In the last 3 years I have jumped 5 setting hens off their nest. Three have been close enough to road and walk in trail to check periodically thru the season from a distance. None came back of the three I could check. I jumped one last Wednesday that was setting on 17 eggs and hasn’t been back since. These birds are back in the mtns and not use to much human interaction. Very discouraging and I wonder if they will start over again?

Yes.

Man that is disappointing. Quit jumping them 🤣

Dang that's a lot of eggs......

They’re individuals. Some return. Some do not.

Been my experience for the most part that if I bump a hen off the nest while I’m on foot, she won’t return. If I bump one on an atv or tractor, she’s more likely to come back.

I took it that he was asking if she was too spooked to return if she would renest. As far as returning, maybe, maybe not.

Another reason why I think moving the season back and hunting in may does more harm than good…

I said this when they did it. I don't believe they even considered the unintended consequences.

I believe their only consideration was killing less turkeys, not protecting the resource. I guess if you have less turkeys, less turkeys will be killed. Mission accomplished, freaking morons

Trapping left the equation many years ago. Our state DCNR praises Eagles Hawks Ospreys and insects way more than the wild turkey.
Need a change in that office in a bad way.

True statement ^^^^^^^

These are the same people who believe burning up nests doesn't matter.

I went on a hunt in a wildlife refuge this week. They had about run out of turkeys several years ago. They stopped burning late and increased predator hunting days. The population came back some. This year they're back to burning late. I've never called up so many lone hens in my life. The gobblers are either not there or quieter than usual for this time of year. I'm really hoping they're just busy with these hens that need to re-nest. It's probably harder to find a lone hen than the usual scenario when they were grouped up back in March, though. Probably leads to increased predation of vocal hens. But unlike a government biologist, I'm not going to claim to know things I haven't measured directly.

Government = unintended consequences, always