Anyone else have/raise Eastern Wilds?

[BubAnna Angus]

A friend gave me some eggs to incubate this spring. He said the tom was a Black Spanish (look like one), and the hen was an Eastern - she had primitive markings and looked like a wild turkey but a bit smaller than the other hens. The poults came out in a collage of colors. a couple were a dark calico with a brown under tone, one had the primitive markings but lighter, one was almost a chocolate color (I really these two), and the last one was black. They were fast..... fast moving poults.....and a bit more skiddish than others I've hatched. They seemed to grow at the same pace as the other birds (except for the light colored one, she stayed small). And one turned out to be best watch bird in the flock. I ended up giving them all back to him though, I'm going to try to not cross breed next year. I kept a beautiful pair of Narragansetts, and a pen of Blue Slates.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[jbourget]

I have eastern strains, I have actually learned how to keep them from a friend of mine. They are illegal here in Ct so i have been told

.... but then thier run in 2 feet from my road. I call them "narragansetts"

At my grandmothers where i have most, they actually intermingle with the other wild turkeys in the fields. I bought poults to lure them in with thier noise as the mature and it worked. i can only tell my birds from the real wilds by who doesnt fly off when i approach...but then again some do revert back to wild and not come home to roost....chances you take. many have thrived and raised young in the brush...success! In turkey season its a riot, they are just everywhere. Great flyers as well. i have some photos i can post tomorrow from my work PC

 

[kfacres]

copied in part, from another post of mine.

The three Bronze birds on the left, are the next step in our breeding program. We have had these Bronze genetics for nearly 15 years, even though I'm certain there is a cross with an Eastern Wild in there somewhere- about 8 or 9 years ago. When we first moved to our new house, our gobbler got killed, and for 2 months the hen was a loner.. She finally disapeared, and we decided she too was lunch for something. But nonetheless, she came up one day with several poults following behind-- so she either carried fertile eggs for nearly 2 months, or it was a wild gobbler that bred her. Since, I'm also certain our growth rate, and breast muscle has been lacking. This line has reproduced itself very good for us- usually hatching out 10-12 in a hatch, usually twice a year. This year, b/w 2 hens, we hatched out 18 poults the first time around (One hen disapeared this summer), and this fall, the last remaining old bird hatched out 12 more a few weeks ago. My parents have the old gobbler left, and an old hen... They plan to keep one young trio-- as have I (pictured). I'd say the baby fall's will also remain around for quite a while. I think these were hatched in May- notice the size difference and stoutness b/w them and the BBW birds, which are about 2 months older- same ration.

We have raised Eastern Wild birds, several times over the years- with not much success. On an interesting note, I do not remember a hatch of them, having more than one egg not hatch. This has been in about 3 or 4 clutch's of eggs that were found cutting wheat, hay, or while turkey hunting in the springtime. We would take the eggs home, put in 'bator-- and go from there. It seemed that the poults would hatch, but by several months of age, many would be lost due to random problems. Not sure what it was, but the pure wild birds didn't seem to be as hardy as our domesticated ones. but to the contrary, the shot of wild in our common bronze made them hardier and more lively...

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:
No offence intended, but please do not call your "wild" turkeys Narragansett. We just finished a several month ordeal and fight to save Narragansett Turkeys in Wyoming. Not ready for another fight like that again. We need to all abide by the regulations or we all may suffer.

Before buying any wild turkeys, check your state's regulations. Get a permit.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
No offence intended, but please do not call your "wild" turkeys Narragansett. We just finished a several month ordeal and fight to save Narragansett Turkeys in Wyoming. Not ready for another fight like that again. We need to all abide by the regulations or we all may suffer.

Before buying any wild turkeys, check your state's regulations. Get a permit.

