.

So they kind of kind of go hand in hand and predators are going to be more effective where you don't have good, good habitat.

So, you know, that's again, where while we have campaigns to help land owners manage their properties to provide that habitat, maybe if they take advantage of some trapping, it's great recreation and can potentially help too.

If you're a landowner out there and you and you know that you have turkeys in there nesting on your property, what is kind of the first date that you can say, hey, you could probably start your mowing process- mowing is never a great thing.

But if you're just you say, hey, I have to mow.

And what is the first date that you think that you guys say you're safe to not be killing poults or damaging nests.

If we're talking just bush hogging or, you know, recreational type mowing, not Hay, because clearly, you know you got to cut hay when the when is right but you know wait till wait till August anyway if you can at all.

Okay.

I mean, if you're just going to keep your field maintained, first off, there's some other options.

And again, I implore you to talk to biologists that we employ.

But, you know, wait till August, September, October, wait till it's cool.

But not so buggy and more pleasant to to drive tractor.

That█s what i█d say.

Good information.

I'll tell you what, I mow a little bit at my house.

And that just gets you away from the fall nesting season.

Yeah.

Because we do have some some late nests coming off in June, July.

So you're sort of getting outside of it.

Spend more time looking for those turkeys instead of mowing those potential nests.

Absolutely.

Next question is from Drew, an Instagram question.

What's the most impactful thing a private landowner can do or have done to their property to boost turkey production?

I know you get asked this question a lot as a biologist.

For people that want more small game, They want more turkey, they want more deer, and some of the things you would have them do are all the same for each of these different species.

But if someone said, hey, the very first thing I want to do is boost my Turkey population, what are you going have to do?

Well it goes along with what Zach was just talking about?

And I think the most cost efficient thing you can do to improve your property for turkey production is just limit the amount of time that you're spending on the mower and on the Bush hog.

Try to give these hens a place where there's good nesting cover, good brood rearing habitat, and just simply by mowing less, you're going to achieve that.

So that's one thing that you could do, the easiest thing.

Okay, There you go.

Next question is Tim from Instagram says he's going to be mentoring a 14 year old Kentucky resident during the youth season on a farm that her mother owns and they currently live on.

Does she need a hunting license?

And if not, how is she going to telecheck a harvest if they're successful?

Yes, sir.

So to answer that question is she is legally allowed to hunt that land because her mom owns the property.

So she's a tenant of that property and she lives there as well.

And basically, once she harvests her animal, she'll need to have a harvest log.

And that's just an index piece of paper where she can file the date, the species of that animal, the sex of that animal, and also the county where that animal is taken.

And just make sure that she calls it in before midnight, the day of the harvest.

Telecheck it.

A lot of people, they get afraid to call that number because they think, oh, my gosh, I don't want to call because I don't have everything I need or I don't know if I really need to do this.

I don't have a number associated to it, you know, when you call it in, one of the very first questions that it asks you is, is it all a statewide permit or if it's on a youth license or something along the lines.

Well, right off the bat, you're going to get asked a question.

It's going to it's going to be pretty intuitive on which direction you go.

Correct.

And what age do you need to have a license on a landowner, it really doesn't matter her age at this point.

Correct.

Landowners are what we call license exempt in Kentucky.

The youth have to have a license between the ages of 12 to 15.

That's a youth license.

And then anybody over the age of 15.

So starting at 16, you have to have your statewide license.

And then at 64 you can get a senior license, what we call it, in Kentucky.

Okay.

So it really doesn't matter her her age now, she wants to hunt during the season, so she has to be under what age to hunt during the youth season?

Between the ages- under 12 or from 12 to 15 during the season.

Correct.

So youth season, she's 14.

Youth season.

She's good to go.

She's good to go.

She just needs to telecheck any harvest?

Yes, this weekend she's good to go.

All right.

Just to piggyback on what he was saying, telechecking your animal, if you go online and create a profile on our website, too, you can do all that online.

And instead of calling in and waiting for those prompts, you've got that dropdown box.

You know, you can see- that's what I do.

I always go to my profile.

Probably what she'll be more comfortable with anyway.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Instead of calling.

I'll tell you what, when you get your, my profile set up, once you get that done.

Man, that is so incredibly simple.

Now you got to have Internet service, but you can go through and like you say, do the drop downs and it automatically saves it and sends it to your email address.

So it's kind of nice.

You can look at your, you know, you can look at previous harvest down there.

You can print off a new harvest log, you can reprint your orange card.

And it's really handy.

It's very, very, very handy.

I know.

I use it quite often.

Next one is from Austin Metcalf.

What are your opinions on using a 410 for turkey hunting?

Man, this is becoming really popular and has dramatically changed in the last ten years.

If someone were to ask you Zak, how many years you've been doing this?

I█m 41 and killed my first bird at 14.

So if someone were to ask you at 15, 16 years old what your thoughts were on using a 410, would you have probably said, Oh, I don█t think so.

Wasn█t even an option.

Used my dad's 12 gauge and until I got my own 12 gauge and that█s all I hunted with.

He didn█t have a 10 gauge.

Everybody went with the biggest gun, you could pack and shoulder and man, that has really changed due to ammunition getting better.

Turkey chokes getting better.

New materials that they're using with tungsten and bismuth and whatever else they're using.

Tungsten loaded in 12 gauge right here.

Tungsten was a game changer for 410s and 20s.

Complete game changer.

So this individuals wanting to know about your opinions on using the 410, what█s your opinion?

No question, they are legal with the loads we've got nowadays.

I mean, the most important thing is that you shoot the gun and know what it's capable of.

These loads allow extended ranges, but that doesn't mean you should take super long ranges, especially with the 410.

