How many wild turkeys are in a clutch?

Nesting Facts

How old are wild turkeys with 1 inch spurs?

Gobblers with spurs one-half inch or less are juveniles, 5/8 inch up to 1 inch are 2-year-olds, 1 to 1 3/8 inches are 3-year-olds and birds with spurs greater than 1 3/8 inches are older than three years. Gobblers with longer spurs (1½ to 2 inches) probably range in age from 5 to 8 or more years.

How big is a flock of wild turkeys?

5 to 50 individuals
Wild turkey form predominantly single gender flocks which can range in size from 5 to 50 individuals. A flock may utilize a home range of more than 1000 acres.

What are the 5 subspecies of wild turkeys?

America’s 5 Wild Turkey Subspecies

• Eastern Turkey Subspecies. Eastern turkeys are the most populous in the country with a flock size of about 5.3 million.
• Merriam’s Turkey Subspecies.
• Rio Grande Turkey Subspecies.
• Gould’s Turkey Subspecies.
• Osceola Turkey Subpecies.

How long after turkeys mate do they lay eggs?

a week to 10 days
After the hen is mated, she will lay fertile eggs for a week to 10 days. The further out from the conception date, the lower the chance of fertility.

What is a good size turkey beard?

unless the turkey is a jake and has a typical 3- to 4-inch jake beard. The beards of male turkeys grow about 4 to 5 inches per year, so a 2-year-old gobbler will have a typical beard of about 9 inches. However, 3- , 4- and 5-year-old turkeys don’t have 13- to 18-inch beards.

At what age do male turkeys get spurs?

about 6 months
As male turkeys become sexually mature at about 6 months of age, they begin developing long talons, one on the back of each leg. Known as spurs, these talons grow throughout the turkeys’ lives.

How old is a turkey with a 9 beard?

4 years old
Others say that a 9-inch beard is a sure sign that your turkey is at least 4 years old.

How many male turkeys are in a flock?

Turkey flocks are typically quite small numbering some 15 to 50 birds, but it really depends on the time of year. Once male and female flocks begin to congregate at the start of the breeding season, flocks can number some 100 to 200 birds.

How many female to male turkeys are there?

In 2020, male to female ratio for Turkey was 97.5 males per 100 females. Male to female ratio of Turkey fell gradually from 101.13 males per 100 females in 1950 to 97.5 males per 100 females in 2020.

What’s the largest wild turkey?

The Gould’s turkey is a bird of the mountainous areas of this region. It is the largest of the five subspecies and resembles the Merriam’s turkey. They have longer legs, larger feet, and larger center tail feathers than any of the other wild turkey subspecies in North America.

Do male turkeys sit on eggs?

The hen doesn’t incubate the eggs (sitting on them to keep them warm) until she’s laid them all. Hens travel in a females-only flock, but they become more solitary and secretive in May when it comes to nesting. She’ll hang out with the flock and feed until she needs to lay an egg.

Is a 9 inch beard big for a turkey?

According to Turkey & Turkey Hunting magazine, a 2-year-old gobbler’s beard usually measures 8 to 10 inches. When it’s 3 years old, a gobbler’s beard will have grown about 14 inches. However, few toms have beards that long because bristles wear off at the tip as the beard grows. But not all beards break or wear off.

How old is a turkey with a 6 inch beard?

As biology tells us, the beard starts to grow when the young male turkey (or in some cases, female) is roughly five months old. That bird will add five inches annually on average. And a legal fall gobbler roughly 1.5 years old will often have a 6- to 7-inch beard.

Why beard is not allowed in turkey?

According to Islamic traditions, growing a beard is considered Sunnah, or recommended, for adult men. Muslim men are told to differentiate themselves from nonbelievers and not trim their beards because it is considered effeminate.

What is the longest turkey beard ever recorded?

NWTF World Record for Turkey with the Most Beards The longest beard was 10 inches and all 13 beards added up to a combined length of 78.9375 inches. The tom weighed 22 pounds and had a . 9735 spur on one leg and a 1-inch spur on the other, making it the third highest-scoring turkey in the NWTF record system.

How many turkeys travel together?

Oftentimes, several hens and their offspring will combine flocks, so it’s quite common to see 50 or more birds together. The Cornell Lab or Ornithology reports that some winter flocks can consist of 200 turkeys.

Do turkeys mate for life?

Turkeys only breed once a year. A hen just has to mate once in order to produce a clutch of eggs. Once she lays her fertilized eggs, she usually won’t produce more fertilized eggs until the next mating season. Toms usually mate with multiple partners.

What are the different types of wild turkeys?

The five North American wild turkey subspecies are the eastern, Osceola, Merriam’s, Gould’s, and Rio Grande. This is a male (tom) eastern wild turkey. This eastern wild turkey flock includes both males and females (toms and hens).

What is the range of the eastern wild turkey?

The eastern wild turkey’s natural range covers almost the entire eastern half of the United States from Maine and southeastern Canada in the north to northern Florida in the south and as far west as Michigan. It prefers mixed and hardwood forests and is also the most hunted of the five subspecies.

What does a wild turkey look like?

Wild Turkeys are very large, plump birds with long legs, wide, rounded tails, and a small head on a long, slim neck. One of our largest and heaviest birds; smaller than a Trumpeter Swan; about twice the size (and four times as heavy) as a Ring-necked Pheasant. Turkeys are dark overall with a bronze-green iridescence to most of their plumage.

How can you tell the difference between different types of turkeys?

Each subspecies has highly visible feathers, which match the colors of their habitat and provide a better chance of survival. A good example is to look at each subspecies of wild turkey’s rump feathers and tips of their tail feathers.