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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dennishoddy" data-source="post: 4230899" data-attributes="member: 5412">Around our place where we live in the country, we are ground zero for nesting hens. We live up on a west facing ridge. They like that situation so they can leave their eggs for a bit with the sun keeping them warm while they go out and feed. In 35 years of living there, it's the same situation year after year, so I think I have a handle on our local population anyway. I've actually found the nests after it's been robbed by ground predators. Egg shells scattered about. We live in an area where there are thousands of acres with no hunting, so masses of hunters didn't cause the decline in our turkey numbers to where only mature hens were seen for a couple of years with zero poults. It has to be nest robbers. Like you, I've been trapping our area for years but slacked off for several years. Those same years is when the population started its decline. Started trapping a couple years ago pretty heavy and now we are seeing an increase in numbers and poults. I'm sure there may be more underlying reasons, as one person can't make a change in that many acres, but those hens around our place may be the ones that are getting broods now. I've said it before, that I think the ODW should put on a trial program of putting a bounty on raccoons especially. $1 a tail. Trappers would come out of the woodwork to get that buck.</blockquote>