I have a surprise turkey

[TheHeresAmber]

I was out all day Wednesday and came home to a random female turkey hanging out with my flock of chooks. I've posted her on Facebook and went around asking all the neighbours but nobody around me has turkeys or knows where she came from. Everyone seems to think she was dumped, which would make sense since you can see my chooks free ranging on my property from the road and it wouldn't be hard to chuck a turkey over the fence.

In the meantime she's been running with my flock. She puts herself to bed with them, wakes up with them, and spends all day free ranging with them.

I'm happy for her to stay since she seems so happy but I've never had turkeys before. At the moment she's just eating the seed mix my chickens eat and kitchen scraps.

Is there anything I need to do differently? I've read that they may need different food but I don't know what that is??? At the moment she's just acting like a chicken and we're caring for her the same way.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

[R2elk]

I was out all day Wednesday and came home to a random female turkey hanging out with my flock of chooks. I've posted her on Facebook and went around asking all the neighbours but nobody around me has turkeys or knows where she came from. Everyone seems to think she was dumped, which would make sense since you can see my chooks free ranging on my property from the road and it wouldn't be hard to chuck a turkey over the fence.

In the meantime she's been running with my flock. She puts herself to bed with them, wakes up with them, and spends all day free ranging with them.

I'm happy for her to stay since she seems so happy but I've never had turkeys before. At the moment she's just eating the seed mix my chickens eat and kitchen scraps.

Is there anything I need to do differently? I've read that they may need different food but I don't know what that is??? At the moment she's just acting like a chicken and we're caring for her the same way.

Does anyone have any advice?

If it is an adult, and you are giving your chickens a good quality diet, it will do fine.

Without knowing where you live (region is close enough), I do not know if you are in the spring or not. It is not uncommon for turkeys to wander off setting a nest in the spring. If the nest is lost for some reason (predator, flood, etc.), the hen could wander into new territory rather than return to where it came from.

A heritage turkey would not have any problem flying over your fence.

 

[TheHeresAmber]

If it is an adult, and you are giving your chickens a good quality diet, it will do fine.

Without knowing where you live (region is close enough), I do not know if you are in the spring or not. It is not uncommon for turkeys to wander off setting a nest in the spring. If the nest is lost for some reason (predator, flood, etc.), the hen could wander into new territory rather than return to where it came from.

A heritage turkey would not have any problem flying over your fence.

I'm in Australia so we're in Autumn right now. Spring isn't for another 6 months. I'm also pretty rural and animal dumping is quite common here.

 

[JonathanL23]

Post a pic of her,that way we can see if its a wild turkey or a domestic one, also just feed her what the chickens eat she will be fine. She may even protect the flock, let them know when danger is around, turkeys have every good eyes,

 

[TheHeresAmber]

Post a pic of her,that way we can see if its a wild turkey or a domestic one, also just feed her what the chickens eat she will be fine. She may even protect the flock, let them know when danger is around, turkeys have every good eyes,

It's not an amazing photo, but here she is. I haven't heard of wild turkeys in Australia. We do have bush turkeys which are native to Australia and have red and yellow heads. Also, she's very tame. She comes right up to us for food. She was standing at my front door with my chooks gobbling for food

 

[Chickassan]

One word for you....lucky! I would love a suprise turkey.

 

[TheHeresAmber]

Sh

One word for you....lucky! I would love a suprise turkey.

She's amazing. I never knew that had such personality

 

[gimmie birdies]

She may be wild and was all alone, we had 2 pet turkeys,once a boy and a girl, one day a lonely wild hen showed up romanced the boy, then took off to nest, before you knew it there were a whole "rafter" of turkeys.

This is my girl turkey her name is Melania. But I call her turk-turk. A friend owned her and at Thanksgiving said come get her or she will be dinner.

my rooster's name is Trump, but that is another story.

He is a pussycat.

 

[TheHeresAmber]

She may be wild and was all alone, we had 2 pet turkeys,once a boy and a girl, one day a lonely wild hen showed up romanced the boy, then took off to nest, before you knew it there were a whole "rafter" of turkeys.

This is my girl turkey her name is Melania. But I call her turk-turk. A friend owned her and at Thanksgiving said come get her or she will be dinner.View attachment 1318043 my rooster's name is Trump, but that is another story.View attachment 1318044He is a pussycat.

This is what wild turkeys look like her is Australia, which is why I'm pretty sure she is domestic. Your rooster is a handsome man

 

[gimmie birdies]

Thanks!
He is co calm.