FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Following our frigid winter filled with snow and ice, Kentucky’s 2026 spring turkey hunting season will soon be arriving with excitement for both hunters and biologists.
Higher-than-usual turkey brood surveys, summertime observations of young turkey poults hatched that year, signal healthy populations of gobblers for hunters to pursue in the state this season.
“All evidence suggests turkey numbers have improved over the past five years,” said Zak Danks, turkey-grouse program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “We share many hunters’ concerns about the turkey population, but the more we learn about our flock, the more excited we can be about the future.”
The spring hunting season kicks off with a youth-only weekend, April 4-5, followed by the 23-day general season starting April 18. Hunters with proper permits can harvest two birds during the season but only one per day. Legal birds are male or have a beard.
In 2025, hunters telechecked 30,661 birds, less than in 2024 and 2023 but more than in 2022 and 2021. Biologists say this year’s season has the potential for another high harvest, given numbers related to reproductive success two years ago:
–Brood surveys from 2024 showed 70 percent of hens with poults, compared to 62 percent in 2023. Male poults hatched in 2024 will be vocal 2-year-olds this spring.
–The average number of poults per hen increased between 2023 and 2024 not only statewide (from 2.3 to 2.7) but also in all three regions of the state. The increases in poults per hen were most significant in the east (from 1.78 to 2.28) and west (from 2.62 to 3.11).
–Last summer’s brood survey showed 3.5 poults per hen statewide. Production was greatest in the east (3.8) and in central Kentucky (3.6). Hunters should see an uptick in jakes this spring.
Danks said the optimistic brood survey data was backed up by a three-year study of nests, brood habitat use and hen behavior in three counties in western Kentucky that used transmitters resembling backpacks to track movement of more than 230 turkeys.
For all regulations, general information and videos on turkey hunting and processing, see the Spring Turkey Hunting page or the Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, both online at the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website (fw.ky.gov).