The good news is, once toms begin gobbling their heads off, it is on. The general time frame for turkey breeding across the United States is February through early June. But as we mention above, these vary based on the arrival of spring and warmer temperatures. However, they do not actually mate until three to four weeks later. Hens lay their eggs in March and April, usually hatching in early to mid May. Again largely weather dependent. Breeding for turkeys in the more northern states can begin as late as mid-April.
Easterns are usually done mating once the poults hatch in June or mid summer. Their head takes on a bright white, snowball appearance during the strut, spreading long hair-like feathers known as beards. Female turkeys, known as hens, are smaller, weighing approximately 9 to 12 pounds. They have a rusty brown color on their bodies while their heads are blue-gray. A young hen coming into her first spring mating phase is known as a Jenny.
Jakes are young males, adolescents not fully mature, and they have similar markings with toms. You can quickly identify one by the immature tail fan that has protrusions of center feathers. Although they also sport beards, theirs are no longer than 4 inches. Wild turkeys begin to breed from February through to March, April, May, and June in the northernmost regions.
Conversely, warmer-than-usual weather can speed up the onset of turkey breeding rituals. Early spring and in southern regions, a late winter, will see the birds flocking by sex. Younger toms and mature gobblers congregate while hens run together with their poults or the young. Since the previous breeding season and through the autumn, these flocks established hierarchical pecking orders. Early mating occurs when the mature hens become receptive, accepting the dominant toms.
Courtship starts when the days begin to elongate, and the sun causes the temperatures to rise. Hens will then break into small formations, dispersing widely over the home range in search of prime nesting real estate.
The toms, prompted by these cues, will follow their mates around these areas, all the while gobbling with lust. In turkey society, the toms are polygamous and territorial. They will strut to attract as many hens as possible, often resulting in protracted rivalries. This period of hen-gathering is the first of two gobbling peaks and can last from several days to a couple of weeks. When the weather has been typical and predictable, this period occurs between mid-march and early April.
In the more western and northern states, you can see hen-gathering toms at work in mid to late April. That means the strutting has started, as toms face each other up for dominance, or the hens are coming into season. For instance, a late spring will have gobblers running together, and a Jake call results in toms coming out to fight a supposed territory-intruding male.
These turkeys are prevalent in the eastern and southern states and the entire eastern half of the US from Maine to Missouri. Mating starts from March, and while dependent on the weather, they will have completed breeding and hatching poults by the middle of summer, around late June.
After flydown, the gobbler will often go to a predetermined strut zone to gobble and strut. Juvenile males, known as jakes, also will strut and gobble.
But they are less successful at courting hens unless there are an inadequate number of mature males in the neighborhood. Once the gobbler attracts hens, he'll stop gobbling long enough to mate with as many hens as possible.
A hen will mate with a gobbler more than once, incidentally. After the gobbler has bred all the hens, they will disperse to lay eggs. On average, hens will lay one egg per day until the clutch, usually eggs, is complete.
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