You know, get comfortable in a range that- 40 yards is a long shot.

And it's very difficult.

Its plenty long man, don't risk wounding a bird.

Yeah, because we often when we think we missed birds we actually pepper the bird it wounds them and they could go off and die later.

And so you just removed the bird from population except you didn't bag it.

Yeah.

So 410s are completely legal.

I'm going to hunt with one this spring.

Yeah.

It's my dad's old 410, but I've got a nice new load in it, so I'm excited and I think it can be very effective.

What are, what's your opinion on using the 410?

I think it's perfectly fine.

Again, piggybacking on what he said, shoot your weapon, see what the effective range is, what the best choke and shield combo you got.

But if you're using the 410, especially on a decoy set and you've got to, you know, a child or even an adult that's wanting to use it.

If you're comfortable out to 20 yards, you know, just limit yourself to that range.

And even this this tungsten, I'm using it in 12 gauge.

Like Zak said, people can push the limits on that.

But we don't need to do that just because a gun is capable of maybe getting out there and killing a bird in extended range doesn█t mean that's what we need to do, we still need to be shooting birds within 40, 45 yards.

And I'll tell you something, it's interesting and I actually experienced this.

There are certain chokes that are made for tungsten and materials like that.

You need to make sure you got the right choke for your gun that you're shooting.

Just switching a if you're shooting a 410 and you go, Oh, man, this ammo is finally available.

I really want this ammo and you swap that ammo out and in that choke tube that may work great with the previous load, doesn't mean it's going to shoot really good.

Man, they change.

Shoot the ammo with the choke tube, with the gun and pattern it that way.

And if any changes you make, go back to the range and shoot a time or two and make sure it's good because they can change pretty dramatically.

You change out of ammo on a chok It's a different ball game.

So you may go, yeah, I shot my gun, but yeah, I'm going to try this ammo this year, shoot that ammo in it and see what it does.

So are you seeing 410s and 20 gauges in the field a lot more?

Yes, sir.

But our biggest thing is keeping it in between that 410 gauge to the ten gauge.

And that's what we are looking for when we█re coming to check you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then how many how many shots is your gun allowed to hold when turkey hunting?

Three total shells in the shotgun.

So if you're shotgun must be plugged.

That meaning one in the chamber and two in the magazine.

So just remember, three shells total.

Must have a plug.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's something you need to check if you█re borrowing a gun or if you're, you know, it's a new gun to you.

You know, make sure, take it out.

Make sure that it won't hold that that fourth round, because that could be problematic.

All right.

Next question, Sam from Instagram.

What predators need to be managed better to help turkey populations, Man, there are a bunch of them, aren█t there?

There are.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The main ones we can control are the mammalian predators that are either own nests or can take adults.

And so like I said earlier, trapping is an incredible recreational pursuit.

Unfortunately, number of trappers and trapper participation has kind of gone down, but it seems to be that people are more and more interested in it.

Somewhat out of concern for Turkey populations.

So can you have an effect on your property potentially, but just be aware, trapping is, you█re going to have to do a lot of it for a long time to have an impact.

But most people are talking about trying to control get a handle on the nest predators.

So raccoons, possums, skunks.

Coyotes and bobcats get a bad rap.

Certainly they will take adult turkeys on occasion.

A hen on a nest is probably your your biggest source of adult mortality there that you're going to see.

So, you know, just get into trapping with somebody that knows.

or if you are a trapper, then, you know, take advantage of the season that we have.

We have four or five months of good trapping weather, and especially if you do it late winter leading up to nesting season, that maybe that could have an impact.

But just be aware of the realities: we can't control avian predators, they█re protected by federal law, and then anything you do with predators is going to be really second fiddle to making sure that your land is fully usable to your turkey population.

If it█s not, then your trapping efforts might not be as fruitful.

You were talking earlier about mowing.

If you if your tires and your blades on your- missed the nest and the eggs stay completely intact, you've exposed it to the world.

But no way to hide.

No.

And that can be a major, major, major problem.

That's when the turkey nest raiding can really take effect because there's nothing hiding it.

It's out there in the wide open.

It's like it's like a big apple sitting on this table.

Right?

I█m probably going to eat it.

It is Sometimes turkeys will nest, will lay their nest in very short vegetation, you know?

Yeah.

In the woods and they don't cover it up that well when they're laying they'll they'll shuffle some leaves over it.

Yeah.

But it is amazing there's not much nest there and sometimes they don't nest in tall cover.

Yeah.

Usually they do.

So yeah, just kind of keep that in mind if you got some scrubby areas in your place again, don't mow from March to July if you can handle it.

All right.

Next question, Jason Carney, does Fish and Wildlife have expectations for this year's season based on last year's hatch?

How was last year's hatch?

This is a very interesting question because a lot of the work that you guys gather is all based on birds that are being seen and mortality rates and hatch rates, but it's really not last year's hatch You're going to be hunting for the most part, right?

That's right.

That's a good point.

Last year we did have a decent, pretty good hatch, especially relative to the last few years.

But two summers ago, 2021, we actually had a really good hatch.

We had had our best hatch since 2008, which is the highest we've had in recent times.

And so I'm pretty hopeful that we're going to have a good spring harvest this year, and that's backed up by observations I've heard.

I█ve heard more good reports from folks in the field and for our research project where we're trapping turkeys this year, we've, you know, our field staff, Merle, you know, I don't know if this is your case with you, but a lot of our guys are seeing more gobblers and bigger groups of gobblers, which I think just corroborates the data that we got and the reports I've been getting.

So it's all about reproduction.

And, you know, we're going to the majority of the harvest is going to be two year old birds.

