Turkey Talk for 2014

[R2elk]

I have realized that I have a problem. What the heck do you guys use to scald your turkeys? My biggest pot is 12 quarts. I have not seen any bigger. And as far as your set up, do you guys have your pot over a fire (what I do for chickens), or something else?

I use an approximately 15 gallon plastic tub. I put my four largest pots on the stove filled with hot water and bring them up to 160°F, pour them into the plastic tub and then dunk the turkey in the scalding water. After cleaning the turkey I fill the tub with cold water, add salt and the turkey and let soak for 8 hours or over night.

 

[piglett]

Quote:
i can tell you what will work but not what to do (might not be 100% legal in your state) get a trot line & tie 1 end to something solid. tree, post, something that will stay put put small hooks on your line & get yourself a can of corn bait the hooks with the corn when the wild tom gets the corn you will have him there will be a bunch of noise when he figures out things are not well for him go out with a baseball bat & knock him in the head enjoy your roasted turkey like i said may not be legal in your in your state but it WILL work good luck piglett

 

[Sydney Acres]

Well, just when I thought I had heard all the sounds my toms could make, within a week they both started drumming, or at least that's what I think it is. According to what I've just read they've been spitting, what I've always called puffing, since they were just a few days old. It always seemed like a friendly greeting from the poults. Then as the toms grew they started filling their air sacs and ballooning out as they puffed (oops, spit) and strutted. I had heard of drumming, but I assumed that it was the stomping or treading that they do on the ground when they're excited around a hen. There's even a u-tube video of a tom treading on the ground that is labelled as drumming.

My toms are now nine months old, and roost on 6 foot perches. I was on a stepstool cuddling with one at bedtime a few days ago. He was puffing and displaying as usual, then suddenly I heard this weird, low but multi-toned sound that seemed to come from all around me. It lasted for a few seconds, then was gone. Then there it was again, then it was gone. Both toms were puffing and displaying, and some of the hens were vocalizing, so at first I didn't realize that it was consistently right after his puffs. Because I couldn't localize the sound, and it was such a low octave, I just assumed it was the neighbor's stereo through the woods in the next farm, and that only the extreme low bass was being heard this far away. It was weird though, because I could hear it when I went inside the house too, this strange, reverberating, multi-tonal, low octave sound that penetrated everything and seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere, that lasted just a few seconds and occurred at random intervals. If anyone has seen the Futurama episode about the sound from space that was the spaceship key fob, it was a bit like that but much quieter and with different tones. Then after about 20 minutes it stopped. Probably just the neighbor's stereo.

Then the next night it happened again, but there was less commotion in the pen and I realized that the sound occurred after each puff/spit. I felt his ballooned airsacs and they were vibrating. In fact most of him was vibrating with the tones, his chest, back, and legs down to his toes. The boys had been fighting the morning before last, right before the first episode, and it seemed that he had injured his airsac, as there was a bit of air that ballooned out on the right side of his neck with every breath ever since the fight. Since there was no accumulation of air I didn't worry about it, since minor air sac injuries usually heal on their own. I assumed that since the apparent injury was new, and the sound started right afterwards, that the two were related, and all due to the fight. But now, several days later after all the minor facial scrapes on both toms are nearly healed, the second tom starts making a strange but slightly different low pitched, multi-tonal sound that penetrates walls after each puff/spit, and he doesn't have any neck ballooning. Plus, the first tom's neck ballooning is almost resolved, so these sounds are probably not caused by an airsac injury. Then I remember hearing that some people hate the drumming that toms make because they're so loud and you almost can't escape the sound. Well, these sounds aren't loud, but they certainly do penetrate through walls and travel a decent distance! Is this drumming??

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Well, it may work, or it may rip out the roof of his mouth or severely damage his tongue or the back of his throat, or he may break the line and take it with him with the hook still in his mouth, so he escapes but starves to death or dies of infection, or doesn't die but lives in constant pain. Or it may capture some other animal before it captures the turkey. Either way it's not a humane option, and should not be considered. If you want to kill him, have the guts to go out and shoot him and accept the consequences. You might get charged with hunting out of season, or even poaching, but at least you won't get charged with animal cruelty.

