A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[feedman77]

Sounds beautiful Feedman! Do you hunt?



Sorry about your chichen Tracy.

Yes I hunt.

That's one reason I bought it. In years past there were a lot of wild turkeys around it. They would gobble all day. Wasn't anything to see up to 20 toms strutting on the Ridge to the farm off my south line.

Now due to decline in population. It's rare to see one and even hear one close.

But I hold a couple of does that rear their fawns on it each year.

One usually has triplets.

Found what's making my poults dissappear. Stray cat. There. Was a hole they could get out of. He would wait in the brush.

Pen secured now. 3 ft of 1/2" hardware cloth wrapping the pen. No escaping now.

Dog pen up. My dd pit bull now has a 10x20 pen. With a shaded area.

I can let my birds free range again. Don't have to worry about her puppy eating them.

2 more palms hatched. 2 pipped. 1 pipped and hit a vein didn't make it (bourbon).

Don't know where it came from but just blew up a nasty storm. Hard winds and rain. Don't need this as creek was just leveled or receded some.

 

[memphis]

Feedman...what caused the decline in Turkey population? Hunting, loss of habitat? Just curious. With the delicate nature of poults it amazes me any of them reach maturity.

I'm still in Ste. Genevieve. Huge clump of rain heading my way. You may be catching some of this. Hope you don't have to move birds! Trying to figure out when to make a run for Memphis. Hoping to find a break in storms.

 

[Finnie]

I have a random question to throw in. I was playing around with both turkey calculators, and it kept coming up with "blackwing (or darkwing) Narragansett", but had no image for that. Googling it didn't turn much up either. How would one of those differ from a regular Narragansett?

If it can turn up that easily, then surely people must have them. But maybe they look so much like other kinds that no one really talks about them separately?

It sure would be nice to see photos of what they look like.

 

[feedman77]

There are several reasons.

Mdc said the population had peaked so a decline should be expected.

Several years weather reeked havoc during nesting. So low hatch rates.

This is a factor I put in is predation.
Coon,skunk,possum,bobcat,coyote and owl populations at least around my area seem to be at all time highs

The rain last night was a quick storm lasted about 45 min. But it looks like we. Got more overnight. Pretty muddy this morning.

 

[R2elk]

I have a random question to throw in. I was playing around with both turkey calculators, and it kept coming up with "blackwing (or darkwing) Narragansett", but had no image for that. Googling it didn't turn much up either. How would one of those differ from a regular Narragansett?

If it can turn up that easily, then surely people must have them. But maybe they look so much like other kinds that no one really talks about them separately?

It sure would be nice to see photos of what they look like.

Black Winged Narragansett has the b1 (black winged bronze) gene instead of the b (bronze gene)

Black Winged Narragansett tom

http://www.porterturkeys.com/MBlackWingedNarragansett.jpg

Narragansett tom

http://www.porterturkeys.com/MNarragansett.jpg

Black Winged Narragansett hen

http://www.porterturkeys.com/FBlackWingedNarragansett.jpg

Narragansett hen

http://www.porterturkeys.com/FNarragansett.jpg

I don't see enough difference in them for me to be able to tell which is which just by looking at them.

 

[memphis]

Got home in time to spend time with the turkey hens before their bedtime. Sat on the back porch steps & listened to all their chirps & trills. They are so funny. I do miss them when I'm gone!

 

[Finnie]

Quote:
Thank you for the pictures! I did look all over Porter's site last night, and couldn't find any black winged Narris. Guess I just didn't look right.

But on your links to the two different toms, when I went back and forth between them, I finally was able to see how the black winged one does not have stripes on his primary flights, whereas the regular Narri one does have stripes!

The hens are different. The regular narri hen also has stripes on her flight feathers, but the black winged narri hen has the black removed, so hers are non-striped, but white. Weird. I think with the hens, it's because of the way they are holding their wings, so the primary flights are covered up by the secondary flights. The males are more obliging, to spread their wings out for us to see.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you for the pictures! I did look all over Porter's site last night, and couldn't find any black winged Narris. Guess I just didn't look right.

But on your links to the two different toms, when I went back and forth between them, I finally was able to see how the black winged one does not have stripes on his primary flights, whereas the regular Narri one does have stripes!

The hens are different. The regular narri hen also has stripes on her flight feathers, but the black winged narri hen has the black removed, so hers are non-striped, but white. Weird. I think with the hens, it's because of the way they are holding their wings, so the primary flights are covered up by the secondary flights. The males are more obliging, to spread their wings out for us to see.

The pictures showed up when running the color calculator. They are also in the Phenotypes and Genotypes link. As I stated, there isn't enough difference between the 2 varieties for me to notice the differences. You are correct about the differences in the flight feathers.

 

[feedman77]

Got home in time to spend time with the turkey hens before their bedtime. Sat on the back porch steps & listened to all their chirps & trills. They are so funny. I do miss them when I'm gone!

Glad to hear you made it home.

Guessing your girls missed you as well.

 

[memphis]

Yep Feedman...I believe the girls missed me. Twerps! They are so funny.