So whatever happened two years ago, that's that's the key.

And historically, this has kind of worked out as well.

You were talking about one of the highest turkey harvest years we've ever had.

Two years prior to that, we saw that we had a really good number of poults.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Our record harvest in 2010, 36,000 turkeys.

No doubt in my mind.

That was due to a boom in reproduction that occurred in 2008.

Basically two thirds of Kentucky, all but the far west western part of the state, had periodical cicada.

Yeah that that emerges every 17 years.

Yeah it was like a tremendous food source for turkeys, tremendous food source for predators that would otherwise be turkeys.

So we see this in other states, Indiana, Ohio.

We saw it last year, too, to a certain degree from or two years ago from from a smaller hatch.

But, you know, those are things that keeping everything else constant.

You get a big boom of a food source like that.

It can really help.

That's what happened back in 2008, 2010, and we've not seen anything like that since we've kind of come back down to the baseline and we just fluctuate.

Turkey populations are variable and reproduction is variable, That's why.

So but on your farm, on your property, you really need to be thinking about all you can do to to increase the reproductive success of your population.

Next question is from Danny Poundstone.

My buddy and I are residents of Indiana and are wanting to hunt public land this spring.

Any suggestions on places to Turkey hunt in the state?

So public land places, some WMAs, what would you recommend someone coming in that don't have a piece of private land to hunt?

What WMAs would you kind of say, Hey, check it out?

Yeah, it's a question I get fairly often and, you know, we have you can go different routes, you can go in large area WMAs so you've got room to roam, maybe a little less likely to run into other folks or you can kind of go with where we've got some of the highest quality habitat, best habitat management going on.

We do have a new regulation that is in effect this year that you can only take one bird per WMA.

Okay, So that's just something to keep in mind.

I want to make sure we said so you can kill both of your birds or two birds spring limit on public lands, but it can't be on the same WMA.

Gotcha.

So you could, for example, those guys coming down could hit I don't know, Clay WMA, and a guy could take a bird there.

Really good habitat management you know pretty good size area but not too biggest.

Maybe then they'll go west to Peabody Wildlife Management area, much bigger area.

A lot of birds are killed there, but you got room to spread out and the habitat is a little different landscape, little different.

Then of course, you got the Daniel Boone National forest that Merle can probably speak to because he is based out of there, you know.

So we've got some big tracts just spend some time scouting, go to our website.

The map section is really good, but you can have luck on any area that's a decent size.

And if you're willing to to deal with running into some folks and you know, other hunters and try to go during the week, if you can at all.

And I'll tell you what an area that's overlooked is Fort Knox.

Now, Fort Knox is a very large tract, but you can't show up that morning and Hunt Fort Knox.

There's some pre-work that has to go in.

You have to go out there and you have to register your guns with them.

And there is a signup process and there's a lot of things that has to happen.

But Fort Knox is a great opportunity.

It is.

Seasons a little different too.

open a little bit earlier than the statewide season.

So, yeah, do your homework there and spend a little time doing a little research.

And, you know, you got to put the time, effort, energy in on something like that.

But it's a great opportunity is it not?

it is.

They do a lot of great habitat management there, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So maybe that's something to check out as well.

Next question for Pat.

Can I have a rifle with me while turkey hunting in case he sees a coyote?

We're getting this question.

A lot of people that, you know, we get these questions quite a bit for multiple hunting seasons where they're like, This is my targeted species.

This season's open, but this opportunity still exists in this location.

They want to take a different firearm.

Yes, sir.

So the short answer to that is yes.

And basically, as long as your shotgun is intended to hunt that turkey and your .22 rifle█s intended to shoot that coyote, you're perfectly fine.

So, yeah, like I said, the answer to that question is yes.

Okay.

Next question.

Jackson from Instagram.

How can prescribed Burns be useful to improve turkey habitat?

May I tell you what?

We talk a lot about prescribed burns and fire.

We showcase some of the work that we do on our wildlife management areas, and we've talked about the benefit.

Tell me a little bit about some of the benefits you guys have seen.

And if you have a piece of property, what do you have to go through to get a prescribed burn potentially done there?

Sure.

Yeah.

Actually, brought a drip torch with me because I thought that might come up.

Prescribed fire has kind of been in my life for about the last two months.

As biologists, managers, we use it on the regular each spring.

And specifically to the question, the fire can be a heck of a tool for managing your property for good brood rearing habitat.

And it's very site specific.

It depends on the vegetation type that you have on your property in the surrounding landscape.

So I would encourage anyone that wants to implement prescribed fire as a tool on their property to reach out to their local private lands biologists so they can help them develop a burn plan that's going to best suit them and their needs for that property.

But just an example of how it could potentially affect your property.

Let's say you have a five acre field that you're mowing annually and you're going to mow that field every year.

Each time you mow that field, you're going to increase the amount of thatch thats on the soil and that thatch layer is going to continue to accumulate over time.

And Turkey Poults don't like to navigate through this thatch layer.

It's harder for them to escape predators.

So if you burn it, the fire is going to consume this thatch layer, it's going to consume the existing vegetation, and they'll suddenly you've exposed the seed bank to sunlight and kind of hit the reset button.

You know, on this field.

And you're going to have a more diverse plant community that's going to respond to that within a couple of weeks.

The fields are going to green up.

You're going to start to see hens come into the field and then toms are going to be behind them strutting and displaying.

And so in the short term, you've created a heck of a spot to hunt birds.

You know, you might kill a bird two in that field, but fast forward a couple of months down the road and now you've got a place for this hen to bring your poults, you know, because there's going to be more insects coming to this field from all the native forms that are coming up and the poults can move freely about the field so fire it's a great tool that landowners can use.

