CLEVELAND, Ohio – Wild turkeys continue to thrive across Ohio as evidenced by the most recent poult index released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
A poult is a young turkey of either sex. They hatch anywhere from April to August, but most do so around the end of May, according to Mark Wiley, wildlife biologist with ODNR’s Division of Wildlife.
The poult survey is conducted in July and August when most of the young ones are about 5 to 10 weeks old. The state relies on observations from the public, and this year it received nearly 2,000 responses.
The statewide survival rate of poults this year was 2.9 per hen which is just above the 10-year-average of 2.8. Last year, the statewide index was 2.8, down from 3.0 in 2022 and 3.1 in 2021.
“I would say we have a thriving wild turkey population,” Wiley said.
In the winter, turkeys form large flocks based on sex and age, Wiley said, with mature males sticking together and juveniles – called jakes – hanging out with each other. Hens of all ages will congregate in groups until about mid-March when they begin to nest and isolate.
The turkey comeback in Ohio
Wild turkeys were nowhere to be found in Ohio by the early 1900s because of unregulated hunting and deforestation. A mature forest is the wild turkey’s preferred habitat. The birds started coming back in the 1950s with the state bringing in birds from other states. They were living in all 88 counties by 1999.
Modern-day hunting of wild turkeys in Ohio kicked off in 1966, but only in nine counties. Only 12 turkeys were checked with the state that year, but during the spring hunting season of 2001, one year after turkey hunting was allowed statewide, more than 26,000 of the birds were checked, according to the Division of Wildlife.
Turkey hunting season this year began Oct. 1 and ends Sunday. The bag limit is one turkey of either sex.
The greatest number of poults were seen this year in Northeast and Northwest Ohio, where the rate was 3.1 per hen, compared with Central and Southeast Ohio at 2.8, and 2.2 in Southwest Ohio.
Regional disparities are common, Wiley said, and could be driven by regional weather patterns during the nesting season.
The survey comes up with an average of poults per hen, although many hens observed are without offspring.
Hens lay an average of 12 eggs per clutch, Wiley said, but only about one third of the nests survive. Of those that do, all the eggs usually hatch, but more than half of those poults are then lost in the first two weeks, usually to predators, Wiley said.
Once the poults grow their flight feathers they are able to roost in trees, giving them a better chance to survive, Wiley said.