I quit

[coconut]

My two family pieces are about 300 acres each. They hold turkeys now. You should be able to hold turkeys on 500 acres if it is good habitat. Most of my birds seem to "claim" an area of 20-50 acres. Sometimes multiple birds use that "area", sometimes just one, but there area numerous "territories" that each have a tom or toms. Some of those territories straddle the border and get popped on the neighbors. Some of them are entirely on my piece. The better the habitat, the more turkeys present, the smaller the "territories" become.

I frequently get a white looking hen on my game cameras. She isn’t all white just kinda cream colored. My neighbor who is 3 miles away also gets her on his game cameras. One time there was a 2 day delay for her covering the three miles. I haven’t been able to discover any habitat in my area where eastern turkeys don’t wander miles. I have seen other species of wild turkeys that didn’t seem as inclined to roam but these eastern around me are travelers.

[coconut]

Well I can tell you that nothing attracts turkeys like chufa.

Sandy and decent drained will grow chufa the best
If it's waterlogged, may be best to save your effort!!

I have found this to be true. Also very hard for them to dig in heavy clay soils. I have one field next to a creek that is sandy loam. I think it would grow just about anything well. Otherwise I have lots of black dirt and gumbo mud. The kind that when it’s wet your boot size will about double every few 100 yards.

[Blackduck]

All easterns here. I'm surprised they are covering that much ground. That hen covering miles like that, was that in the spring? My hens might cover 5-10 acres once they claim a nesting territory. Some only cover a few hundred yards once they start sitting. Difficult for me to believe a hen planning to nest is routinely covering miles and taking days to do it. Birds are different in different areas, for sure, but travelling that far is unusual spring behavior for easterns after the spring break up occurs.

The better the habitat, the more turkeys present, the less they roam. And that's true anywhere.

[coconut]

Was in the winter

[coconut]

I have seen excellent habitat that was severely over hunted with no turkeys present.

[coconut]

If you do a search on radio collared turkeys or gps collard turkeys it is pretty interesting how far some travel. You got to get away from nwtf information though and look at actual university studies not payed for by nwtf. The nwtf studied turkeys never travel as far for some magical reason.

[quavodus]

If you do a search on radio collared turkeys or gps collard turkeys it is pretty interesting how far some travel. You got to get away from nwtf information though and look at actual university studies not payed for by nwtf. The nwtf studied turkeys never travel as far for some magical reason.

I'll look that up. Sounds interesting.

[coconut]

Outdoor life has a article on some research on how far turkey travel. It is partially sponsored by nwtf but still states that banded turkeys caught by net cannon traveled great distances. Most gobblers were harvested with 5 miles of capture sight but some traveled much longer distances.

[coconut]

So as long as you control that much land you should be good.