And you know, under the right parameters, it's it's safe.

But again, I think they should reach out to the private lands guys or gals out there.

That way they can tailor a plan to help them out.

Yeah, you don't want to go just throw fire down on your own property.

A lot of rules and regulations you guys abide by about wind and how much moisture is in the ground and how are you going to set them out and how you go about preventing any anything getting loose.

But if you go about and do it the right way through the Department of Fish and wildlife it can be extremely beneficial.

That's the reason why we do it on so many of our wildlife management areas.

And as far as costs go, it's one of the most cost effective ways to manage habitat is not?

It is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you got four others, UTVs, anyway, probably if you, you know, places you hunt and spray tank, tractor, you know, those things can really help.

You need a disc implement to put in firebreaks.

But I mean there's no doubt it's cost effective and it's just like produces the best quality habitat.

You know something that hen can see over but hurt poults can can move through but still be protected by that freshly grown vegetation.

I mean it's really good you know if you follow turkey hunting down south, prescribed fire is very common down there, pine forests are often managed with fire.

It's less common here nowadays.

But it used to be I mean, our my grandfather generation and before fire was very common.

We kind of lost that as a management tool.

So get some training.

There's a lot of resources out there now.

The department has just been putting on some of these learn and burn weekends.

To really learn to burn weekends is super neat opportunity and you can even take a course through the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council to be able to burn yourself, your property and give get a lot of training and advice from experts.

So I talk about it and it's a great question because we need more of it.

But as we get more, we need to do it carefully and responsibly.

So if you have a piece of property and you want to see if it's a candidate for for fire, you can always reach out and contact your local biologists.

You should start there.

Yeah.

What's the best way to do that?

You could call the info center.

800 858 1549 Or if you want to go online, it's simple as clicking on the Contact us tab, there'll be a dropdown box for each county.

Select the county where you reside or where your farm's located and it's going to populate a list with private lands.

Biologist, the regional biologist, your fisheries biologist, the CEPL.

I mean, it's all right there for you.

It's amazing because I get a lot of calls.

People want to pick the phone up and give me a call or find me on Facebook or whatever.

And a lot of the answers to the question is, hey, what county live in?

Go on, contact us, do your dropdown box.

Like I say, might be a conservation educator question.

It might be.

It might be about how do you reach out to your local conservation officer, fisheries biologist.

All of those contacts by county are on there and for a lot of people that's a great starting point.

Yeah, go there and contact that individual that's in your area that may know what suits you best and closer to coming to you, either for fisheries management or to come, come walk your property.

If it's conservation officer that having issues with people sneaking in, whatever it may be, that's a great place to start for the most part.

So that's a that's very good.

I'm glad you put that out there.

Next question is from Kentucky Cabin on Instagram.

Can you tell us more about the Turkey banding program?

This is interesting because I don't know how many different programs we have, but you and I were out and actually caught some turkeys and did some banding, and I think that was in, was at Woodford County We were in the day?

That was.

And that was really interesting.

Tell me about how you captured these birds and then why you're doing it and what information do we gather from it.

Yeah, well, the episode was it worked out really nice and a great episode on Kentucky Afield.

So check that show out.

Check your show if you have it, because it shows the process pretty well.

We you know, we basically you scout out properties, talk to landowners or in some cases on our public lands, find flocks of birds and lay down some bait.

Start getting the birds accustomed, put a trail camera there at the bait site.

And when we see them coming in routinely after a few days, then we will try to trap them.

Usually we we either have our net laid out on the ground, folded up and kind of hidden with some with rocket rockets to propel the net over them.

Or we stuff it into a big plywood box that will fire the net.

But, you know, guys like Merle have been working for, you know, several weeks now catching birds for me for Research project.

The banding project is is designed to help us get information about the harvest pressure we put on the turkey population.

It's really, really critical.

So Merle's located in our southeast region and we've got guys across the state.

But what we're trying to do is, is capture one phase.

The main phase that that I deal with is capturing gobblers and jakes and we put metal leg bands on them and then that's our sample essentially.

And then we'll get a certain proportion that will be harvested by hunters.

Shoot a banded bird, look at that band.

It'll provide instructions on how to record it.

Go to our website when we get that information, and then we can look at that proportion of banded birds that got harvested and that can give us an important piece of information called Harvest Rate.

Okay?

So I can tell you how many birds were still checked every year, but that number is is only so valuable because the population changes every year.

But if we know the percentage of gobblers out there that get harvested, then we can really put our thumb on the pressure that we that we're putting on the population.

It's just been done in many states for many years.

It just hasn't been done in Kentucky for several years.

So that's why we're trying to gather data for your study.

We just finished the second year of it and again, we had great cooperation from our landowners, our our partners and other divisions in the department and some university folks, because we have we're partnering with Tennessee Tech University on it.

And yeah, it's just a great source of information that, you know, I can't wait for the results for.

But you can also gather information on movement, you know, where you banded it.

And you know when you banded it, if it gets turns up and it's, you know, two miles away or 15 miles away, you can help gather some better information.

You know, and I really enjoy talking to the hunters because, you know, they're excited about having shot at a banded Turkey.

It's not common in Kentucky.

Hasn't happened in decades.

You know, some guys have shot banded waterfowl and that's cool.

But we just have a conversation and some cases the birds have moved several farms away and a lot of times they're on the same farm.

Turkeys are variable or very hard to predict.

But yeah, it's really neat here in the range of possibilities and it's just great information for us.

You walk up on a bird, you've harvested legally in the field and it's got a band on it, don't be, don't be afraid.

