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Julie Pascal
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 Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:35 am Post subject: Turkeys |
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In the next few months I will finally be moving to a place
where I can have some poultry for the first time in my
adult life. The zoning will be for "horse property" and we
will get at least 2 acres and more if we can. A few chickens
will be no problem, even a rooster shouldn>t get me in
trouble with the neighbors, but I think I>d also like to get
turkeys because I>ve heard that they will eat ants.
Firstly...do turkeys eat ants? I can deal with poisonous
snakes and black widows and lots of things but the idea of
ant hills really bothers me. Maybe I>m panicing for no reason
and there are not man eating ants in northern New Mexico?
(I>ve heard rumors that fire ants are cuddly compared to the
ants they have in Texas.)
Secondly...are turkeys noisy and going to bother the
neighbors? I>ve been around turkeys and know what
the gobbling sounds like but I>ve never kept turkeys and
I don>t remember how loud they were and don>t know
how continuous the noise is likely to be. If the zoning
specifically allows turkeys it>s no problem. If the zoning
is "you can have pets but not an agricultural production
facility" it is going to depend a lot on the good will of
the neighbors. (I have an e-mail from a realtor concerning
one property...she says, "you can have chickens but not
a farm of them.")
Thirdly...what breed of turkey? I was doing a web
search a bit but the breed descriptions don>t often address
how breeds differ in personality. I found one that said
that Royal Palm are sometimes excitable. I think the
Burbon Red are beautiful. Do the toms get agressive
toward people?
Besides the ant issue I find it appalling that the commercial
turkey varieties can>t even breed! It is a genetic disaster
in the process of happening. So doing my part in the
interest of genetic diversity is part of the appeal.
--Julie |
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Mary Fisher
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 12:17 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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[quote]
Do the toms get agressive
toward people?
[/quote]
Do you call them toms? I>ve not heard anything but stags for the males!
Mary |
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Julie Pascal
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 12:44 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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"Mary Fisher" <mary.fisher@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3f5cd5dd$0$188$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.net...
[quote]
Do the toms get agressive
toward people?
Do you call them toms? I>ve not heard anything but stags for the males!
[/quote]
Really? I hadn>t heard stag before, though that doesn>t say
anything about possible regional differences in the US or
what turkey breeders might call them.
Hens are hens, right? What are turkey babies called?
--Julie |
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Mary Fisher
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 1:13 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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[quote]
Really? I hadn>t heard stag before, though that doesn>t say
anything about possible regional differences in the US or
what turkey breeders might call them.
[/quote]
I>m in England :-)
[quote]
Hens are hens, right?
[/quote]
Not sure.
[quote]What are turkey babies called?
[/quote]
I call them turklets but our daughter, who has them, calls them turkeylets
(sp?).
I suspect that>s her pet name though.
An interesting question.
Mary
[quote]
--Julie
[/quote] |
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Christina Websell
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 2:16 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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Julie Pascal <julie@pascal.org> wrote in message
news:bjimah02d5@enews4.newsguy.com...
[quote]
"Mary Fisher" <mary.fisher@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3f5cd5dd$0$188$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.net...
Do the toms get agressive
toward people?
Do you call them toms? I>ve not heard anything but stags for the males!
Really? I hadn>t heard stag before, though that doesn>t say
anything about possible regional differences in the US or
what turkey breeders might call them.
Hens are hens, right? What are turkey babies called?
--Julie
In the UK (where we call male turkeys stags) baby turkeys are called poults.[/quote]
Also baby pheasants.
Tina |
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John Hines
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 3:17 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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"Julie Pascal" <julie@pascal.org> wrote:
[quote]Hens are hens, right? What are turkey babies called?
[/quote]
poult n.
A young fowl, especially a turkey, chicken, or pheasant. |
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Dale
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:36 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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If you want to get rid of ants, try Guineas. However, the noises they make
are loud, irritating and sometimes go on for hours. I almost assure you the
neighbors will have words to say about Guinea sounds. We only have 10 of
them and the nearest neighbors are 1/2 mile away, but the Guineas are easily
heard at that distance. Also, even with flight feathers asymmetrically
clipped, they are still good flyers and tend to take to the wind.
Turkeys prefer grapes to ants, although they seem to chase moths and beetles
when they see them. After a few months turkeys tend to be rather slow and
complacent; chasing bugs seems to be too much bother. Aside from a few
gobbles when they are mature, turkeys only have a few shirt whistles, chirps
and yelps. Even with our 50 turkeys noise is never much of an issue. They
are kind of messy, though, being large birds, and they eat a lot. It is
kind of hard to see these guys as pets, but they are relatively gentle, and
they are definitely inquisitive. They learn routines well and they will
learn to follow you around like a puppy, especially if they associate you
with treats (like grapes!). A caveat: even a gentle peck from a 40 pound
tom is sometimes more than enough to injure someone, especially a child.
Narragansett turkeys are even tempered, and a somewhat rare heritage breed
that we think is nice. Bourbon Reds are attractive, and even the double
breasted whites are handsome when strutting. However, if one excludes the
wild turkeys which tend to be a bit high strung, we have not seen much of a
difference in the personalities of different breeds. Interestingly, though,
that even when all of the different breeds we have are allowed to be in the
same pasture, they refuse to mix it up and prefer to stay in their own small
flock.
As far as the commercial breeds that can>t breed on their own: the
consumers want that huge slab of white meat on their holiday bird, and that
is the pressure which drives the breeding. Although we do feel bad for the
birds that are raised in battery cages in commercial meat production, there
is something to be said for a bird that reaches 20+ pounds in 4 months. Our
broad breasted bronze birds are as happy as any hand-fed and completely
free-range turkey could be for 5 months, and we have them because this is
the supply for the demand.
