Turkey Problem!!!!

[slrodgers439]

I have a lease in south Atascosa county, been there for 10 years, and we
have a turkey problem. We have at least 500-700 birds on this 700ac lease,
and we legally can't take enough birds off every year to slow the population growth. We have 7 hunters and 30 deer feeders on the place, and
these birds can clean up the corn under a feeder in less than 5 minutes. A group of 30-50 birds will converge on nearly every feeder the minute they hear it go off. We do have free choice turkey feeders to attract them away from our deer feeders, but they can clean out a 300lb feeder every week. So, we shoot what we can, and carry extra corn to spread by hand for the deer, after the turkeys leave or are scared off. Which is a difficult task to scare them off, they tend to just come back. With only 7 hunters on this lease we can legally only take 28 gobblers or bearded hens. Wish we could trap them and reloacte them, but TPWD said no. Owner won't allow guests, so we are stuck feeding turkeys. We have tried just about everything we can think of, like placing a plastic hawk or owl on top of the feeders. I would love to know if someone else has solved this problem with out effecting the deer.

[LWD]

Would he let you sublease it to a turkey guide during the spring season for a piece of the action? I'm not a turkey expert, but I think that's way too many birds for that size property.

LWD

[tsu1998]

Would he let you sublease it to a turkey guide during the spring season for a piece of the action? I'm not a turkey expert, but I think that's way too many birds for that size property.

LWD

^ this. There's guys from out of state that spends big bucks to hunt turkey's in the Spring.

[TexasTealHunter]

30 feeders on 700 acres! wow!

Sorry you have that problem, I would guess your only two options are to deal with it, or get off the lease.

[trash2]

I'm looking for a spring lease, however I do not guide. I could offer money or an open invitation on a SC alligator hunt??

[Shane]

We used to have the exact same problem - hundreds of turkey. It sucks.

We solved the problem by putting trays under the feeder spinners and then bolting PVC over the spinners to funnel the spun corn down onto the tray instead of spreading it out all over the ground. Deer can reach the trays. Turkeys can't. Problem solved.

We left one feeder off in a corner of the place to spin out on the ground to attract the turkey (not free choice).

Zach and I hunted this place last weekend. He saw one turkey. I saw 4. Those were the first turkey anybody had seen on the place this year.

Bluejays and quail and woodpeckers and such can still get a little corn, but they're not a problem like turkeys.

[popup_menace]

Sounds like the landowner is sitting on a money pit of potential turkey day lease opportunities!

[slrodgers439]

The land owner loves the turkeys, roosting in the trees, sounding off at daylight. She doesn't need the money at all, as we are in Eagle Ford, and she has thousands of acres around us she is colecting on. I do like your idea Shane! I have also converted several of my feeders to free choice, and that has helped a little, but i end up hunting from dark to dark for the deer i'm after.Wish we could day lease, but she doesn't want strangers on the property. We offered to supervise, but she has to much of value she doesn't want seen by outsiders. Keep the ideas coming though!

[Shane]

The feeders I'm talking about are not free choice. We didn't want the expense of that. They still have the same timers and spinners on them. We just put a big PVC pipe around the spinner motors in order to catch the corn that gets spun out twice a day. The pipes dump it onto the tray. We're not spinning any more corn than we ever did, but the turkeys just don't get any of it. Actually, it's probably saving us corn $ by keeping the coons away from the spinners too.

[slrodgers439]

Shane, How well does it work for keeping racoons off? Mine reach through the cage to spin the plate. We put 12v solar hot wires on some and that detered them.

[jason86]

Sss mass turkey grave yard

Jk by the way guess modifying your feeders would be only way if you can't kill em

[slrodgers439]

Wish i could, or even relocate them to someone less fortunate.

[Shough]

A couple things, turkeys, even though they can fly rarely go into a feeder with hog panels around them. At least that is my observations. And 30 feeders on 700 acres seems very excessive to me. We have 8 hunters on 1300 acres and 11 corn slingers. We do have 5 protein feeders as well. We use to have flocks of 100+ turkeys and I loved it but after year 4 of the drought, I rarely see any and if I do, its a group of 4 or 5 hens.

[Patton]

In my experience, I have noticed what Shough mentioned- they dont like going into feeder pens. This year I had 30+ hens come through and 3 or 4 got in the pen. The rest walked around it. Once on the ground, they don't like to fly too much. Thats why its hard to call them across a creek or over a fence.

[MenardCountyBow]

Buddy of mine used to chase them with the big rc trucks when they showed