Pick up the phone and call.

We want the information.

And for some of these bands, there's actually a reward isn█t there?

There are, yeah.

One quarter of all the bands we put out are reward bands.

So there's a monetary reward.

We anticipate these birds being harvested at a certain rate and we want that information back.

And there could be a financial incentive for the hunters.

Absolutely.

And a shout out to the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Kentucky State chapter for funding the those reward payments and shout out to the sportsmen, the licensed buyers in the state for supporting this research, because that's where money comes from.

And while you█re giving shout outs, i█m going to give one to the landowners too, because there's so many landowners, it's given us permission to come on their farms to be able to catch these birds and we can't do it without them.

So, you know, that's an important point because most of Kentucky is privately owned.

If we did this research solely on public land, well, that would only tell us so much.

We wouldn't be looking at the broader where the most population is.

So, yes, absolutely.

Thanks to our landowners.

But you guys have banded some quite a bit of public land as well.

So if you're a hunter and you hunt only public land, it's not like you're out of the game to kill a banded bird, there, there.

So you guys have done some of that.

Jacob wants to know, can you fan for turkeys on public land?

Wow, this is legally can you can its people call it fanning or reaping for turkeys?

Is it legal on public land?

It is legal.

There's no regulations against reaping or fanning.

But we strongly suggest, you know, you don't do it.

You know, it's unsafe, but it is perfectly you know, if you want to do it, you can.

But like I said, it's not, you know how you should be hunting.

Yeah, Yeah.

Reaping is something I have seen be extremely successful.

No way I would go reap on public lands.

You know, it is a is a really big risk.

Now seeing how a bird will respond in some situations is pretty impressive, to say the least.

It is.

Yeah.

You're totally taking advantage of that bird's tendency this time of year to to want to fight.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's it's an interesting technique that's, that's happened and you know, we're- the experts are studying the effects of it, you know, because we don't know the ultimate safety implications and and so just be safe, use common sense on public land.

You know it's one of those things if I was wanting to try to decoy a buck and I'm walking out there, if I'm during firearms season and I'm full Hunters Orange, you know, front and back hat, yeah, I might be carrying a buck decoy, but I am solidly hunters orange when you're decoying or reaping for a turkey in many of these occasions your full camo your face hands every aspect of your body is completely full camo.

But yet you're holding what looks to be like what people are hunting for.

Just be careful.

It's a I know that a lot of these decoy bags will allow you to turn them inside out.

And they have one Hunters Orange on one side.

Very smart suggestion, to walk in their fully camo carrying a turkey or reaping, you know, just make sure you're being careful.

You know, your surroundings, what's around you.

And if you decide to do that, it can be effective.

But just be cautious.

The next question is from Duane McQueen.

He wants to know what's the best time to hunt mornings or midday days?

Man, this is an interesting question.

If you asked five or six different hunters are probably going to give you some different answers.

Personally, I like being out before the day breaks and just watching the woods come to life.

There's nothing like, you know, hearing the birds singing and then you finally hear that bird gobble.

Hopefully you put him to bed last night.

You're hoping he's going to be roosting there and suddenly he sounds off and so I love hunting birds right off the roost.

But if I went back and counted it up, I probably killed more turkeys between nine and 12 than I have sunrise and nine, but I'd still pick early morning.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The same thing.

Yeah.

You just love being out, you know?

It's just nothing like first thing in the morning and you get a handle on where birds were, you know?

So if it doesn't work out off the roost, well, you know, you know where a bird was.

If it can happen, if you, if your patient.

Both my birds last year were afternoon.

Yeah.

You know, it can be very effective.

If a bird is fired up in the afternoon, it can be effective.

So I'll tell you what.

You guys study turkeys all the time.

I have found places where I know they're roosting in a certain place and you can hunt that an afternoon and knowing they're making their way back by a certain way, certain ridgelines or whatever.

How how often do turkeys roost in the exact same location?

Like not not exactly in the same general area, but they don't use the same tree night after night typically.

I mean, I'm sure it happens.

But in my experience, the turkeys, a lot of times if there's a hillside, they're going to be roosting on that tree that's kind of at the top of that hillside.

A lot of times they'll kind of make their way up there.

It seems like they want an area and when they pitch off that roost, they've got a nice easy way to kind of go wherever they want and allow height to help them out.

It seems like if you're trying to get in a spot where you're going to try to catch one coming back or on its way, that field edge close to where you think they're going up, there might be a good spot to be, but I'm not a I'm not a great turkey hunter by no stretch, but I've probably killed as many from 10:00 to three or four in the afternoon as I have early in the morning.

If you get a bird to respond to that late in the morning, in the afternoon hours or times, he'll work easier than he will sometimes right off the roost.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I think the roost in question.

It depends on the landscape too, growing up in the mountains like in Daniel Boone National Forest, where there's no shortage of roost sites and roost trees.

Yeah, they'll be in the same general area.

But there's one spot in particular I used to hunt.

There was a river that flowed through there, and on three different mornings I would sit up on the wrong side of the river on those birds.

They█d be over there and I think I'm going to get them tomorrow, go over there They'd roost across the river.

So I mean, same general area.

But I'm sure as you get into areas that have more agriculture and less good roost sites, they're probably a little easier to pattern.

So probably varies across the state.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Next question is by Brandon What's the most common error or violation that officer braces in the field during turkey season.

So what is the number one violation that you encounter in Turkey season?

Most common, definitely go to your license and your permits.

But as far as what I've written, I'd say probably an unplugged shotgun just for them, not knowing our lack of knowing, maybe thinking, hey, that extra couple of plugs might help me, you know, But ideally you're only shooting that turkey At that turkey one time and it's going to get spooked and go away.

