Macon county, high - no litter
Dallas county 1, high, forested, well managed, no litter
Dallas county 2, down, agriculture nearby - litter
Autauga county 1, WAY up, no litter
Autauga county 2, normal, no litter
Barbour county, normal, no litter
Montgomery county, normal, no litter
Elmore county, down, no litter
Elmore county 2, normal, no litter
All I can think of

Coffee County north of Hwy. 84, the population is way way way down. Some tracts are close to chicken houses while others are not. Some are near fields and or pastures where the spreading of litter might be done but not all of the places are. Change in habitat doesn't really seem to be the issue either. South of Hwy. 84, seems that the population is stable or on the increase and there are areas of the county with less suitable habitat that never had turkeys before that do now.

Bibb normal no litter above average over population
Macon normal no litter average population

I hunt two counties with very high populations ,Cherokee and Chambers and not a chicken house in sight.Near my home in Dekalb we were loaded with turkeys before the chicken house boom in the 80's ,now 0 turkeys. There is another boom going on now that I'm afraid will have a negative effect all over the state. More houses=more litter=few or no turkeys.IMO and it would be hard to convince me otherwise.

I hunt two areas of Monroe County. One on the river and one in the hills.

The one on the river is slightly down, there is litter within a few miles.

The one in the hills is awful and way down, honestly not sure of the litter. Pastures and crops though fairly close, tho.

Shelby county
Normal population
No litter

bustinbeards and I talked about this Saturday in the forest. the place we hunt is way down and has been the last 2 years, ever since they burnt the section there in jan 15. of course nfhunter killed one to the south of where that section is Saturday morning.

Jeff co - normal - no litter
Bibb co - normal - no litter
Chilton - normal - not sure

Counties hunted - Coosa, Clay, Tallapoosa
Turkey population - normal
Chicken litter - none

Hunted: choccolocco and cahaba wma's........obviously no litter. Population normal. Gobbling down. Coyote sign rising.


Observed birds on family land in coffee co. Litter not spread but chicken houses are present and present along neighboring properties. Population normal to increasing. Coyote sign normal to slight decrease.

Russell County

Fertilized all plots with litter in fall 2012. Spring 2015 was awful, but coincided with a 1,000 acre timber thinning operation that took place Oct-Nov and March-April. Litter to blame? Not ruling it out.

Spring 2016 has seen a huge spike in numbers but may be result of 2015 timber thinning and prescribed burn on 500 acres this March. Litter has not been used again since fall 2012.

Curious as to your definition of "untreated" chicken litter?

Are you referring to litter which has not gone through a heat cycle, or not had chemicals added, or both?

How would those reporting on this unscientific poll know if the litter was treated or not?

And, no, I do not raise chickens, Lol.


God Bless,
David B.

I speculate that the answer to Boff's question is that most folks who answered will not know if litter was treated. However, I have it on good authority from a former Georgia DCNR employee that the overwhelming majority of it is not treated. I think the USDA is responsible for monitoring that and I think my source said they had 1 employee responsible for monitoring the whole state of Georgia. Once the chicken houses are emptied, so is the litter, and it goes straigh to a field if anyone is willing to take it.

The one question I would pose is what rotation are the houses decaked? Some poultry farmers never fully decake now, some partially decake, and some fully decake regularly. I would estimate those farmers that only do it semi-regularly or never fully decake COULD be introducing things in the environment they aren't aware of.

The litter studies that I have read are a few years old and did say that broiler litter posed no risk. I am curious if today's change in decaking procedures could have changed the levels of biological contaminants being introduced to the environment, especially if they aren't running the litter through dry stacks properly so it reaches the optimum temperature to kill environmental contaminants.

Boff makes a good point, and I should have left out the word "untreated.". This study is only trying to determine if there is any correlation between chickens and a decline in turkeys.

And it will probably be more scientific than any climate change study.

Carry on, please.

This has been the worse year, we've ever had.
Talladega county- no gobbling in a week.
Calhoun county-no gobbling in a couple weeks
Chicken litter- i have no clue. We had turkeys all over us last year.

Central Dallas- (Down) has been for years "Chicken Litter"
North Dallas- (Good) has been both years hunting property "No Litter"

Butler county, way down. been declining for the last 5 years.No chicken litter used except in our deer carcass composter. Could a new commercial chicken operation across the road have any effect? Could our turkeys be getting diseases or parasites from the chickens over there? I would think it would have to be airborn? Could rats, coons, possums, birds be bringing something from over there to our side of the road? Wish I knew the answer!

Macon County- High, no litter, intense habitat management.
Bullock County- slightly above average, no litter, timber land with low habitat management practices

Counties hunted - Madison
Turkey population - Down
Chicken litter - first year using litter and worst hunting season we have had. Also might be the fact all the fields have been sprayed recently and are dead providing no cover or food.