Ever wondered how greenhouse plastic gets tattered?

They bob and weave, back and forth, gobbling and shooting arrows at each other with their eyes.

The tom inside the greenhouse is a bourbon red, the one outside is a blue slate. They're in full regalia here -- see the snood of the blue slate Tom? It's erectile tissue, and they extend it to make them seem even fiercer and more turkey-like. It's funny because they all do it, and it just changes their look, and you'd think that the other turkeys would figure it out, but that's a Toms life.

Turkeys are pretty silly.

The turkey easter-egg hunt

This has been a really cold, snowy winter. The turkeys don't really take cover from this sort of weather. They just sit there and get covered with snow. It seems to be ok -- I don't lose any. I think that it's mostly because they've got all the food that they can eat, and good feathers, but I have to wonder sometimes. They've got plenty of places they can go and get out of the snow; under trailers or buildings or vehicles, but they'd rather stand around in big groups and gobble at each other.

While I was throwing bales of hay to the cows and sheep, I noticed this bourbon red hen walking down the driveway. I noted that, and finished throwing the hay. Then I collected the eggs from the chickens, and put them into the truck. All of the eggs that are laid on the farm are fertile, and we incubate the ones we don't eat.

So I get a little mystery. I followed her tracks down the driveway, into some long grass.

And there her egg is, still warm from being laid. I waited a while to allow her to lay her egg before I tracked her down. Now that I know where her nest is I'll put a couple of golf balls into it, and collect the turkey eggs as she lays them. If you take all the eggs out and leave nothing she'll notice and pick another nesting spot.

While I'm out here, I notice another turkey track. So I follow this one to a bunch of grass not too far from the first one.


And find another perfect turkey egg. I guess it's time to pen them for the laying season, can't depend on snow every day.

Turkey question from email

Tom asks in email "do your tom turkeys fight with each other? I only have two and they fight and I'm afraid that I'll lose one of them"

The picture is of a bunch of my tom turkeys out foraging. They get along pretty well, but that's mostly because they come from the same flock and know each other. When I've purchased birds from other farmers as amazing as it seems, the entire turkey flock recognizes the new turkey as foreign, alien, and the new turkey can have a very rough time of it.

The bourbon red tom (at the left in the picture) is a bird that I purchased from a breeder up in Stanwood. He's a really handsome tom. To introduce him to the flock I put him in a carrier out where the flock hangs out during the day. The rest of the turkeys spent the day trying to beat him up (and he responded by trying to beat them up) but all of that energy was spent on the pet carrier, so no one got hurt. When I opened the pen the next day I spread a couple of buckets of their favorite feed so they'd have something else to focus on, and then watched carefully for the next couple of hours. The new turkey has to establish its position in the flock, and does that by challenging the other turkeys. They are very clear who the top turkey is, and what rank each bird holds in the list.

if your turkeys are new to one another, this could be the normal pecking order being established. Make sure that there is a place a bird can retreat to when it loses -- the loser bird needs to get out of sight of the winning bird. A small turkey pen won't allow that, and the winning bird may kill the losing bird. If the loser can run away the attack will stop.

Now and then I'll get a bird who is very aggressive about his hens. The only solution I've found during mating season (Feb-June) is to pen them separately.

Penning birds means that, when you do put them back together, the birds will again establish the pecking order and there will be some wrestling related to that. both hens and toms have a pecking order, and some of the hens will be above the lower ranked toms.


These toms are interested in food right now, but later in the day they'll go someplace and spend the rest of the day displaying for each other. Practicing for the hens.

Heritage Turkey behavior

The breeding flock of turkeys that I keep are allowed to free range this time of year. They forage for stuff they like to eat, and seem to have better survival rates this way. At this age they're pretty tough birds; I do lose the occasional turkey to a coyote, but not often. One of the main reasons that I don't is that the turkeys like to roost high.

Turkeys would rather walk

The turkeys in this picture are climbing a ladder up to the roof of a farm building (that I'm STILL waiting for Snohomish county to approve the permit for; 90 days and counting...). They'd much rather hop and flap up the ladder than just fly up -- which they can do pretty well. Given a choice, they'd rather run or walk than fly. When they do fly, they only do a few hundred feet at most It's almost like there's a no-fly zone over my farm. They do fly from time to time, but usually with a running start. They'll start running in a direction, take about 20 steps, flap and glide 200 feet, and then land running. Total elevation during this is maybe 3 feet. But when pressed they can and do fly. They fly up to their preferred roost on the posts of the half-finished barns.

Turkey behavior

The turkeys are pretty firmly segregated into two flocks at this time of year. One flock is male, the other female. Both flocks are sorting out the pecking order -- male turkeys are jockeying for position in their flock, and so are females. The male goal is to be able to command a good piece of real-estate on demand, hopefully in view of the hens. The hens goal is to be able to eat first. Some of the turkeys are showing signs of wear-and-tear in their feathers. Usually those turkeys made their bid for supremacy a little early and will usually not end up the dominant bird even if they are now. The ones that are hanging back a little will be fresh and rested when their time comes. So it'll be one of those turkeys that makes the final jump to King or Queen of the flock.

Egg laying and turkey timing

The turkeys are producing a small quantity of eggs now, but I'm not hatching them. It's too tough to keep turkey poults alive right now outside. Plus you don't really want to feed too many full-sized turkeys at the end of the year. The goal is to have most of the thanksgiving turkeys hatch in March/April, and most of the Christmas turkeys hatch in May/June. The replacements for the breeding flock can hatch in July/August, and the cycle will begin again.

A turkey hen averages an egg every other day for 4 months.

Kill your own thanksgiving turkey

Knox Gardner wrote up a pretty darned good summary of the kill your own thanksgiving turkey class I held in November, 2008. If you're interested in our turkey processing, the entire process is documented by Knox here . And yes, for Andrea fans, there's pictures of Andrea.

Thanks for the writeup!