Introduction of Wild Turkeys to Maine....a good idea! (Yarmouth: house, neighborhood)

[Maineah]

Southern Maine has the beginnings of a Wild Turkey problem. No not the kind in a bottle, the big feathery kind.
There are thousands of them around here now with no end in sight.
The State in it's wisdom decided to introduce turkeys to York County in the eighties. They encouraged people to raise Wild turkeys and set them free . There was even a program to buy wild turkey poults from the State wholesale, raise them and release them. They really took to Southern Maine and I have seen them on the sides of the road all the way past Millinockett now.
They are beginning to become a traffic problem. I have heard of increasing car /turkey collisions and even some motorcyclists being hit by flying turkeys. Sportsmen are concerned that the turkeys are competing for food the White Tailed Deer.
Last week I saw a flock in front of my house in the middle of the road. Two big hens with 25 1/2 sized poults being herded between them.
A friend of mine says his mom in Yarmouth feeds them cracked corn and he has counted as many as 90 at a time in her back yard.
I saw a field in Pownal with over 200 of them in it! How many is too many and can we get a handle on the turkey population before it spirals out of control??

[dmyankee]

It's time for the state to stop charging $$$ for a tag and increase the limit considerably. I have seen them for the first time this spring up on Elephant. Saw a hen with 13 hatchlings at Jewett Cove on Moosehead last month. Who would have thunk?

[Maineah]

They're taking over....there should be a bounty on them!

[JViello]

Four months till November...two on every table oughtta do it.

I would like to thank you all for the Fisher Cat's we so wisely imported from Maine about a decade ago. They are a fine neighborhood presence when they are not hunting our cats.

The more people mess with nature...the more screwed up it gets sometimes.

[Nor'Eastah]

We've got a TON of them down here in southern RI, too...somebody at URI actually wasted tax dollars to figure the best place to release them! They could've released them on the URI quadrangle and they'd have been fine. Dern things are all over the place. They love to congregate on the sides of highway entrances and exit ramps, where unsuspecting drivers coming 'round the curve at speed won't see 'em. I have pulled into my drive and seen maybe 20-30 down back by the garage. If I had my way, I'd grab my pump 12 gauge and fill the freezer with turkey! But no, Nor'Eastah, be nice...play by the rules! Mmmmm...Thanksgiving's a ways off yet!

[Nor'Eastah]

I wondered...if I planted a garlic patch and some sage...we don't have chickens but we sure have turkeys! Maybe they'd be ready for the oven, ya think?

[forest beekeeper]

So what I am hearing is that down in Southern Maine folks buy hunting tags BEFORE they shoot their turkeys, and then on top there is a LIMIT to how many you harvest each year?

I see the problem.

I was looking over the Maine fish&game website and I found a breakdown of how many dear are harvested each year in each township. Well I noticed that my township has more dear tags sold each year than our township has households. Then I got to asking my neighbors about it. So far I dont know any neighbor who bothers to get a tag. All those tags that the state tracks, are tags sold to folks who live in the cities that come here to hunt.

It seems the primary 'limit' among locals is how big your freezer is.

[island mermaid]

Has anyone ever tried eating one of these wild birds? IMHO, they don't exactly taste like your mothers Butterball. I really didn't care for the taste, a little too gamey for me. I've ordered and liked the free range birds before, but the wild ones taste a little TOO free range for me.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

Has anyone ever tried eating one of these wild birds?

Yes, yumm

... IMHO, they don't exactly taste like your mothers Butterball. I really didn't care for the taste, a little too gamey for me. I've ordered and liked the free range birds before, but the wild ones taste a little TOO free range for me.

You may not be feeding them enough corn.

More corn in their diet during their last six weeks and their meat will be less gamey.

[bringselpup]

Well over here I have had one older gent quietly inform me that out of season deer is labeled lamb in the freezer. The way he told it I knew he wasn't kidding.

So maybe would turkey get labeled chicken?