Turkey Talk for 2014

[Pretty Chickens]

You have pretty turkeys?

 

[SoProlix]

What breed are your turkeys?

They are Bourbon Reds from Country Hatchery, about 7 weeks in the photo.

 

[TattooedMama]

They are cute!! I miss having my turkeys; so does my boyfriend. The chickens had somewhat piqued his interest but the turkeys are what won him over.

 

[Pretty Chickens]

My turkey looks so much like yours. I do hope he turns out to be like yours

 

[Quailsong]

Folks, I need a really big hug.

I'm now down to 1 BBB turkey from 2, due to one needing to be culled early due to just...being far too curious & in your face. He constantly pestered my other birds, nearly took out my eye (multiple times, thankfully I wore goggles after the first incident), would knock over or step on the other birds (chickens/ducks), and unfortunately killed a few of my quail who escaped their pen during a storm.

Please tell me that there are calmer turkeys out there, one's not so focused on food all the time. I know heritage are better for that, but I just...ugh, just need a hug, really.

Help to ease the pain by telling me how nice your midget whites or beltsvilles are & how peaceful they are with your chickens. Give me some hope for having turkeys again next Spring 2015, please! Or even just a hug. Did I mention I need one?

 

[LovedMyAlydar]

How about this for a "virtual hug"? I have 6 turkeys at the moment, 3 toms and 3 hens. Yesterday the toms were out in the yard messing around with their tails fanned out, not up, but down pointing towards the ground, and their wings out at their sides and bouncing up and down. I could not figure out what the heck they were doing. So I stood there at the door watching I see another bird on the ground trying to get up. These guys had a rough legged hawk that has been predating on my chickens for the last few months on the ground beating the tar out of him. I sent my Great Pyrenees out after the hawk who took advantage of the turkeys being distracted by the dog to get up and get on a fence post, shake his feather and take off. I could not believe it, but I think they would have killed him if I had not sent the dog out. I have never seen anything like it. This hawk has been the bane of my existence lately hounding my chicken pen. After the hawk took off the toms kept going over to where he was on the ground displaying their tails and strutting around like, yeah, we're bad, we kicked his butt!


Good on my boys. Usually they are quite annoying, like the one you mentioned, but they go for my Crocs (shoes) or my wedding ring. I'm sorry you had to cull your turkey. It is never easy to do. We had to cull one of my little D'Uccle's who was gravely injured. Remember, next year is a new year and think positive thoughts. Pick out some pretty babies for your new flock and take it from there. I have my turkeys in with my mixed flock of bantams and regular chickens. They all do fine, in fact, my white leghorn hens, little things that they are regularly kick the much bigger turkeys butts. They will grab the turkeys wing feathers and hang on as the turkeys run away, it's really very comical. And my one little D'Uccle hen makes sure the right occupants of the coop come in at night in the proper order, if a turkey comes in before certain chickens, she runs them out. They listen to her, she looks like a hall monitor standing there letting some in and running others out. She is the last on the roosts at night.

My husband calls our flock "cheap entertainment".

Hugs to you dear Quailsong.

 

[chickadoodles]

Folks, I need a really big hug.

I'm now down to 1 BBB turkey from 2, due to one needing to be culled early due to just...being far too curious & in your face. He constantly pestered my other birds, nearly took out my eye (multiple times, thankfully I wore goggles after the first incident), would knock over or step on the other birds (chickens/ducks), and unfortunately killed a few of my quail who escaped their pen during a storm.

Please tell me that there are calmer turkeys out there, one's not so focused on food all the time. I know heritage are better for that, but I just...ugh, just need a hug, really.

Help to ease the pain by telling me how nice your midget whites or beltsvilles are & how peaceful they are with your chickens. Give me some hope for having turkeys again next Spring 2015, please! Or even just a hug. Did I mention I need one?

I am so sorry your BBB turkey was such a problem for you. This is the first year I have raised some myself and I have three left so far. The hen is the sweetest! And the two boys kind of stand back and wait for treats.

I have raised a few turkey breeds since I started a couple years ago and the sweetest ones I have had are the Naragansett and Midget White. Right now I have Standard Bronze and Bourbon Reds and they are also very nice calm and sweet but for some reason I have a few bourbon's that like to bite my fingers. I kind of think they are telling me they want a treat as I usually hand feed them treats. So that is my fault.

Here's a hug

and I hope you find some that you can enjoy! There are so many breeds out there. Good luck!

 

[Wasson6Pack]

Folks, I need a really big hug.

I'm now down to 1 BBB turkey from 2, due to one needing to be culled early due to just...being far too curious & in your face. He constantly pestered my other birds, nearly took out my eye (multiple times, thankfully I wore goggles after the first incident), would knock over or step on the other birds (chickens/ducks), and unfortunately killed a few of my quail who escaped their pen during a storm.

Please tell me that there are calmer turkeys out there, one's not so focused on food all the time. I know heritage are better for that, but I just...ugh, just need a hug, really.

Help to ease the pain by telling me how nice your midget whites or beltsvilles are & how peaceful they are with your chickens. Give me some hope for having turkeys again next Spring 2015, please! Or even just a hug. Did I mention I need one?

We didn't have to cull, but many of ours died. We had 1 Narr that was really sweet, our Royal palm were nice, but didn't get very old before they died. Our favorite is the one still standing. Our sweetgrass is the best. He is sweet and gentle with the kids who feed him. He will protect our chickens from our dog who won't hurt them, he is just excitable. If the dog gets too close, our turkey will run him off.

HUGS to you! Don't give up with the Turkeys!

 

[BullChick]

((((HUGS))))

 

[CherMoz]

((

))

We enjoy our Midget White turkeys - they are the only ones that we have raised. We try to keep them separate from the chickens in a separated pasture, but more often than not they are all together. The turkeys do sometimes harass the chickens but they also give an earlier sound alarm for hawks, etc. Our turkey hens even allowed chicks (about 7 weeks old that the mother had left) to nest with them.