Turkey Question

Paul Douglass

Member
Messages
4,984
Location
S E Washington State
I live out in the country along a river, called the Yakima. I live in a group of 5 acre parcels, there are 13 parcels in all. Most have river front with lots of trees and brush. We have deer moving in which is a great thrill. I've been thinking I'd like to see wild turkeys down by the river. I've been contemplating maybe getting some, raising them and then turning them loose down by the river. I've talked to neighbors and they seem real excited by the idea and one even offered to pay half for the birds. My problem is I don't know what breed of turkey survives on their own. Are wild turkeys domestic turkey that have escaped and gone wild, like the wild pigs that are plaguing parts of the country? Or, are wild turkeys a breed all their own?

Years ago, our game department use to give away pheasant chicks to anyone that wanted to raise them and release them. I got about 50 and tried to raise them. It was difficult because pheasants, confined in a pen will eat each other. I only succeeded in getting about 50% to adulthood to release. Pheasants use to be plentiful in this area, now it is a joy to see one. Same thing with jack rabbits. Anyway, I just thought some of the turkey hunters on here might know something about wild turkeys. The only predictors for the turkeys would be coyotes for the most part. Most people out here keep their dogs at home.
 
Wild but not locally native (similar in washington): http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...f/2011/04/oregons_wild_turkeys_are_sprea.html

The washington dept of wildlife has a hunting brochure which shows some of their ranges: http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00768/wdfw00768.pdf

You can buy poults from various places:
http://www.purelypoultry.com/merriams-wild-turkey-poults-p-700.html
http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/Rio-Grande-Wild-Turkey-Poults/Turkey-Poults
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/rio_grande_wild_turkey.html
etc... if you search for "breed-of-turkey poults" you get a ton of hits.

My guess is that the Rio Grande is mostly likely to take where you are. The upside is well.. turkeys I guess.. the downsides are that they'll be fairly sparse (figure maybe 5 birds/square mile tops depending on the species and how much you help their habitat - I'm unsure of the legality of feeding them even if you introduced them.. actually ditto on introducing them no idea.. wildlife laws are often weird), they poop rather impressive amounts when they do truck through (similar to goose poop quantities) and they'll eat all sorts of vegetation you may not want them to (especially given the paucity of other foodstuffs in that area).
 
I guess what you'd like to see is something like this. This was taken last summer. It's about 75 feet from my back door. IMG_0201.jpg

The turkeys came nearly every day, all summer long. At peak, there were about thirty of them. I did put cracked corn out to attract them. The deer come nearly every night, and browse under the oak trees. There's usually five, and often as many as nine of them.

My property backs up to a wildlife preserve, so we get to see nearly every species of wildlife that exists in NE Ohio - up to, and including black bear.
 
i agree paul that your first stop is your local game and fish people,, now that you have talked with your neighbors on this and they showed up the game and fish would be knocking at your door soon.. i dont think you can bring them in or feed them..
 
Thanks for asking the question Paul. I did not know one could even buy something like turkey chicks as joe public.

@Jim man you live in the garden of Eden. I would NOT leave home ever if that was my backyard.
All you need though is a s bay window in a shop facing it . :) Then no work would be done. And if Linda saw that pic she would say if that were my backyard them critters would all have names and be greeted each day. Lol. Can see "Ice age " crossing the wires from my office window each day. Lol.



Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
I have no idea about how to populate anything wild.

When we first moved into my house we never saw a turkey - more that 10-15 years later we wondered what that was in the woods - then a year or so later we wondered what that huge bird was. Now the turkey population has grown to -- we see flocks of turkeys.

How it happened - I do not know - but it happened.

We used to see racoons - but I have seen a racoons is as many years.
 
I grew up hunting Pheasants and Quail in Kansas but now thanks to a large turkey population you see very few Pheasants and almost No Quail the Turkeys peck the eggs. Its the same here in Missouri now too. I see 10 to 30 Turkeys every day and can get within 15' of them when driving by. I can look in the field to the west of me and see them moving through at all times of the day. Have a flock of 27 out there almost all the time. Wish I could hunt:(
 
:threadjacked:

Mulberry and Rhubarb pie is pretty fantastic. Beats the heck out of the usual Rhubarb and strawberry for my money.

