Post by 3cows on Aug 27, 2014 7:21:23 GMT -5
We have always kept just a single gobbler and a couple of hens, and pretty much let them roost with the chickens, set nests where they please, etc, and everyone is happy. We don't butcher them, we just sell off / or trade the young ones before winter every year.
On the last day of spring turkey season, I found a wild tom hiding in the brushy fence line down by the barn. He had shotgun pellets in his head, and it was all infected, and it looked like coyotes or foxes had attacked him from behind and torn a palm-sized area of flesh and feathers away on his back and broken or damaged a wing. He could walk, but not fly.
He was very weak but he ate corn and clabber and drank thirstily. Our Tom tried to fight him when we patched him up and brought him up from the barn, so we put him into the fenced front yard, where he wouldn't be disturbed and could be fed easily while he healed.
Well, that was around the first part of May and, you guessed it, he still lives (very happily) in the front yard, and has become a big pet. Neither gobbler can fly, our tame one hasn't been able to fly for years because he is so heavy and the crippled one can only fly, or kind of leap), enough to get onto our front porch railing where he roosts each night.
The two gobblers don't seem to fight through the fence but they both strut along their side and I suspect they would battle if they could reach each other. The hens and young ones fly over the fence at will and spend time with both gobblers, which probably doesn't help the tension between the two gents.
Since dh wants to let the old codger live here permanently to keep him from being coyote bait, does anyone know of any trick that would help the two gobblers get along with each other so I could let them run together? Or am I doomed to have a yard turkey?
On the last day of spring turkey season, I found a wild tom hiding in the brushy fence line down by the barn. He had shotgun pellets in his head, and it was all infected, and it looked like coyotes or foxes had attacked him from behind and torn a palm-sized area of flesh and feathers away on his back and broken or damaged a wing. He could walk, but not fly.
He was very weak but he ate corn and clabber and drank thirstily. Our Tom tried to fight him when we patched him up and brought him up from the barn, so we put him into the fenced front yard, where he wouldn't be disturbed and could be fed easily while he healed.
Well, that was around the first part of May and, you guessed it, he still lives (very happily) in the front yard, and has become a big pet. Neither gobbler can fly, our tame one hasn't been able to fly for years because he is so heavy and the crippled one can only fly, or kind of leap), enough to get onto our front porch railing where he roosts each night.
The two gobblers don't seem to fight through the fence but they both strut along their side and I suspect they would battle if they could reach each other. The hens and young ones fly over the fence at will and spend time with both gobblers, which probably doesn't help the tension between the two gents.
Since dh wants to let the old codger live here permanently to keep him from being coyote bait, does anyone know of any trick that would help the two gobblers get along with each other so I could let them run together? Or am I doomed to have a yard turkey?
We have a neighbor who for years had a flock of wild turkeys that hung around his yard (just feet from the woods) for years - he fed them every day.
