Nesting Question

[Patrick]

Went out Sunday afternoon (4/27) while walking across some CRP we kick a hen pheasant off of a nest. The nest had 11 eggs.

I'm curious about two things: 1) how long dose a pheasant sit on a nest, eleven eggs seamed like a lot would think that’s a full nest and now she’s just trying to hatch them. 2) Would you expect the timing for pheasants and turkeys to be similar (i.e. if hen pheasants are one the nest should the hen turkey be on theirs too).

Driving to work this morning (4/28) about 8:00am I saw numerous hen turkeys in the road ditches and field edges. Are they looking for nesting sites? Only saw one gobbler strutting from the road today. Last week I would have seen a lot more.

 

[Ghost]

Patrick...yes that would be a full nest. Pheasants and turkeys both have an average clutch size of 10 to 12 eggs with peak nesting being mid to late April in Iowa. Pheasants have a 23 day incubation period and turkeys have a 26 day incubation period.

Just my guess, but since both pheasents and turkeys breading periods are triggered by the length of daylight I would assume their nesting periods would be similar.

 

[Liv4Rut]

I dont know if it helps, but today while looking for mushrooms, i found a turkey nest, that seemed to be there awhile. it had 9 eggs in it. so i think that they must be around the same time.