Lady lessons
To truly understand wild turkey behaviour, nothing beats the lessons learned from crashing a hen party
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#5 CONFIDENCE
Why do some bars waive the cover charge for women? If they show up, hopefully the men will, too. The same principle applies to the turkey world—if you are seeing hens, the odds are you’ll eventually also see toms and jakes, often in short order. “Just seeing the birds, just hearing them, knowing birds are there, that’s valuable,” Homick says, noting that it’s discouraging when you don’t see or hear any turkeys. “There is something to be said for having confidence in an area when you go back.”
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And hens not only make the best teachers, they also make the best decoys, adding life to your spread to help lure in toms. “It’s just a matter of time before the males move into the area,” he says. “I’ve killed birds that came in five minutes after the hens came in.”
Even if a shootable bird doesn’t show up on a given day, you can at least still gain valuable insight about where the hens like to roost, as well as their fly-down areas and travel routes. “As much as they seem very sporadic,” Homick says, “they can be patterned, too.”