"Julie Pascal" <julie@pascal.org> wrote in message
news:bjgivu02ech@enews1.newsguy.com...
[quote]In the next few months I will finally be moving to a place
where I can have some poultry for the first time in my
adult life. The zoning will be for "horse property" and we
will get at least 2 acres and more if we can. A few chickens
will be no problem, even a rooster shouldn>t get me in
trouble with the neighbors, but I think I>d also like to get
turkeys because I>ve heard that they will eat ants.
Firstly...do turkeys eat ants? I can deal with poisonous
snakes and black widows and lots of things but the idea of
ant hills really bothers me. Maybe I>m panicing for no reason
and there are not man eating ants in northern New Mexico?
(I>ve heard rumors that fire ants are cuddly compared to the
ants they have in Texas.)
Secondly...are turkeys noisy and going to bother the
neighbors? I>ve been around turkeys and know what
the gobbling sounds like but I>ve never kept turkeys and
I don>t remember how loud they were and don>t know
how continuous the noise is likely to be. If the zoning
specifically allows turkeys it>s no problem. If the zoning
is "you can have pets but not an agricultural production
facility" it is going to depend a lot on the good will of
the neighbors. (I have an e-mail from a realtor concerning
one property...she says, "you can have chickens but not
a farm of them.")
Thirdly...what breed of turkey? I was doing a web
search a bit but the breed descriptions don>t often address
how breeds differ in personality. I found one that said
that Royal Palm are sometimes excitable. I think the
Burbon Red are beautiful. Do the toms get agressive
toward people?
Besides the ant issue I find it appalling that the commercial
turkey varieties can>t even breed! It is a genetic disaster
in the process of happening. So doing my part in the
interest of genetic diversity is part of the appeal.
--Julie
[/quote] |
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Bob Tarte
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 1:14 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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In article <bjgivu02ech@enews1.newsguy.com>, Julie Pascal
<julie@pascal.org> wrote:
[quote]Secondly...are turkeys noisy and going to bother the
neighbors? I>ve been around turkeys and know what
the gobbling sounds like but I>ve never kept turkeys and
I don>t remember how loud they were and don>t know
how continuous the noise is likely to be.
[/quote]
Hi, Julie,
Dale is lucky to have quiet turkeys!
A few years ago, we had four bronze females. And at times one of them
would launch into quite a loud series of yips, sounding more like a
small, unruly dog than a bird. Once they started yipping (actually, it
was more of an 'oikking'), it would go on for quite a while.
I think this was a flock call and only became an issue when we were
just down to one or two birds. It may be that birds in a group never
make this sound, hence Dale>s remarks about the lack of noise.
We also found that they could peck pretty hard, and I>ve heard that
they can terrorize children. We never had a problem with this. Our gals
might come over and peck my shoe, but they were quite friendly birds.
Then again, they knew we had no intention of eating them.
--
Author of "Enslaved by Ducks"
Coming Fall 2003 from Algonquin Books
Info at http://www.enslavedbyducks.com |
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Mary Fisher
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 2:02 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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[quote]
In the UK (where we call male turkeys stags) baby turkeys are called
poults.
Also baby pheasants.
[/quote]
And pigeons ...
Mary
[quote]
Tina
[/quote] |
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Christina Websell
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:19 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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Mary Fisher <mary.fisher@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3f5e4000$0$188$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.net...
[quote]
In the UK (where we call male turkeys stags) baby turkeys are called
poults.
Also baby pheasants.
And pigeons ...
Mary
Tina
Oh no, Mary. In the nest when they are small and fat and have almost no[/quote]
feathers baby pigeons are called squabs. After they get a bit bigger they
are squeakers.
Never poults.
I kept them for years. Trust me.
Tina |
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Mary Fisher
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:56 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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"Christina Websell" <christina.websell@zoom.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3f5f66ac$0$12650$afc38c87@vipnews...
[quote]
Mary Fisher <mary.fisher@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:3f5e4000$0$188$4c56ba96@master.news.zetnet.net...
In the UK (where we call male turkeys stags) baby turkeys are called
poults.
Also baby pheasants.
And pigeons ...
Mary
Tina
Oh no, Mary. In the nest when they are small and fat and have almost no
feathers baby pigeons are called squabs. After they get a bit bigger they
are squeakers.
[/quote]
Oh yes, of course.
Sorry, I was drunk.
As usual.
[quote]Never poults.
I kept them for years. Trust me.
[/quote]
I do, I do.
Mary
[quote]
Tina
[/quote] |
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Julie Pascal
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2003 3:22 am Post subject: Re: Turkeys |
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"Dale" <dalewspamfilter@lazerlink.com> wrote in message
news:fNc7b.24614$Ad4.9892829@news3.news.adelphia.net...
[quote](about turkeys...) Interestingly, though,
that even when all of the different breeds we have are allowed to be in
the
same pasture, they refuse to mix it up and prefer to stay in their own
small
flock.
[/quote]
We ended up with two separate flocks of chickens even though
they free range together. Our rooster and hen and her 12 babies
made one flock, they had an old outhouse for a coop. The
chicks we ordered in the spring were kept separately until they
outgrew brooders and pens and...since they>d never fit in the
outhouse, we made a separate shed for them. Even when they
were all let out during the day they kept separate. A couple
of the low status pullets from the one flock did move to the other
and even changed coops for the night, but the two flocks were
clearly separate with their own pecking orders.
Has anyone else had chickens or other poultry establish
separate flocks even though they are not physically separated?
--Julie |
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