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Turkeys and chickens

WaterH

WaterH

Well-known member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
602
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3,135
Loc
North Florida
So my wife has been raising chickens for several years. We have 10 acres fenced in and let them freerange. (We get lots of eggs) Two days ago, two turkeys showed up and are hanging around our chickens.

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They roost with the chickens at night and roam around with them during the day.

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Question, are these wild? I can walk up to within 4’ of them. (Which is about as close as I can get to the chickens) I’m thinking maybe someone dropped them off over our fence. Is there a problem with turkeys living with our chickens? Will we start getting turkey eggs? Are turkey eggs good?
 
Most likely wild

They are fine together, very common

Never had turkey eggs, guess they are like duck eggs which I do not like but many people think they are great
 
We keep both, but only hen turkeys. The Toms will kill a chicken by trying to mate with them.
The eggs are great, but they lay slightly less frequently. They are also bad about hiding their clutch of eggs. So if we go several days with none in the nesting box, she is stashing them elsewhere.
 
I've never seen a wild turkey that you could get anywhere that close to. As soon as they see you (excellent eyesight) they are gone.
 
Southernfriedcj8 said:
Around here there are wild turkeys that roam in some neighborhoods. They aren't scared of people. Suburkeys.
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Ahh, now that you mention that, I have seen on tv where wild turkeys will roam neighborhoods and not really be scared of people. Growing up on a farm, and even now living not too far out of the city on 10 acres, none of the wild turkeys I've ever been around are anywhere close to "tame", where I could just walk right up to them.
 
Southernfriedcj8 said:
Around here there are wild turkeys that roam in some neighborhoods. They aren't scared of people. Suburkeys.
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This was going to my guess. Turkeys are fucking smart. They know they are safe and they also seem to know about 2 weeks before the season begins amd then right when it ends. :lmao:
 
Wild turkeys are usually pretty skittish, but I had one that wanted to help me work on my truck one day. I was able to pet it a little bit.





 
It happens. I’ve had that here. Turkey are dumb as a boot but typically skiddish
 
Southernfriedcj8 said:
Around here there are wild turkeys that roam in some neighborhoods. They aren't scared of people. Suburkeys.
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Where we used to live in Ramona, Ca. it was semi rural and some people about 1/2 mile down the dirt road regularly fed the wild turkeys in the area. There were at least a dozen around most days. You could easily get within a few feet of them.
 
They are quite common here in suburban foothills outside Sacramento California. And I don't think I've ever seen a squashed one in the roadway, unlike deer, skunks and squirrels. They are not native here, but well established.
 
Splib said:
They are quite common here in suburban foothills outside Sacramento California. And I don't think I've ever seen a squashed one in the roadway, unlike deer, skunks and squirrels. They are not native here, but well established.
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Ive never seen one squashed on the road either, but I have hit a couple...
 
95stepside said:
Ive never seen one squashed on the road either, but I have hit a couple...
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They're not native to San Diego county, but they were introduced in 1993 and have become very well established there. One day I was driving south of Julian, Ca. on Hwy 79 and almost ran over a whole flock of them in the road. I had to get out of the car and shoo them off the road.
 
Thefishguy77 said:
This was going to my guess. Turkeys are fucking smart. They know they are safe and they also seem to know about 2 weeks before the season begins amd then right when it ends. :lmao:
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My brother chases the wild turkeys around on the east side of the state
he never gets them, says they are hard to get. There are thousands around our family's property

One day I was with my brother driving , and there was a bunch of them along the road
I pulled over, opened the door, reached down and grabbed a rock with my left hand and gave an awkward left-hand throw.
Thump
Turkey look at me with a WTF was that

I turned to my brother and said what is so hard about this?

and his response was, they know it isn't turkey season:laughing:
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
My brother chases the wild turkeys around on the east side of the state
he never gets them, says they are hard to get. There are thousands around our family's property

One day I was with my brother driving , and there was a bunch of them along the road
I pulled over, opened the door, reached down and grabbed a rock with my left hand and gave an awkward left-hand throw.
Thump
Turkey look at me with a WTF was that

I turned to my brother and said what is so hard about this?

and his response was, they know it isn't turkey season:laughing:
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:laughing:
What’s funny is ever turkey hunter in the state I have talked to thats hunted them in the SE says up here it’s like going to a farm. Apparently our turkeys are stupid easy compared to the SE ones. I am 0-1 but going to give it a shot again this year towards the end of April on the east side
 
I found peacocks at the resort yesterday not one screamed I was surprised and they love eating bougainvillea leaves. Which I never knew
 

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Squamch said:
How do they skid? Is it like when they take a corner too fast, they just kinda slide sideways drifter style, or do they not have anti lock spurs?

I'd be skittish as fuck if there was 12lb birds skidding around all over the place.
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Normally 3.5” #4 makes them skid along the dirt nicely
 
So the female turkey dissappeared last week. The male still been hanging around. We thought it must have got killed by a predator. Today it showed up again. Now my wife thinks she might have been sitting on eggs. Would that be likly?
 
It is that time of year. But if she was sitting on eggs she won't leave them long, unless something got into the nest
 
WaterH said:
So the female turkey dissappeared last week. The male still been hanging around. We thought it must have got killed by a predator. Today it showed up again. Now my wife thinks she might have been sitting on eggs. Would that be likly?
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Yep
 
skyhiranger said:
Ahh, now that you mention that, I have seen on tv where wild turkeys will roam neighborhoods and not really be scared of people.
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Saw these a few weeks ago. There were maybe 9 of them, mostly females and a few males. The rest had gone up the hill from a road that borders a marsh/nature preserve, heading towards a neighborhood. There's an eagle nest in the preserve and I got a couple pics of one of the eagles near the lake.

I've seen turkeys while I'm passing through a neighborhood on my bike but I give them plenty of room.

turkeys.jpg
 
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