Urban legend?

[Xerocles]

Ok. Not a turkey person. Barely a chicken person. But I have heard all my life (67 yrs so far) that domestic meat turkey poults are so stupid that if left in the rain, they will look up to see whats hitting their head and will drown. Forgive me, but I just had to ask. Truth or Urban Legend?

 

[perchie.girl]

Urban.... I am 64 nice to meet you and Welcome To BYC

had do look Xerocles or Xerocole... Adapted to the desert.... Love it.

deb

 

[Skipper7410]

Ok. Not a turkey person. Barely a chicken person. But I have heard all my life (67 yrs so far) that domestic meat turkey poults are so stupid that if left in the rain, they will look up to see whats hitting their head and will drown. Forgive me, but I just had to ask. Truth or Urban Legend?

Legend...dont get me wrong turkeys can do things that make you question their brain activity sometimes, but that is definitely just a legend...or old wives tail..or myth..or whichever you prefer

 

[Xerocles]

Legend...dont get me wrong turkeys can do things that make you question their brain activity sometimes, but that is definitely just a legend...or old wives tail..or myth..or whichever you prefer

I prefer "lie" and I am guilty of perpetuating it myself. Bet I've heard it a thousand times in my life. About 35 yrs ago I even had a neighbor tell it to me AND HE COMMERCIALLY raised turkeys. Guess he never let his out of that big barn into the rain.

 

[Xerocles]

Urban.... I am 64 nice to meet you and Welcome To BYC

had do look Xerocles or Xerocole... Adapted to the desert.... Love it.

deb

This proves the old adage that we're never to old to learn something new.
In 1995 my (then) wife bought a puppy. She was also enamored of the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". The ghost dog was named Zero. So she said she was going to name her dog Zero. Now this dog's pedigree had a list of champions, grand champions, and national grand champions that weighed 5 lbs. A heck of a lot prouder of his lineage than I am of mine. (I had a lineage test done once. Cost me $500 to get it looked up and $5000 to get it hushed up).
Anyhow, I told her she couldn't name a dog with a background like that "Zero". It would be a gross insult. So she said fine, I should name him, but she was going to call him Zero. So I took a few days researching and playing with names somehow related to zero. I ended up in Greek gods. Lots of neat names but nothing that fit. So I invented one. Xerocles the Bold! Sorta Greek god sounding, and so he was named.
Now I was starting to play on the internet then (thank goodness you're mature enough to remember when there wasn't an internet, also.) Anyhow, email was asking for a unique user name. Well, I knew it was unique because I made it up. So, for 25 years, everything I do online is Xerocles.
Now YOU point out that xerocole is a word! I NEVER KNEW! Thank you.
P.S. And kind of appropriate too, because when we got the dog we were living in a high plains desert. HA!

 

[perchie.girl]

This proves the old adage that we're never to old to learn something new.
In 1995 my (then) wife bought a puppy. She was also enamored of the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". The ghost dog was named Zero. So she said she was going to name her dog Zero. Now this dog's pedigree had a list of champions, grand champions, and national grand champions that weighed 5 lbs. A heck of a lot prouder of his lineage than I am of mine. (I had a lineage test done once. Cost me $500 to get it looked up and $5000 to get it hushed up).
Anyhow, I told her she couldn't name a dog with a background like that "Zero". It would be a gross insult. So she said fine, I should name him, but she was going to call him Zero. So I took a few days researching and playing with names somehow related to zero. I ended up in Greek gods. Lots of neat names but nothing that fit. So I invented one. Xerocles the Bold! Sorta Greek god sounding, and so he was named.
Now I was starting to play on the internet then (thank goodness you're mature enough to remember when there wasn't an internet, also.) Anyhow, email was asking for a unique user name. Well, I knew it was unique because I made it up. So, for 25 years, everything I do online is Xerocles.
Now YOU point out that xerocole is a word! I NEVER KNEW! Thank you.
P.S. And kind of appropriate too, because when we got the dog we were living in a high plains desert. HA!

LOL... LOVE your sense of humor.... Love the high desert too... Been a desert Rat all my life...

deb

 

[Eric Exley]

I believe its a legend too, (mostly because there are wild turkeys that live through the rain, so why couldn't domesticated turkeys) but my grandmother saw that happen to a flock of broad breasted white turkeys she had (she originally had 8, but only 2 survived)... It never happened to my flock, mabe its due to how they are raised, or the possibility that one starts, and the others do the same thing (I think of it as a "follow the leader" theory), most of my turkeys run inside their coop when it rains and wait for it to stop before they come out (my ducks, and geese are the only ones that stay out in the rain).

 

[sarcasm]

Legend. They don't even look straight up, their eyes are on the sides of their heads. But the probable grain of truth behind it is that it's actually pretty darn easy to chill a young poult to death, and they ABSOLUTELY CAN die if it's cold and rainy and they can't get back to mom easily enough. For the record, I would absolutely believe that there have been more than a few deaths-by-cold-and-rain where the poult just didn't realize at the time that it was getting too cold.

 

[AviansLove]

This makes me laugh. It is a legend.