At one of my feeders, each morning as the feeder goes off I have a flock of turkeys there waiting to eat up the corn and the deer have disappeared it seems from this location. Has anyone else ever had turkeys take over a feeder and push the deer away? They are there each morning and sometimes in the afternoon too.

Last year it seems like some of the deer would eat with the turkeys, but this year the turkeys are there every day and the deer sightings are way down.

Yep, they can vacuum up some corn.
Spook them off.

Yes!! I had a place in Lavaca co. Each morning 75 or so turkeys came to my feeder. The turkeys would pickup 75lb.s of corn, I only feed 50lb. .LOL. I grew to hate turkeys!! In the mornings my feeder would go off and right away I hear thump thump. The turkeys would come right under my blind and all around the feeder. Those turkeys picked up all the corn and left nothing. Later .. as soon as I herd the turkeys coming I got out of my blind and run em off . However, I did end up taking a big Buck.

One feeder I learned real quick to not feed through the summer. I had 100, yes, one hundred turkeys descending upon it in the morning. It's better now, but they're all over the ranch.

Had that problem before. All we could do was change the feed times earlier in the morning and later in the evenings. Hoping the birds would stay roosted and let the deer come in first. Then evenings just hope they roosted before the feeder went off. It worked half the time.

Speaking of turkeys, I've been on my deer lease for seven years and turkeys are just now showing up.

This is my second year on my current lease. I didn't see a single turkey all last year. Opening morning, this year, I had 30-40 turkey at and all around my feeder. Haven't seen or heard one since. Very strange.

Be careful what you ask for...






And some more pests that can be a pain!

The corn buzzards are most likely roosting in the feeder area! In the morning they will fly down and suck up the corn and in the evenings they will be heading in that direction before the feeder goes off!! This is especially true if there is water nearby! 30-40 turkeys can eat a whole feeder spin in less than 10 minutes I have seen it!

I wish I had some come to my feeder. I'll fling an arrow at one.

We have a big pasture on our place that has creek draws on both sides, two of our guys have hunted this same pasture, and both moved to different locations due to turkey's taking over their feeders! We don't even hunt it anymore because there are two turkey roost in the general area, and as soon as you put up a feeder they're on it! So short answer, Yes, I've seen them ruin a hunting spot!

Have you tried killing any said turkeys?

Yes, my hunting partner shot at a tom last night with his bow but missed. The deer do tend to show up when the turkeys get flushed away so it's obvious, they are a deterrent to the deer more than I realized.

I think I’d kill a few in a setting, and see if that dispersed them.