But probably an unplugged shotgun█s probably number one violation I've written my short time on.

So check that shotgun and pick it up and make sure that make sure, especially if it's a borrowed shotgun, don't trust someone else.

Pick it up, pattern it yourself, shoot it yourself, Make sure that it that it is exactly what you intended it to be.

And that's accurate, patterned well and only holds three shells maximum.

So one of these things everybody shooting 410s and a lot of them are going to, people are going to singleshots.

I see more new shotguns that are bought now that are single shots and a lot of them are using a scope on them now, the 20 gauge and 410s, a lot of people are moving to single shots, aren't they?

They are.

It█s what I'm shooting.

You're shooting a single shot?

How about you?

No, I've got a 12 gauge.

It's holds three and a red dot on top of it.

So I like gadgets.

But yeah.

You are shooting a red dot as well?

I did.

I noticed the point of impact on my gun was a little off shoot down the barrel.

So red dot fixed it for me.

Yeah, I know you do a little turkey hunting yourself.

So what type of shotgun you using?

I've been.

I haven't been successful yet, but it's going to be probably the semi-automatic and maybe a red dot on it, so.

Yeah.

Okay.

There you go.

All right.

Next question.

Jason Carney, does the new baiting regulations include baiting for deer?

Even if I don't turkey hunt on that property?

So he's worried about the season that he's not allowed to bait.

He doesn't turkey hunt it and he wants to know if he can continue baiting.

No, no its everything.

I mean.

Correct.

Yeah.

So as he said before, don't put seed out from March one until July 31st.

It doesn't matter what you're intending to feed unless its in the curtilage of your home.

Now, that does not include a food plot, right?

If you're going to come out and you're going to do natural agriculture and you're going to do a food plot, which is a great way to to put a spot to turkey hunt and deer hunt.

What would you plan if you were going to put out a food plot?

Just depends.

Time of year, man.

It's it's really you want a diversity of food sources.

So if you've got enough land, it'd be a good idea to have some some good warm season and then some some good fall cool season stuff to Clover is a hard one to beat if you got to pick one.

Clover is what I was going to say, clover is hard to beat.

It█s easy to establish and with a little management You can have that cover plot for several growing seasons.

Yeah , yeah.

But, again I think it's important to remember, food parts are just one piece of the puzzle.

You know, think of those as an attractant.

And if you really want to better the turkey population and make better turkey habitat on your property, I know we keep going back to cover, but that's that's what we need more of, good quality cover.

A good friend, just to relate a story, was a local NWTF chapter president.

And I remember being a teenager and him telling me the best food plot for turkeys is just a weed patch.

And it's funny because, you know, years later, when I became a biologist, I study this stuff.

I mean, I know it to be the case now, and it's cheap.

It harbors insects, which poults need.

And so, you know, you can even let a food plot go fallow and weedy and it can still be killer for for hunting and for poult production, too.

So, you know, don█t overlook weeds for your... Next question here is from Adam Jolly.

What is the best way to know if the Toms are henned up in your area?

Man, I tell you what, pulling up, pulling Tom off if he█s henned up with a hen can be pretty tough.

What's the best way to know if if that's going on?

You█ll probably know it.

You wont be able to pull him off.

No, he ain█t going to work, and he may not gobble.

He█ll gobble good on the limb and when he hits the ground, nothing.

And that that happens a lot here in Kentucky.

If you run to a situation that you were at the truck and you're you're doing a locator call or you're trying to figure out you're going to start your day and you hear them gobbling and you get in there and you they█re gobbling and gobbling, and your anticipation is sky high and you hear those birds come off the limb and you hear nothing.

Probably what happened to you.

Happens a lot.

They'll humble you.

Yeah.

But you know what?

If you hold tight and not spook that bird and not move around too much, and you do a little call that they kind of know you're there, give him time to kind of work out and do it.

Do what he's doing with the hens he's with.

It's good chance that about ten to noon he may come check back in on you, so don't don't let that discourage you because it can it can still be still be effective to get him after the fact.

Hard to pull them off during that time, but after they're kind of out there and done and come back it█s a good opportunity to bring that bird in isn█t it?

It is, absolutely.

I probably, like I said, we were talking about your favorite time to hunt, I've probably had that situation happen to me more than any other.

You get out there.

You hear them, you get excited.

Birds come down and... There█s nothing like it to lift your spirits.

But 11:00, 12:00, your stomach starts growling.

You're tempted to go back to the truck and then you hear one sound off and you get a chance to go after it.

You forget about being hungry.

Yeah, but it's great.

I've been lucky.

I've had it happen both ways.

Had them fly right off the roost and land, when their feet hit the ground they were in range.

But that's not.

That doesn't happen very often.

That█s kind of one of those lucky situation.

It█s never happen to me.

I want it to.

Never happen, and I want it to.

They█ve flown in close, but not that close.

We we had one where we literally we heard them.

We had a blind.

We're like, they're right on our blind.

By the time we got in there and set up, it was you could hear them flying over the blind sound like they were on top of it.

Then when their feet hit the ground we were like, “we█ll they█re in range”.

And that's pretty exciting.

But that's rare.

Doesn't necessarily happen that often.

Next question is from Don Crampton.

Can you call too much to a responsive gobbler?

And if so, how do you know when you're over calling a gobbler?

If anybody can do it I can, because I love to call.

I mean, I'm just yak, yak, yak.

So I don't know, I guess I've probably not kill as many birds as I would have if I'd have just shut up a few times.

But that's just the way I hunt.

Yeah.

And I would say that if you call it a bird and he's not responding to you, a lot of times that's a setup issue.

