Royal Palm Turkeys

[Momma Hen]

Who's got them? What's your experience been like? Got pics?

 

[ivan3]

We have a hen and a tom (hand raised). They are no more `flighty/nervous' than the Slates. Miss Hiss weighs in at ~7lb. and Screamer at ~14lb.
I'll post these shots with apologies to those who've seen them in other threads in other places:

Miss Hiss and Spotted Head being wooed by a Wild Tom

Screamer and his (sometimes) buddy Boris (Miss Hiss begging for grapes)

Miss Hiss `nesting' last winter - a safe location!!

Just taking it easy on Cassie's lap (yes, a lap turkey)

 

[Carole AM]

Here's my tom, Vincent, wooing his lady-

 

[rhodiegal]

We have 6 of them. We got them when they were about 1 month old and they have never liked to be handled that much (though some birds are easier to handle than others). The hens are more flighty than the males and seem to lead the pack. Only one of the males will eat out of our hand. They get along very well free-ranging and we have not had a problem with predators as of yet. They follow us everywhere we go and are constantly wanting to see what is going on. They are beautiful birds! If we had gotten them from hatch and been able to handle them alot that first month, there would probably have been a difference.

 

[dragon]

great pics, i dont see too many turkys

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I don't know anything about turkeys, but I think Peeps is one of these?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/askpeeps.html

 

[chickchair]

Yep, Peeps is a Royal Palm....She's quite able to fly, but is so people oriented that she never fails to fly *to* us as opposed to away from us...
She really likes riding shotgun in the van.... If I leave it open, she jumps inside on her own....

(She tells me this is how she broadens her perspective for her advice column...)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/askpeeps.html

 

[ivan3]

She's quite able to fly

No kidding! Ours (in her wilder days) was a chimney turkey but, as a recent pic suggests, now she's a contortionist! That is her normal roosting position.

 

[chickchair]

Hee hee...Ivan, Peeps does that too.... She looks just like the old "Peanuts" cartoons where Snoopy pretended to be a vulture....

 

[ivan3]

Chickchair, the summer before last (turks had just feathered out and were living in temp. chain link pen until current abode was finished), I screwed up and left the gate open!

The next morning we had a thick, ground clinging, fog; four feet of white soup. I looked in the pen - not a turk to be seen! I searched around and finally found all five of them roosting about seven feet up in the Red Bud (all their heads hanging down - though when I got close enough they started peeking at me). I wish I'd had the camera as the scene was worthy of an old Japanese woodcut print (substitute turkeys for cranes)!