Can Turkey Tail Feathers Tell the Age Tale?

Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Turkey Habitat by admin

Turkey Hunting Tips - Many hunters believe that turkey tail feathers can help relate the age of a turkey. Is this true, or just another well-worn hunting fallacy? The tail feathers do indeed help hunters tell the age tale on their gobblers. Here are some hints and tips for how you can use tail feathers to help put a number on your turkey.

How to Use Tail Feathers on Male Turkeys to Age Them

It can be useful to use tail feathers as a way to age your turkeys, but it is not always possible to use this method. Most experts agree that using turkey tail feathers to tell the age tale is really only possible if you are comparing one year old turkeys (also known as jakes) from mature birds. Here is how you can go about telling a jake from a mature turkey. The tail feathers of a jake are fanned out. In general, the middle sets of primary tail feathers will tend to be two to four inches longer than the rest of the turkey’s tail feathers. This will create a visible bump in the middle of the tail feathers. This is one of the easiest ways to note the age of a turkey

Other Signs of Jake Tail Feathers

There are other visible signs of jake tail feathers. In general, jakes have longer tail feathers. This is mostly due to the fact that they start to molt during the late summer, and only replace the middle primary tail feathers after this. In the second year of a young gobbler, the tail feathers begin to molt and shape into the standard adult pattern. The standard pattern tends towards molting from the outside in. This creates a full, even fan on the adult gobbler. Thus, once a turkey has reached its second year, it will have a full, even fan for the rest of its life. Of course, there are occasions where a turkey will lose one or more of its tail feathers. In most cases, the turkey will grow another tail feather in its spot. Thus, it is possible to find an older turkey with an uneven feather as part of its tail.

Turkey Habitat Management 101

Posted on May 29th, 2008 in Turkey Habitat by admin

Turkey Hunting Tips - Turkey habitat management is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of turkey hunting. After all, it is nearly impossible to experience viable turkey hunting if you are not privy to an area that has plenty of turkeys to choose from. There are always things you can do in order to ensure a healthy turkey habitat, but you will have to exercise principles of healthy turkey habitat management. Here are some tips to help you get started in turkey habitat management.

Basics of Wild Turkey Consumption

Getting to know the principles of turkey habitat management involves getting to know what the wild turkey eats. The wild turkey is classified as an omnivore with an annual diet that consists of 90 percent plant food, and 10 percent animal protein. Most wild turkey populations also consume fruit, seeds, mast, greens and other agricultural crops. These are the principal types of plants that wild turkeys consume. Acorns alone are known to make up roughly one third of the wild turkey diet. There are many soft mast producing shrubs that also make up a good percentage of their diet include the dogwood, the wild grape, black gum, hackberry, cherry and other related plant species. During winter and early spring, grasses and seeds are an important source of nutrients for many wild turkey populations. During the summer, insects make up a good deal of the summer diet for young turkey poults.

What Makes Up the Best of Turkey Habitat?

For optimal wild turkey habitat management, the population should have a mixture of open lands and forested lands. These work in combination to provide the best kind of turkey habitat. Roughly 10 to 50 percent of the land should be open land. Why is open land so important for optimal turkey habitat management? The distribution and size of open areas is important because they help to create a diversity of land and sustenance.