Yeah.

Either that or he's got hens with him.

That's a possibility too.

If that bird's out there gobbling your call and he's responding, but he's not coming, I would, I would play it smart and hush up for a bit.

And if that doesn't work, maybe just move a little bit.

If you can move without him spotting on you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And try a different set up or.

Yeah.

You ever over called a bird?

Oh I'm sure have.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's kind of hard to know that.

I don't know that you can ever really know, you know.

Yeah, it's, it's just like you feel like you didn't finish the deal.

And if you see a bird near your calling and you're you got visual and you can visually see the bird and try to bring it across field and he starts making their way and you're, you're, you're like I normally don't call when they're walking my way, you know and they stop and or they█re in strut you know they kind of go back down and he's like, all right, let's see if we still got their attention and make a couple calls and they flare up, start coming toward you again, you█re like, hey, this is working until they turn and go the other way.

And then you're like, Wait a minute, I thought we had something going here.

And you're then you start calling, trying to get them to respond and try to like, yeah, you don't really know were they're not going to come no matter how you called or didn't call or, it's hard to tell if you over called or not.

Sometimes you can call like crazy to them and it still works out.

I mean, I've been on hunts like that where the person I was with was calling, and I tend to be a little more conservative, person i█m with█s calling, a lot.

And I'm thinking, Man, did Tim tone it down a little bit and it still works out.

So you just don't know.

It's all about that bird and that moment where his hormones are.

And if you're in the right place, the right time, make it happen.

I've had that exact situation.

I tend to not call as much, But I'll tell you, I worked on Bird one day for three straight hours and I could not get that bird to commit.

And I was doing my normal light calling.

I'm watching him.

I'm like, I'd call and I wouldn't call for five, six, 10 minutes, and I'd give him a couple of yelps.

And “I█ve still got their attention” and I was like, That bird's not going to get here and it's not going to make it.

And I just started calling ridiculously loud and often, and that bird came on a string right to me after playing with him for 3 hours.

You just don't know.

They are kind of like people.

They, you know, sometimes they respond to different things like, we have this on video, we literally watch the bird and called to it and kept his attention in a field.

He just wouldn't come until I just got ridiculous with the call and brought him in.

So, hey, I wouldn't do that on day one, I'll tell you that, because I might want to go back and try that bird again.

But we had already hunted out there for a couple of days, we were like, well we█ve got nothing to lose, we█re moving to another piece of property.

Let's see how this works out.

Brought the bird right to us.

So I'm curious, were you using decoys?

I bet you were, right?

We were.

We were.

I think that could make a big difference to.

Like, if you have that decoy set up there over calling.

You might be able to get away with it a little bit, but like, hunting birds in the woods is is a different game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we were we were using decoys out on a field and we could see it 300 yards away, strutting back and forth.

We kept seeing it, kept seeing it, What's going on?

We couldn't see what else it may be able to see.

Maybe there was hens there and then ultimately it just got to where, let's just let's just either run him away or bring him in and lo and behold we got lucky.

That's why we keep going back that's related for situations like that, either humble you, or they'll surprise you.

You forget about being hungry.

So yeah, I'd rather be lucky, huh?

Yeah.

Next question is from David Gingrich What is the best way to cook wild Turkey?

Man, there's a lot of ways to cook Wild Turkey.

What's your favorite way to have wild Turkey?

I'm from Kentucky.

I like to fry them.

Fried, yeah, Yeah.

It's pretty, pretty, pretty hard to beat that.

What about yourself?

I█ll second that.

Yeah I love to fry them.

I learned from my my daughter.

She's nine.

She loves Chick-Fil-A.

And I found this copycat Chick fil A turkey nugget recipe.

Ohhh.

Yeah.

So that's my go to now.

I hate to be advertising Chick-Fil-A, but Chick fil A, their sauce on turkey nuggets are pretty dang good.

I mean, literally the little mustard sauce that they use pretty good.

My kids like that, that sauce.

They like that on their turkey as well.

What about you?

What█s your favorite way to have turkey?

I'd say put it in the smoker.

Oh, smoke.

You like to smoke it?

Okay, There you go.

That's something that I have tried.

Something different.

Yeah.

And really good.

I will say one thing, when it comes to cooking wild game.

If you if you cook a lot of regular turkey, don't put it in for the same heat and same amount of time.

Go online and look for a recipe because you can overcook it.

When you overcook wild Turkey, you know.

It█s a good point.

Yeah.

Get a good meat thermometer.

Good meat thermometer, yeah.

That ruins a lot of wild game.

People just overcook it.

Overcooking, yeah.

Because you won't cook a wild turkey as long as you'd cook a regular, you know, store bought turkey.

So.

Except the legs, you try to eat them, you cook them as long as you can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're not as much, not as much meat on a wild turkey leg is there?

Next question is, next question is from Philip.

How close do you set up on a roosted bird?

Depends on the foliage a lot of times.

It depends If he's across the field and i█ve got to cross that field to get to him.

But I like to sit up within 150 yards if I can.

And if it is a situation where I'm crossing a field or something, I'll get in there under cover of darkness.

Yeah, yeah.

But I think if you can get within 150 yards of a bird, you're you're in the chips a lot of times.

Okay.

All right.

What's your thoughts?

How close do you like to get?

Yeah.

Yeah, I would.

I don't want to get much closer than that, just because unless it's later in season and the leaves are out, you know?

And then.

Then maybe you can move in a little closer.

But I've, I have bumped them off the roost a few too many times, ashamed to say, but yeah.

You know, it happens.

If you've got a call that can is reasonably loud that birds are going to know where you are.