Like I said in the first reply on this thred. 99.9% of people don't have "wild" turkeys but just a cross. The bronze turkey did come from the wild strains but having and breeding wilds is illeagle in most states and you do need a permit. Even free ranging domestic turkeys in areas with wilds is illeagle in most states. Your birds can breed with wilds and cause a strain of poults that are too big, too slow and too dumb to survive in the wild. Causing the hen to miss out on raising any poults for the year to repopulate the flock! When states repopulate areas with wild turkeys, they net wild turkeys and release them into the new area. They can not hatch poults, raise them and release them.

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
No offence intended, but please do not call your "wild" turkeys Narragansett. We just finished a several month ordeal and fight to save Narragansett Turkeys in Wyoming. Not ready for another fight like that again. We need to all abide by the regulations or we all may suffer.

Before buying any wild turkeys, check your state's regulations. Get a permit.

Like I said in the first reply on this thred. 99.9% of people don't have "wild" turkeys but just a cross. The bronze turkey did come from the wild strains but having and breeding wilds is illeagle in most states and you do need a permit. Even free ranging domestic turkeys in areas with wilds is illeagle in most states. Your birds can breed with wilds and cause a strain of poults that are too big, too slow and too dumb to survive in the wild. Causing the hen to miss out on raising any poults for the year to repopulate the flock! When states repopulate areas with wild turkeys, they net wild turkeys and release them into the new area. They can not hatch poults, raise them and release them.

what if you have that permit? Do you call it ok then?

What if your eastern Wild population is through the roof, and needs controled? is it ok then to have a hen miss a hatch for the year? I'm seeing more and more hens with late hatches each fall.

 

[Okie Amazon]

We have what might better be called "feral" turkeys. There is a large flock of Eastern wilds interbred with several varieties of domestic that range around our neighborhood. (Mostly acreages with an unimproved 80 acres close by.) We trapped a mama and her poults earlier this year. As it turns out, all the poults are female too, so I guess we'll be looking for a boyfriend this spring. The mama is classic wild-looking, long legged, thin-bodied, but the 3 surviving poults (we lost 3 to the heat) are 3 different color varieties. One is mostly black, one has the Narraganset look, and the other is a light cream-color. I'll try to post some pics in the next few days. They have adapted pretty well, as long as you don't try to touch them! They start cooing/calling when we come out the back door (the "feed me" song) and are fairly quiet the rest of the time.

 

[Okie Amazon]

Don't have any of ours, but here are a few of the flock they came from, mingling with our guineas:

One of our poults is this color:

One of our poults is black like this one:

Maybe 30-40% of the flock is truly 100% Eastern Wild.

 

[ivan3]

We don't have, or breed, we host. Other than preemptive suppression of predators (dating from 1997) and maintaining and enhancing the quality of the `range' on our property, we neither encourage or dissuade the actual `Wild' Easterns:

Our turks are intimidated by the visitors: (last fall):

Some shots from 9/19/11 (two flocks commingled -counted 34 - both had multiple hens créching their poults during early summer, knew there were two as one bunch had a limping hen) for IDing. The fencing is the limit of turkey run.

Check Wilds of Pa's posts.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:

Like I said in the first reply on this thred. 99.9% of people don't have "wild" turkeys but just a cross. The bronze turkey did come from the wild strains but having and breeding wilds is illeagle in most states and you do need a permit. Even free ranging domestic turkeys in areas with wilds is illeagle in most states. Your birds can breed with wilds and cause a strain of poults that are too big, too slow and too dumb to survive in the wild. Causing the hen to miss out on raising any poults for the year to repopulate the flock! When states repopulate areas with wild turkeys, they net wild turkeys and release them into the new area. They can not hatch poults, raise them and release them.

what if you have that permit? Do you call it ok then?

What if your eastern Wild population is through the roof, and needs controled? is it ok then to have a hen miss a hatch for the year? I'm seeing more and more hens with late hatches each fall.

You would have to check with your states game wardens. Each state will have different regulations. Call up your states fish & wildlife to be sure. I would hate to see anybody get fined into the poor house!