On the other hand Mulberry and currant pie was a bust, it might work if you crushed the currants first or used a whole lot more than I did but

you needed more currants ryan its not hard to eat currant pie at all if you like rhubard you will like a curant pie:)
 
Never heard of Mulberry/Rhubarb pie. I love strawberry/rhubarb pie. All we get from the Mulberries is purple, you know what from the birds! I have a big Gooseberry bush I started. It has a purple berry that almost tastes like a grape. Can't get my wife to make jam, pie or anything with them. I wonder how Gooseberry wine would be??

Never thought about the turkey bothering the pheasant and quail eggs. That is not good. We have enough Magpies that do that.
 
Last edited:
Never heard of Mulberry/Rhubarb pie. I love strawberry/rhubarb pie. All we get from the Mulberries is purple, you know what from the birds! I have a big Gooseberry bush I started. It has a purple berry that almost tastes like a grape. Can't get my wife to make jam, pie or anything with them. I wonder how Gooseberry wine would be??

I hadn't either - but we had Mulberries, we had Rhubarb and well... we just let nature take its coarse :D I think the last time I made it was with mulberries from Chamna Nature Preserve just down the road from you.

I'm guessing that what you have is probably actually a Cross Currant or JostaBerry which are crosses between various currants and gooseberrys. True gooseberries are pretty tart, and black currants are pretty tannic/strongly flavored whereas the crosses can be a lot more like you describe.

It does make pretty good wine. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques36.asp
Also one of my favorite Jellies but I see you've been down that road :rolleyes:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques36.asp
 
How'd we get from turkeys to pie?? :huh:

I grew up with wild turkeys in the back yard and front yard. I also love gooseberry pie! My grandpa had a bush and made lots of pies and jams every year...now I need pie! :D
 
Rhubarb pie is a wonderful thing. How can you even mention turkeys in a thread that has stuff about rhubarb?

There is an expression, "You turkey" or "He is a turkey." The expression is around and used because nothing else in the English language describes a certain type of person as well as, "You turkey."

Enjoy your rhubarb pie,
JimB

I think the above is a thread jack that thread jacked a thread jack.
 
Wild Turkeys are a different breed than domestics.

I'd probably steer clear of anything to do with the Government and wildlife.

The way things seem now, they might fine you, take your land, declare it a wetland (make it valueless) etc...

If there are birds nearby maybe bait them with piles of corn or something. Like Ride Riding hood in the forest, make a trail?

They are going to need nearby food, such as a cornfeild, unless you guys plan on feeding them.

If you throw some wild rice seed out there in the marshy areas, you might attract wild ducks.

I've done this in a couple of places with success. Takes about three years.

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_ABNLC14010.aspx
 
I was told that Ducks cans see and identify this stuff from way up in the air on their flyovers.

They don't have to be directly overhead as long as you are on one of their migratory paths they will find it.

It does bring them down. Depending on where you are, it might just be drive through for them or they may stay for a few months.

It works in the country for your own personal duck hot spot, or in town if you just like ducks and have a marshy area.

http://www.kestersnursery.com/Wild%20Rice.htm
 
you needed more currants ryan its not hard to eat currant pie at all if you like rhubard you will like a curant pie:)

Don't get me wrong Larry the problem wasn't the currants themselves, love currants they just didn't bring enough currant to the party when I tried it :D I tried adding straight whole currants to the mulberry pie, its been a while so my numbers here are a bit hand wavy but I think it was something like 1C of currants to around 4-5 of Mulberry. The Mulberry doesn't have a lot of zaaaang! so the mixture wanted more currant - a LOT more currant. If you were lucky and got a mouthful with 4-5 currants in it bazzam it was fantastic but on the whole it was an insipid failure compared to the rhubarb experiment. If I was doing it again I'd probably try closer to 1:1 currants and mulberries but somehow we didn't have enough currants to do that (it was a 10 minute drive from the picking and .. well I was hungry :D).

Jeff: there is always room for pie ;)
 
On the subject of baiting wildlife...

Deer.bmp
 
Top