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Wow! I never knew there were so many kinds of turkeys out there. Some of them are beautiful.
Farm turkeys are big, fat, and stupid. Wild turkeys are smart and wily. When I lived in MN, we had flocks in our back yard all the time. These were completely wild and afraid of humans.
My father used to hunt wild turkey and they taste good too. But they are much smaller than what you buy at the store. More like a chicken.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fisheye
I just like my turkeys wild. ...
Yes, wild turkeys are very interesting and usually very tough to get cornered. A real challenge to hunt, especially by bow.
It was a real tragedy to have one hit the side of the F-i-L's house when trying to fly over... yum.
One of my 94 yr old friends was able to shoot two large turkeys in One Shot from a 10 Ga. "as they were walking together, and their necks crossed... I 'Let-em-have-it'. " The hunters had been hiding in a brush pile for several mornings trying to get the birds called in.
We used domestic turkeys in Colorado to help control the grasshopper problem (the 'swarming locusts' would eat the paint and screen windows off the house). As a wee child (kindegarden) I remember helping a friend who raised commercial turkeys 'round-them-up' for processing. Very early in the morning with lots of pillowcases... I also remember the same friend (who was the last child at home), remarking how the 'turkey' growing industry stopped when she left for college.
Hm. Where we live, wild turkeys are considered 'varmints' - they have been known to chase full-grown adults and children in flocks of 20 or more. They like to sit in trees around houses at night and the ground underneath gets really nasty after a week or so of their roosting.
Our wild flock this year I counted 34, big and loud and obnoxious. Time to thin the flock. Again.
I have never had problems getting attacked by turkeys. We have had flocks of between fifty and one hundred birds. One next door neighbor feeds them religiously. I feed them if they come running at me for a handout. They keep ten or fifteen feet distance - but that is pretty close. After they eat; they run or go about their business.
I used to hunt them many years ago. You don’t get a lot of meat on the drumstick. I also have a 10 gauge double barrel goose gun. I would rather shoot them with the camera today. I live in a “red” zone for Lyme Disease and I think that the turkeys and our ducks help. We also don’t have to worry about the locust eating the screens off our windows! Of course; we don’t have too many locust here in the northeast!
When I was a kid, in the 1950’s and a teenager in the 1960’s; turkeys were only a myth in my area. One time I thought that I actually heard one - but could not confirm it. In the world of wild game; they are the comeback kids on the block.
I have to stop pretty frequently to let them get out of the road. They are pretty smart about getting out of the way. The one next door neighbor feeds the turkeys only twenty five feet from the road - I wish that she was as smart as the turkeys! The one danger with large populations of wild turkeys is a turkey in the air hitting our windshields. They are large birds and cannot change their direction in flight very easily.
PS Our turkeys do not roost in one single tree. They will individually roost high in our Oak trees over several hundred yards. Usually only during the day will two or three roost in one tree - I think it is more of a rest when they have a full craw.
I would love to have a few wild turkeys to raise in my backyard. Won't happen though.
My first husband grew up on the edge of a game preserve and they grew up hunting it....for food. (illegal, I know) When he was in his late 20's he was tired of hunting. He quit hunting deer at all as he didn't think there was much sport in it. He said hunting wild turkeys was a game. The turkeys usually winning.....LOL. We also had cows so, we didn't need the meat.
I am glad turkeys have come back from the brink. I wish buffalo had the same chance.
I read an article long ago about raising turkeys that I think was posted on "MotherEarth News". I still like the idea of the Holland Whites for ease of putting on the table. European explorers took American wild turkeys back home with them and domesticated them and bred them for different traits. Then they came back to us and we farther bred them any several directions like the Porter turkey guy has.
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" The hunters had been hiding in a brush pile for several mornings trying to get the birds called in. 
I also remember the same friend (who was the last child at home), remarking how the 'turkey' growing industry stopped when she left for college. 
All those pretty Porter turkeys have wild turkeys as ancestors. More about that later. Got to run.
