...boy, do I have a story for you!
Sometime in 2009, around late July, a friend of mine came out for the first time to see my chickens and turkeys. As we were walking up to the turkey pen, he told he how he had gone to the 4-H fair and seen a bunch of Tom turkeys puffing up and making "FFT!" noises. He asked what that noise meant, and I assumed it was a mating call and told him so. When we came up to the turkeys, he looked at one, a slate hen named Jenny, and said to me, "Do you think the mating call would work on her?" I shrugged and told him to try it out. He mimicked the 'FFFT' noise a few times as Jenny was looking at him. As you can probably guess, this did not end well. She fluffed up her feathers, attacked him, and that was the end of that.
Or so I thought.
Fast-forward to last Saturday. Since the first time he'd been out, my friend had not seen the turkeys since. But that day, however, he wanted to come out to see them again. We both figured there was zero chance anything would go wrong. So we went out to the turkeys not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Then Jenny comes up. He talks softly to her, calling her a good girl and not doing anything threatening or intimidating. Then she starts puffing up, making angry noises, and goes for him. He gets away as I fend her off, but I am struck by the fact that not only did she recognize a person she had only seen once before, but she also remembered that this person angered her, even though it was over a year ago.
This particular turkey has never shown any aggression to people; she has never attacked anyone before or since. But this one guy she remembered over a full year later, and still held a grudge!
So to anyone who says turkeys are brainless, I present this as proof to the contrary!
Sometime in 2009, around late July, a friend of mine came out for the first time to see my chickens and turkeys. As we were walking up to the turkey pen, he told he how he had gone to the 4-H fair and seen a bunch of Tom turkeys puffing up and making "FFT!" noises. He asked what that noise meant, and I assumed it was a mating call and told him so. When we came up to the turkeys, he looked at one, a slate hen named Jenny, and said to me, "Do you think the mating call would work on her?" I shrugged and told him to try it out. He mimicked the 'FFFT' noise a few times as Jenny was looking at him. As you can probably guess, this did not end well. She fluffed up her feathers, attacked him, and that was the end of that.
Or so I thought.
Fast-forward to last Saturday. Since the first time he'd been out, my friend had not seen the turkeys since. But that day, however, he wanted to come out to see them again. We both figured there was zero chance anything would go wrong. So we went out to the turkeys not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Then Jenny comes up. He talks softly to her, calling her a good girl and not doing anything threatening or intimidating. Then she starts puffing up, making angry noises, and goes for him. He gets away as I fend her off, but I am struck by the fact that not only did she recognize a person she had only seen once before, but she also remembered that this person angered her, even though it was over a year ago.
This particular turkey has never shown any aggression to people; she has never attacked anyone before or since. But this one guy she remembered over a full year later, and still held a grudge!
So to anyone who says turkeys are brainless, I present this as proof to the contrary!