If you don't want to kill him but just want to stop his harassment of your tom, call your state fish and game or wildlife management department for suggestions, and to find out the regulations in your state. If they can't help, you can start with a visual barrier, such as black plastic on the fence. If that doesn't work, you can add something that would be a physical barrier that would keep him several feet away from the fence line, such as a quickly placed stretch of deer netting or electronetting, or anything else that you have around that would push him physically away from the fence line. If that's not enough, then something that is scary, such as a motion detector that activates a loud and forceful sprinkler, or a strobe light, or a loud noise, or a scarecrow that moves, or a net to capture him and take him some place else. Or borrow a dog, if you don't have one, and tie it or kennel it right outside the fence. Or hire someone to capture him for you and have them relocate him. Or go to the local zoo and get some poop from one of the big cats and sprinkle it around. There's hundreds of options, limited only by your imagination. You don't have to resort to something that could cause pain or injury. And I don't think a baseball bat is considered an acceptable form of hunting in most states, so you're back to that animal cruelty charge again, which is a felony in many states.

 

[chickadoodles]

lol.. here are the first five

Daddy is a Sweetgrass.. moms are Buffs.. gotta love surprise color hatches!

They are all so cute! Congrats on your hatch

 

[sonderah]

After searching for 3 months... I GOT A NEW RP HEN!!!!!!!! I'm soooo happy! They said she's around 11 months old. She seems sooo small compared to my tom, but he is 2. Should I be concerned?? Wil he hurt her?? She is in quarantine at the moment, but visible to the Tom and he is showing off big time!! Looked ready to pounce as soon as he saw her! She must be super sexy in turkey eyes! Lol

 

[piglett]

Well, it may work, or it may rip out the roof of his mouth or severely damage his tongue or the back of his throat, or he may break the line and take it with him with the hook still in his mouth, so he escapes but starves to death or dies of infection, or doesn't die but lives in constant pain. Or it may capture some other animal before it captures the turkey. Either way it's not a humane option, and should not be considered. If you want to kill him, have the guts to go out and shoot him and accept the consequences. You might get charged with hunting out of season, or even poaching, but at least you won't get charged with animal cruelty.

i'll state that i have never done it . however it's an old trick that rednecks have been using for many years

it does work but like i already said i'm not telling anyone to do it

as a last resort it can be done.

many things can be done

you could build a live trap (that's going to take some real time to build )

but then what do you do with the tom? (turkeys can have a range that's more than 20 miles)

if you take him for a long drive you can't say for sure he will not return

back years ago if you had a farm & some wild animal

was causing trouble at your place

you would lay hands on a rifle/shotgun & take care of the problem at once

no one would say two words about it

now we still have the same type of problems as they did back in the old times

however depending on where you live you may really have your hands tied as to what you can do (might just have to live with the ongoing problem)

having said all of that Gevshiba has the problem the rest of us are just tossing out ideas

if you don't like my idea i'm not mad at you or anything like that



peace

 

[Sydney Acres]

After searching for 3 months... I GOT A NEW RP HEN!!!!!!!! I'm soooo happy! They said she's around 11 months old. She seems sooo small compared to my tom, but he is 2. Should I be concerned?? Wil he hurt her?? She is in quarantine at the moment, but visible to the Tom and he is showing off big time!! Looked ready to pounce as soon as he saw her! She must be super sexy in turkey eyes! Lol

RP hens are tiny compared to other birds. Mine was only 9 lbs when I last weighed her 2 months ago, and the two toms I have (both Blue Slate) were 18 lbs and 25 lbs. All were 7 months old at that time. But she's been bred by them many times and is fine. However, they are on grass, and the ground underneath the grass is fairly softish this time of year, so that does give her some cushioning. Is your tom also a RP, or a larger breed?

 

[SuperMcNasty995]

I have 2 baby turkeys runnin on 3 weeks one is bigher then the other they are the same age could the bigger one be a tom or is it juss growing more???

 

[popsicle]

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Besides the many ethical and humane issues with fishing for turkeys, I can't say that I was ever able to bribe my fighting toms away from fighting with anything.