Turkeys! Once again...

[webbie]

Well, they sure are fattening themselves up this year....this crew was hanging around as I backed out the driveway this morning.

 

[Delta-T]

i like turkeys...they are so...ugly. what an amazing animal to be so ugly and so tasty, and ugly.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

Holy Crap....some fine lookin specimens there...I work in town next to the river and a "woodsy" area...some of which used to "coal banks" until they cleared most of it a few years ago....I saw one the other day in the parking lot....funniest thing to see there but I think it lives in the small area of woods next door to the office building...every year at about this time I see a few walking around the lot and have also seen some deer...strange to see that in town.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

We're having a major population boom of them here I think- my neighborhood is filthy with them. Lots of cute poults in the neighbor's field yesterday

 

[loon]

just up the highway from us :lol:


http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/22/wild-turkeys-attacking-vehicles-in-ont-city

 

[Captain Hornet]

We have lots of them around here. I have seen flocks where there would be 40 birds at once. That was in the early spring and now we see single birds or just three or so at once. We usually see them at least every other day. I am a hunter but we don't hunt them because they are neat and they do eat a ton of bugs. I have never tasted one and wanted to do so . I understand they are super tasty and all dark meat. David

 

[Backwoods Savage]

David, I don't like turkey meat but have never tried a wild turkey. Folks tell me the drumsticks are no good at all as they are too tough. Most around here deep fry their turkeys. As for the birds themselves, I hate those things! The reason is that when we plant, the turkeys will scratch up so many seeds it will ruin most plantings. There are only two things we've found to deter that. If we can time it right to plant just ahead of rain they do not like to scratch in the wet dirt. Other than that, just continually scaring them away is about the only thing outside of hunting but hunting takes so few that it is barely worth mentioning. Besides, they only shoot the toms and not the hens.

I should have saved a video I got on a game camera but didn't. It was only a week ago and the hen had a bunch of little ones trailing her. Looked to be maybe a week out of the nest. I believe this is probably the same hen I scared out of a nest one day when I was going through on the atv. I did not see her until I almost ran over her. Guess she turned out okay.....darn it.

 

[webbie]

The Foxes around here make sure there are never too many of them. We occasionally find a foot or a bone laying around....this year I have only seen 1 most of the time, but last week there were about 7 of them - real healthy looking too! I'm sure whatever feasts on them later in the year will be pleased.

 

[begreen]

That's pretty cool to see. No turkeys out here unless you count politicians.

 

[Elderthewelder]

That's pretty cool to see. No turkeys out here unless you count politicians.

you just need to go over the pass into eastern Wa for wild turkey's. very abundant up around the Spokane area

 

[mbcijim]

On my brother-in-laws 800 acre mountain hideaway in eastern Pennsylvania we have about 10 acres of food plot, mostly in clover.
We planted it for the deer, but I think it was better for the turkeys. To go up there and not see turkeys, is nearly impossible. They love the food plots and are in them all the time. It's a turkey hunting mecca. They usually flock up by the end of summer and stay flocked up till April-May, at which point the females break up to have their individual nests.

They taste very, very good. We've made them at the same time as commercial turkeys and can not taste a difference. They are just usually smaller and darker. But I'll eat them all day.

Keep in mind their are 5 different turkey species in the U.S, we have the Eastern Turkey here. The others are Osceola, Rio Grande, Merriam, and Gould's.

 

[lukem]

David, I don't like turkey meat but have never tried a wild turkey. Folks tell me the drumsticks are no good at all as they are too tough.

Those folks are right. You can drive nails with the drumsticks. We usually just fillet off the breasts and the rest gets tossed. I'm usually not the type to waste, but the rest of the bird is no good IMO. We use 100% of the deer...even the bones get saved for dog treats...but for turkeys the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

 

[Captain Hornet]

I usually cook a store turkey on the outdoor smoker, several times a year. We use applewood and after a four hour smoke the meat is juicy and tender with that old time BBQ wood flavor. I don't see how it could be better. But I would still like to try a wild turkey. I bet that would be the all time best ever. David

 

[Backwoods Savage]

David, I don't like turkey meat but have never tried a wild turkey. Folks tell me the drumsticks are no good at all as they are too tough.

Those folks are right. You can drive nails with the drumsticks. We usually just fillet off the breasts and the rest gets tossed. I'm usually not the type to waste, but the rest of the bird is no good IMO. We use 100% of the deer...even the bones get saved for dog treats...but for turkeys the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

So do you also save the fat and hang it out for the birds? What do you do with the hide? It really is a shame that so much good leather gets thrown out every year but it does. I remember one year in particular when I started gathering hides. I was working in a shop at the time and let it be known I'd gladly take all deer hides. So I salted them down and sent them off to a company who tanned. Had them make everything into gloves; ladie's and men's but more ladies. When I got them back I sold all of them within about 2 weeks time. That was when I was young and freshly married so we needed some dollars and we made out like bandits on this. Maybe I'll have to try that again as it has been a long time since we did it.

 

[lukem]

David, I don't like turkey meat but have never tried a wild turkey. Folks tell me the drumsticks are no good at all as they are too tough.

Those folks are right. You can drive nails with the drumsticks. We usually just fillet off the breasts and the rest gets tossed. I'm usually not the type to waste, but the rest of the bird is no good IMO. We use 100% of the deer...even the bones get saved for dog treats...but for turkeys the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

So do you also save the fat and hang it out for the birds? What do you do with the hide? It really is a shame that so much good leather gets thrown out every year but it does. I remember one year in particular when I started gathering hides. I was working in a shop at the time and let it be known I'd gladly take all deer hides. So I salted them down and sent them off to a company who tanned. Had them make everything into gloves; ladie's and men's but more ladies. When I got them back I sold all of them within about 2 weeks time. That was when I was young and freshly married so we needed some dollars and we made out like bandits on this. Maybe I'll have to try that again as it has been a long time since we did it.

We end up grinding up a lot of the deer into hamburger. It makes EXCELLENT chili soup. The deer around here are pretty lean so there's not a lot of extra fat, and what little they have gets ground up. Friend of the family does a lot of interesting things with hides, so they definitely don't go to waste. Here's his website:

http://www.oldgoattrading.com/

He mostly does large game (moose, elk, buffalo) but does some stuff with deer too.

 

[blowell]

We saw an adult bird with a bunch of little ones yesterday - one of the little ones took flight as we drove by - didn't know they could fly - looked like a grouse!