You don't have to be right right at him, you know, he knows where you are, the first noise you make.

It's amazing to me how how they can how they can do it.

I don't know.

But when that call comes out, sometimes I can be out there.

Do you hear that?

Was that over here or was that over here?

Where was that?

Turkey's know, don█t they?

When they hear a noise, they know where that sounds at, that they got you pretty well picked out.

Their whole world is based on it.

So yeah.

Sights and sounds.

Sights and sounds, they're really good at it.

Next question is from Seth Melton.

What is everyone's favorite Kentucky turkey hunting memory?

You got a, it doesn't have to be, for you guys what█s something you've done in the field that was just really unique or different, maybe not hunting wise, but just out doing your research.

What's something that you that you were like, that surprised me I didn't know this about Turkey.

Well, research was, so far, we were catching a few birds here.

It was before Covid.

Joe Lacefield, who was on the show last year.

My guy, a regional biologist close to me, we were catching some birds and it's pretty neat.

We caught a Jake and watched him have a GPS transmitter on him.

You can really find scale, location information.

It's really neat to see where that bird hangs out, he hung out in a pretty small area on on this one farm all summer, all winter and and leading up to it.

I mean, he was pretty much in the same area, right, until Turkey season.

And he took off moving along the Kentucky River right before Turkey season and got shot like six or seven miles away on opening morning.

Six or seven.

It's just amazing how he spent his whole life there.

And he must have got his butt whipped several times and had to get out of Dodge.

And he zigged when he should have zagged.

So that was really neat.

Just just to pull it all together, you know, get to do what we do with the fun research stuff, get to look at the data and then find a neat result.

So, yeah, that's pretty cool.

That's really cool.

Got any interesting.

Yeah, i█m glad he gave me a chance to think on it there a little bit, but this is going back to the banding project, and I've got a bunch of memories of killing birds, but last year I was going out to set a net up, rocket net.

We were hoing to catch birds the following morning.

And I didn't think I was going to have enough time that afternoon to actually sit on the bait site.

And I took my grandfather with me to help me.

Papa█s 76 years old.

He's the man.

He raised me.

I'm named after him, you know?

So he's one that got me into hunting and everything.

And so I took Papa out there with me and we got things set up a little quicker than I expected.

I thought, Well, we're here.

Let's let's set up and we end up catching 13 jakes out there.

Oh, Okay.

And that was was pretty special to share that with Pops.

I'll tell you what, if you're a person who really, really loves hunting and fishing, you're getting into what you guys do all your days of work, even though you're not carrying a firearm, a lot of your days at work are kind of like hunting.

When I went out there and did that trapping, I was like, But we're not hunting for one.

We're hunting for 15 if we can get them.

It's a it's an interesting field.

What you guys get to do every single day was is really, really interesting because you're dressed like you're hunting, you're setting up like you're hunting, you're scouting like you're hunting.

Yeah, but yet you're banding them and turn them loose.

Catch and release.

It's catch and release.

Yeah.

You don't get to catch and release when hunting very often.

It's really cool.

Officer Brace, tell me what your what your, I know you did some turkey hunting last year.

Yes.

And tell me a little bit about what's your favorite experience in the either patrolling or in hunting yourself?

For sure.

I'll go just myself so far.

So I haven't harvested a turkey yet, but just getting out in those woods, you know, four in the morning, five in the morning before the woods, you know, seeing the woods wake up in the morning, you know, that sunrise coming up, birds chirping, all that stuff, and that birds coming off the roost, all that stuff.

You might miss a shot, such as I did, you know, one year and I mean, it happens but just seeing the woods you know come to life.

Oh yeah.

In the morning.

Yeah.

It's fulfilling for sure.

Yeah.

I tell you what I, I've had a lot of really cool experiences and I█ve turkey hunted for quite some time, but I really have Turkey hunted more since I started this particular job and I'll tell you, I still make the mistakes that all, all young hunters make.

Even though I'm not young.

I haven't been turkey hunting for about ten years, but at one time didn't know my property boundaries and I was being a little too conservative.

And I saw this bird coming it was working, and I'm like on the wrong side of the fence.

Can't shoot that bird.

And I sat there, let that bird work all year long, not shooting that bird until I found out that that land owner owned that piece of property too.

And I was completely legal and fine to take that bird.

And sometimes you got to talk to your landowners, talk to your landowner.

They may be busy.

They may be turning that tracker off to give you 3 minutes of their time.

But if you can find some time to have them either walk your property or they know the parameters of their property or where they see birds, what time of day they're seeing birds, there's there's no more useful information than talking to a landowner that spends their life on that piece of property.

They probably tell you where those birds are at and where they're moving, where they're coming down and where where they're where their roosting.

And they probably have a basic idea.

So I spent some time with those landowners, if you can, may make for a much better hunt.

Well, I tell you what, I was excited about Turkey hunting before tonight's show started, but I'm even more excited now.

You know, we're right around the corner.

Youth season is April 1st and second, two weeks later starts our general season, which that starts up on April the 15th.

It's here, it's here, it's happening.

I'm already hearing some reports of gobbling.

And you said you've heard some gobble stuff as well.

So I tell you what, if you've never tried turkey hunting, give it a try.

It's a lot of fun.

And if you have turkey hunted for quite some time, take in a person on their first turkey hunt, especially if it's your kids.

It's probably more exciting than taking a bird yourself.

This this youth season, April 1st and second.

If you get a chance to take a new hunter out there and turkey hunt, take full advantage because it definitely is a lot of fun.

Well, I'm super excited about this spring turkey season and hopefully you're making time to get outdoors and experience spring Turkey hunting as well.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

I always ask permission and thank the landowner.

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