A kee-kee or kee-kee-run is the maturing lost whistle of a young turkey transitioning into fall and winter. You’ll even hear it from young hens sometimes during the spring turkey season.
The kee-kee is usually a three-note call, roughly two seconds long. The yelps added on the end, the “run” part, can be one to many more notes, added with “where are you?” urgency.
While kee-kee and kee-kee-run calls vary in the fall turkey woods, time there with the birds will teach you plenty. Listen.
You’ll hear the kee-kee and kee-kee-run often when a young turkey is “lost” or looking for flockmates.
It can happen during fly-down time in the morning. It will occur after a flock has been separated, which is a traditional autumn tactic of course.
You flush the group, you set up at the scatter site, and you try to call gregarious birds back . . . using a kee-kee or kee-kee-run if that’s the legal either-sex fall turkey you want. Call like the fall bird you’re trying to kill.
Here’s a great video demonstration of the kee-kee and kee-kee-run provided by WoodHaven’s Jimbo Lindsey calling on WoodHaven Kee Kee Disc.
Photo: Gordon E. Robertson