Kentucky Fish and Wildlife says the spring wild turkey hunting season was a successful one.
Hunters recorded the third highest spring turkey harvest on record for the state, with 33,460 birds brought in. That’s nine percent higher than the state’s five-year average.
The spring wild turkey season ran from April 13 through May 5. The youth-only hunt, which ran April 6 and 7, saw 2,309 turkeys harvested, which was up 25 percent from last year.
KFW says the combined total for adults and youths fell just short of numbers from the 2023 hunting season, but this was expected as the brood hatch from 2022 was not as strong as 2021.
Good weather over most of the wild turkey season calendar brought out a good number of hunters, and a lower than average amount of young male turkeys, called jakes, meant an increased number of two-year-old turkeys for hunters to look for.
You can help Kentucky Fish and Wildlife track the wild turkey population by reporting sightings of hens with young turkeys throughout July and August as part of the annual summer brood survey.
The fall wild turkey hunting season begins on September 7. Learn more by finding the current State Hunting Guide on the KFW website.
