Turkey Mating Season: Wild Turkey Breeding Behaviors & Tips

Turkey breeding season progresses through4 definite stagesduring which turkey behavior varies considerably. The time when you hunt may coincide with any of these stages and that means you might need to switch up tactics. Depending on the phase of the breeding period, turkeys may be more or less vocal, travel alone or in flocks, and be easier or harder to call.

Turkey breeding season starts in March and advances through May in most regions. Within that time period, there will be the following phases:

• Turkeys gathered in large, unbreeding flocks
• Toms recruiting hens
• Breeding flocks consisting of one gobbler and several hens
• Lone turkeys (gobblers abandoned, hens nesting)

Identifying and understanding turkey behavior within these phases can help your strategy on your next turkey hunt. 

When and Why Turkey Breeding Season Starts

Spring is the start of turkey breeding season, but it's not necessarily because that's the start of warmer weather. Actually, it has more to do with daylight than temperature. Wild turkeys key off photoperiod which simply refers to an increase in daylight hours. As days get longer in late winter, hens begin cycling and gobblers ramp up breeding behavior. Weather still plays a vital role, but it doesn't control the seasonit just shifts the behavior. 

Here are the biggest factors:

• Day length (primary trigger): increasing daylight in late February and March incites breeding (regardless of weather conditions)
• Weather (secondary trigger): cold snaps or warm spells can either speed up or slow down gobbler activity, but it doesn't stop the breeding cycle
• National timing window: across most of the U.S., breeding activity accelerates from late February through early June, depending on the region.

Understanding this will give you a significant advantage this turkey hunting season!

Stage 1: Wild Turkey Unbreeding Flocks

Before breeding activities begin, turkeys are gathered in large flocks with a mix of gobblers and hens. In these cases, every turkey within thousands of acres may be gathered in a single flock. Locating turkeys at this stage may be very difficult, but when you do, you usually hit the jackpot. You may top a ridge to find an immense flock with two dozen strutting gobblers. Turkeys  both hens and gobblers  are very vocal at this stage, but because there is so much competition with real hens, gobblers respond very little to calling. 

A hunter must be innovative in their approach here. Perhaps the most effective strategy during this period of turkey mating season begins with monitoring the flock. Because it is so large, the flock leaves plenty of sign and makes lots of noise. You may be able to pattern the flock's movements and find a good point to intercept the turkeys, or you may be able to locate the vocal flock from long distance, determine its direction of movement, and head it off that way. There's also a chance a gobbler may walk right into shooting range with no need for calling. More than likely, you'll have to call. But if no gobblers respond? Call the hens.

Big turkey flocks take orders from a master or flock hen, who holds her position through assertiveness, generally demonstrated vocally. There is a distinct hierarchy among the hens, and if one hen challenges authority, there will likely be a confrontation. If you vocally challenge the boss hen, they may try to confront you, and the gobblers will follow. To make this work, you have to play the role of a lone hen that has approached the flock and wants to take over. Yelp and cackle very loudly. Make it coarse, frequent, and insistent. If you get a response from the flock hen, make your call louder and bossier than hers. If everything goes according to plan, it won't be long before she comes swaggering over to have it out with you and the rest of the flock will gather round to watch the show.

Stage 2: Harem Gathering

The second phase of turkey mating is a time of high activity among gobblers. As their hormone levels increase, gobblers begin establishing territories, fighting each other, and shepherding hens into small breeding flocks. This period, which just precedes the opening of turkey hunting season in most areas, is the easiest time to locate and get close to gobblers. It is the first of two peak gobbling periods during the breeding season. The furious and frustrated toms often gobble all day long with little provocation. If your particular hunting season has not yet started when this peak arrives, use the time to locate several gobblers. They are establishing territories at this time and will stay in the same general vicinity.

If this gobbling peak coincides with hunting season, you may encounter three situations. The first is the gobblers or the jakes that are subordinate to the harem-keepers. These birds, especially the jakes, are upset with their current situation. Their big social group has broken up, they may have gotten their tails whipped by a big gobbler, and they're probably lonely. Birds in this scenario are the easiest tocall. You may find a gobbler with a few hens who is looking for some new recruits during turkey mating season.

These birds may be easy to call or they may be reluctant to go far from their hard-won harem. You may have to sneak in very close for calls to work. There is also the gobbler that refuses to leave his hens. The hen-calling tactic described earlier may work here if that's the case. If nothing else works, pull your final card and challenge the gobbler himself.

To challenge the gobbler, you have to assume the role of another tom by approaching as close as you dare and gobbling hard with a gobble tube, box call or diaphragm. If he gobbles, gobble back harder. Ideally, the tom feels bold from having just won a few fights, is enjoying the benefits of his battles, and will not hesitate to engage with the intruder. Mix in a few hen calls with a few decoys, and he'll think another gobbler is with a hen in his territorythat's really going to make him mad!

Stage 3: Breeding Flocks

In every wild turkey breeding season, the frenzy of initial courtship and battles for dominance subsides and things settle down a bit. Harems are established and have a routine. There are few lingering hens still unspoken for. Gobblers have no pressing need to announce their availability, which can make it difficult for hunters. Non-gobbling toms are hard to locate, but once you do find a breeding flock, there's a good chance you can pattern it.

Toms still gobble from the roost, unless encounters with hunters have silenced them. These are the most effective approaches to hunting during this stage. If you do locate a flock here, but the gobbler won't respond to your calls, stay with him. Hens are nesting during this time, laying eggs daily. If you can follow the flock long enough without being detected, you may get lucky and be there during a time when all the hens have gone off to their nests, leaving the gobbler alone. Now is when he'll be most vulnerable to a few soft clucks.

Stage 4: Deserted Gobblers

When hens have laid their last egg, they abandon the harem to sit on their nests. When all the hens have gone and left the gobbler alone, the old boy becomes very distressed. This is the second gobbling peak of the turkey mating season. While gobblers are again easy to locate, they are usually very hard to hunt. More than likely, he's had a bad experience or two with hunters (maybe even with you) and he is quite cautious when he hears a call. The gobbler may be desperate for a hen, but it is still likely he will stay put and gobble, trying to encourage her to come to him. Catching the tom coming off the roost is the best tactic in this situation. Call sparingly and stick with clucks. If the gobbler has been educated to calling, it was probably with the loud and constant yelps of an inexperienced hunter. Gobblers that haven't become hunter shy can be easy to call at this phase of the turkey mating cycle. Those that have will be tough to fool in every aspect of the hunt.

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