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I Forge Iron

Turkeys took the day off


picker77

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There's a flock that roosts not far from my apartment. I see them in the field in the mornings. It was so nice the other day I walked to work and the head honcho Jake tried to run me off. Pretty exciting stroll into the job that morning. 

Pnut

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I gave him a pretty wide berth. I seen him start puffing up and fanning out his tail and displaying as he made a  bee line in my direction. I didn't want to fight a turkey before work. It was too early. I like to schedule my turkey fights  for after lunch. 

Pnut

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Oh come on guys those turkeys just wanted to come home for dinner. People have been conditioned by stories about domestic turkeys being , unable to fly and drown staring into rain with their mouths open stupid. I've seen turkey farms they just go into the barn if it get's too rainy. Anyway, wild turkeys are a whole different critter, not great fliers but they can cover a couple hundred yards and reach reasonable altitudes, 50' +. 

The way to discourage aggressive toms or ganders is have a little talk with them AFTER you pick them up by the neck and stare them down. Hold them far enough away so they can't beat you with their wings or scratch you with their feet. Grab their feet if necessary, it isn't really hard but they ARE strong and weigh a bit. Domestic ganders quiet down in a few seconds, maybe 30 it they're really worked up and can weigh up to 20 lbs for a big boy. Wild turkeys take longer and fight harder but tend to give you a wider berth once you turn them loose and shoo them they chase off. 

I was walking around our property on Lake Nacimeineto when I was a kid, 17yrs. and there was this oh so excellent spot to just sit and watch the hills. A gnarly oak root made a PERFECT back rest in the shade the spot always had a gentle breeze. I LOVED that spot and thought it was my secret spot. 

I dozed off one afternoon and woke up to a flock of wild turkeys trying to pluck  the buttons off my shirt and Levis. They weren't pecking, just standing on me and my gnarly root arm rest trying to pull them off. I don't know what they were thinking, they weren't trying to peck my eyes out but the look on their faces when I opened my eye is one of those Kodak Moments in my life. They had an almost comic strip look of surprise, squawked and muttered for a few seconds then took wing. 

I got flapped but not wing beat and only had a little surprised bird droppings squirted on me so I counted myself lucky. They only flew a little way, 20'-30' and flocked up to complain at me for a couple minutes about denying them their buttons. Then they wandered around scratching a while before wandering off. 

It was a perfect highlight on a perfect day. The flock seemed to accept me as a non threatening local critter and didn't flush nor try feeding off me after the one encounter. And no I didn't feed them, I wasn't going to hunt them and didn't figure it was good to make them expect humans to be a food source. While not skittish this flock didn't seem to think other humans were safe to be around and would leave if folk got close.

It was a neat thing but we didn't get to the lake property often enough to train a local flock so it was a good.

Frosty The Lucky.

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A friend of mine, Kong was his nickname (rest his soul), was driving home one winter day when he came upon a wild turkey hung up in a hog wire fence. He thought it was dead so he put it in the cab of his truck to take it home. Well that turkey came to and liked to beat him to death before he could pull over and let it out. Got a lot of stories involving Kong but probably most not appropriate for a family G rated forum.:)

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I once had a wild turkey fly right in front of my car on the Taconic Parkway in New York. I swerved, overcorrected, went off the road, and flipped over. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and I think the turkey was taking proactive revenge for its domesticated brethren. (Of course, there have been plenty of Wild Turkey jokes whenever I tell this story.)

Since we're offering up turkey videos, here's one for all you Igor Stravinsky fans:

 

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That's funny, for sure.  Looks as if there's a dead racoon in the middle of the road, to me, but I can't imagine why the turkey would be running around it like that.

I've a rafter of turkey here at my place.  About 50 strong.  They wander through our yard and we often wake to them running around on our roof and porch.  I walk out on my back porch in the evenings and force a "shock gobble" by clapping my hands loudly.  They nest in the trees right back of our house.  Fun birds to watch.

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We hear turkeys every now and then, but I don't ever see one. My ex father- in- law had a turkey named Tom. I think he was supposed to be Thanksgiving dinner, but he avoided that fate somehow. He didn't really like anyone except me for some reason. He would follow me around and if I stopped, he stopped. Then I'd walk again and so would he. As if I couldn't see him if he didn't move. It was kind of funny

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14 hours ago, CrazyGoatLady said:

I think he was supposed to be Thanksgiving dinner, but he avoided that fate somehow.

And THAT is the reason NOT to make pets of food animals. The closest we got was giving them food names and gentled enough to handle. Sheep especially are dangerously stupid, ALWAYS grain them from the other side of the fence or they'll trample you. 

And yeah, Lambchop has been taken. . . by everybody! I've known more than one steer named Stew. Cattle ranchers don't name anything but their horses and dogs. Can you imagine coming up with names for a couple thousand head? "Cattle!" is usually more than enough. Dairy farms usually name their cows but often you'll see the same 5-6 names repeated with each group having it's own milking time. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Agreed. We don't name any animal unless it's a pet or a breeder. The chickens are "chickies" or "ladies". The meat goats are "boys" or "little fellars". You never know what I may call them, but no names. If I had large herds of anything, they would probably have one collective name. The rabbits have individual names for their pedigrees. I don't go by a number system on them

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