A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[FredsGobblers]

yes it is 15 min

 

[duluthralphie]

Back to the beard trimming, I am sure if protein is low they might trim a beard. However, I see the trimming during the spring when I am feeding the high protein turkey breeder feed (expensive stuff) and when the bugs and grubs are everywhere for them to eat..

I am going with R2elk on this and calling it some kind of weird domestic turkey mating whatever.....Or maybe our Toms are just henpecked..

 

[rjohns39]

Well folks, you'll enjoy this...

I need to have a serious chat with our wild girls. I look out the window and there's five or six wild girls leading all of my Tom's down the road.

DW and I run out the door and all the wilds take off. Our boys are just standing there confused. I suspect they're telling the girls that we're OK... Where's the party? After a bit of discussion, they all turned around and walked back up to the pasture and over the fence they knocked down, back into the pasture. Of course my girls were all out too, but they just gathered at the gate and waited for me to open it.

What's with these wilds lately. They've always been chatty, but never in full on recruiter mode

 

[duluthralphie]

I have the wild hens (one) come into the yard in the spring to be serviced by my toms. She spend a few weeks right in the yard mixed with the domestic ones. I can get about 20 ft from her, she just will not go into a building or let me any closer...

 

[R2elk]

Or maybe our Toms are just henpecked..

I have one of those. He got separated from his main squeeze for an hour or so. When he got back to the pen, she really worked him over. It looked just like a wife getting right in a husband's face and nagging him unmercifully.

 

[rjohns39]

I have the wild hens (one) come into the yard in the spring to be serviced by my toms. She spend a few weeks right in the yard mixed with the domestic ones. I can get about 20 ft from her, she just will not go into a building or let me any closer...

I don't mind that, its the whole recruiting thing that bothers me.

 

[duluthralphie]

I don't mind that, its the whole recruiting thing that bothers me.

You have to teach your Boys..the women come to them,,,and not they go to the women..

I offer classes in this if you need them....

 

[rjohns39]

@R2elk I've been looking at porters site trying to figure out my wilds. Their tails are characteristically bronze but their saddle or area just above the tale looks a LOT like the red bronze. The rest of the bird looks like a bronze. Does this mean my wilds at some point were serviced by a bourbon? When my 7 defectors are out with the wilds the only way I can tell the difference is by their tail feathers.

Ralphie, I might need you to teach some classes, can you throw in "just jump back over the fence" training as well? Why oh why do they jump over the fence to get out but can't figure out to jump back in?

 

[R2elk]

@R2elk I've been looking at porters site trying to figure out my wilds. Their tails are characteristically bronze but their saddle or area just above the tale looks a LOT like the red bronze. The rest of the bird looks like a bronze. Does this mean my wilds at some point were serviced by a bourbon? When my 7 defectors are out with the wilds the only way I can tell the difference is by their tail feathers.

Ralphie, I might need you to teach some classes, can you throw in "just jump back over the fence" training as well? Why oh why do they jump over the fence to get out but can't figure out to jump back in?

Trying to remember back to your wild hen that produced the current crop and I seem to recall that she was a Red Bronze. Unfortunately Porter's is not the site to look when delving into wild turkeys. For the purpose of Porter's Turkey Color Calculator, wild turkeys are bronze turkeys but there definitely is a slightly different look between the 6 varieties of wild turkey (Eastern Wild, Rio Grande, Merriam's, Osceola, Gould's and South Mexican).

It certainly wouldn't surprise me if you have a bunch of Red Bronze turkeys running around your area but it is also possible that there is something else going on. The reason behind that is that if they are Red Bronze and they mate to each other they would produce more bronze, red bronze and bourbon reds. Since you aren't seeing any Bourbon Reds running around with your wild turkeys it would indicate that it is something else.

 

[duluthralphie]

@R2elk I've been looking at porters site trying to figure out my wilds. Their tails are characteristically bronze but their saddle or area just above the tale looks a LOT like the red bronze. The rest of the bird looks like a bronze. Does this mean my wilds at some point were serviced by a bourbon? When my 7 defectors are out with the wilds the only way I can tell the difference is by their tail feathers.

Ralphie, I might need you to teach some classes, can you throw in "just jump back over the fence" training as well? Why oh why do they jump over the fence to get out but can't figure out to jump back in?

Getting a turkey to jump a fence is an amazing feat. Mine are so dumb a 2 foot fence would keep them in for the most part. I did have one Tom, now departed and ingested in my extended family, that would jump the fence...He no longer does.