Raising Wild Turkeys

Most of you know that we raise Eastern Wild Turkeys. I really enjoy interacting with them, as much as they let me, and raising the poults. Since they are wilds they don't behave as domestic turkeys. For example, we have two toms that are about 4 years old. Both of them, and all of the other adult birds, roost in the trees at night. We allow them to free range but since they are pen raised they do not leave our place. The only problem I have free ranging them is when the turkey hens start laying, twice a year once in the spring and again in the fall, and begin looking for a secure nesting place. To them a secure nesting place is in the woods and out of sight. Their actions produce two problems: 1) I have to find them and bring them and their eggs in to hatch (If you have ever looked for a wild turkey in the woods how many did you find?) 2) Often predators find the nests before I do and we lose the eggs and over the years have lost 3 breeding hens to coyotes. I don't like losing them but I can't bring myself to pen these beautiful birds year round.

Life, uh, finds a way.

In the now classic 1993 movie, Jurassic Park, Scientists from InGen told Dr. Ian Malcolm (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum) that the dinosaurs could not breed since they were genetically modified. Dr. Malcolm skeptically replied "Life, uh, finds a way." We raise several breeds of poultry and some are good layers such as our Phoenix. They are also good brood hens, a little too good, so we take their eggs daily to prevent the hens from becoming broody and hatching too many chicks. The Phoenix have their own pen and nest boxes where they lay many small white eggs. Each day I gather the eggs, often taking them from under an objecting hen. We currently have 12 adult Phoenix hens and 2 adult roosters. One day, about three weeks ago, I noticed I could only account for 11 hens. We free range our birds so it is not unusual for one or two to roost in other locations for a night if it gets dark and they are far from their roost, however, they usually turn up the next day. My search for the missing hen did not find her. A couple of days passed and still I could only account for 11 of the 12. We have had a lot of predators this year, so I began thinking we had lost one of them, probably to the big coyote I have seen around, and now I would only have 11 hens. If you have been raising chickens for a long time you know where this is going. If you are relatively new to the chicken business then you have some surprises in store, and some are heartwarming. Fast forward to a couple of days ago. As I made my morning rounds I found the missing hen out with 3 new baby chicks teaching them to scratch for food. 'Well', I thought, 'now I know what you have been doing but where have you been?' I decided to leave her out and search for her near where I had seen her and her chicks. That evening while closing the coops for the night I found her by sheer accident. As I rounded our hothouse, which is near the Phoenix pen, I heard a baby chick calling for its mom. Outside of the hothouse and under the edge of the plastic sheeting, where the plastic drapes to the ground, the chick, which was still outside, had gotten as close to its mom as it could get. His position and her clucking to call the chick lead me to the mom and the other two chicks. Inside the hothouse next to the wall, under some of the hay, and completely out of sight, was the hen, the other two chicks, and several unhatched eggs. I gathered the hen and chicks up, moved them to a safe pen, and went back for the eggs. Checking the other eggs showed no others would hatch.

We keep the door and window open on the hot house during much of the year because it gets so hot inside, around 140 degrees, where nothing can live. The hen had found a place I never thought to look for her or her eggs. Just inside the door to the left we keep some hay on a pallet that is used for nests. There was just enough space between the hot house wall, the pallet, and the floor that the hen had managed to lay more than a dozen eggs and hatch her 3 chicks. It was a miracle that any of the eggs hatched considering how hot it got in the hothouse. The only thing I could figure was the hay offered some insulation from the worst of the heat and the hen did what she wanted to do despite my interference into her daily routine of laying, hatching, repeat…. All are well and growing now.