It’s been a long time since we’ve posted a Fowl Friday post, and I can’t believe it’s been more than a year since I last posted anything about the turkeys! They’ve become such a fixture on the farm, I suppose we’ve rather taken them for granted in recent months.
Last time you saw the turkeys, Jenny’s poults were only 6 weeks old.
“Remember us?!?” Standard heritage bronze poults at six weeks old (click any image to enlarge)
We sold a few of Jenny’s poults, but we still have some of her offspring from last year, including our replacement Tom, a heritage standard bronze, Jake Jr.
What a difference a year makes!
Isn’t he handsome?
“I think I’m better looking than those goats you keep gushing over”
He’s recently finished molting for the season, and his new suit of feathers is quite striking!
Most of his tail feathers have finished growing out since his molt
Jake Jr., otherwise known just as J.J., actually grew to be quite a bit larger than his father, Jake, which surprised all of us…not the least, Jake!
J.J.’s chest feathers are a stunning iridescent bronze
In fact, J.J. got to be to so large by this spring that he decided to take Jake on, and after some fairly nasty fighting between them one morning, we decided our Toms needed, for their own good, to be separated.
Some of his feathers are almost copper-colored
As such, J.J. now has a flock of his own hens, separate from Jake, and they’re left to roam the farm at will. We secure them at night, to keep them safe from predators, but during the day, they go wherever they please, which usually isn’t further than the back deck.
J.J. and his favorite hen, Jennette, on a morning stroll across the deck
Our high prey-drive dog is learning to sit and watch them patiently, although she still occasionally throws her self at the glass door
At first, especially with our predator problems here, it seemed potentially risky to have them running loose, but the alternative was to either sell J.J., or cull him. I really wanted to keep him though, so I was motivated to find a way to make this work.
Not only is J.J. good looking, he’s also much better natured than his father, Jake. Jake has more of a mean streak, and tends to charge at people. J.J., though, is much more mellow, and actually quite happy to see people.
“At least I don’t attack you when you walk through the yard”
So far, being a rather formidable bird size-wise, J.J. seems to do just fine roaming loose. Not only is he great at alerting the turkey hens when trouble might be near, and getting everyone to safety, but it turns out he’s also very good at deterring deer.
If you follow us on Facebook, you may have already seen this video that I shot last month when a large buck decided to hang out in the back near the turkey pen.
Usually with the does, and fawns, J.J. just immediately runs them off. The buck was much larger though, so it was interesting to watch as J.J. sized up the competition before chasing the buck out of the yard.
As J.J. has turned out to be so effective at keeping the wild creatures out of the yard, we’ve also recently been occasionally ranging the turkeys with the chickens, and they all seem to get along quite well. As you may recall, the last time we ranged the chickens unsupervised, we lost a hen to a bobcat.
“No need to worry, I’ll protect the hens”
So far though, he seems quite effective at keeping the predators at bay.
One of the consequences of having this free-ranging automatic deer-chaser in the yard, is that for the first time since moving here, our native gooseberry bushes (Ribes californicum) have actually succeeded in ripening fruit this year.
Ripe fruits of our native Hillside Gooseberry (Ribes californicum)
Usually the deer strip the bushes long before the fruit matures, but with J.J. on guard, the deer haven’t touched them!
“It’s about time we got some credit for the work we do around here”
We’ve been scratching our heads for some time as to how to fence the deer out of this part of the yard due to the steepness of the slopes.
“You don’t need a fence, I’ll keep those pesky deer out of the yard”
It turns out we didn’t need more deer fence after all, just a gobbler to guard the garden!
That is one bad-ass bird, and what a handsome buck who seemed most comfortable munching in your garden. Our deer tend to be night owls and wait for me to go to sleep before ringing the dinner bell for comrades in arms and antlers.
J.J. definitely thinks he’s pretty bad-ass 😉 That buck couldn’t care less that I was standing within 15 feet, and the deer seem to be in our gardens 24/7!
You got some terrific photos of these guys. Gorgeous feather colors! I loved the video and shared it, too! Your dog is showing loads of self-control….he knows they belong there now.
I had to laugh, my dog, and self-control, are rarely used in the same sentence! 😛 She’s still a liability around poultry, but she’s learning…slooooowly!
Until I went to our local show recently I’d never seen a turkey up close (apart from Christmas dinner which is slightly different!). I didn’t realise how big male turkeys get. JJ is a beauty, his bronze feathers are gorgeous!
The Toms can get HUGE! J.J. is just over a year old, and already big. I can’t imagine how big he’ll be by next year! Look out deer! 😀
Eye of the beholder of course, but I do love those breast feathers!
I agree, turkeys have a…unique…yes that’s the word, a unique beauty 😉
JJ is a handsome fellow and bonus that he has such a great personality! It was nice to see the macro photos of the feathers. The beauty of this bird is often overlooked!
I love how the light catches his feathers. He looks so glossy right now too, as all his feathers are new. The turkeys tend to get a bit dull and sun-bleached by midsummer, but they look great by mid-fall.
He’s such a handsome boy! BTW, Tom’s drooling over that buck.
LOL, when first I watched the video back I realized that a hunter, sitting my back yard, would struggle with deciding which to aim at first. The dopey slow-moving buck, or the turkey bigger than my oven! 😛
What a great guard dog – I mean turkey – you have there! And I loved that he has little morning walks with his favorite girl! What a sweet and protective man you have there! I hope he doesn’t realize Thanksgiving is right around the corner!
J.J. will be ok, he’s farm furniture now. All he knows about Thanksgiving is the pumpkins, and winter squash he gets to eat as a treat. Really though, who knew that turkeys could stand in for livestock guardians 😉 That said, we haven’t had many coyotes around recently, so there is some risk having him out loose, but so far he’s holding his own.
Well, that’s impressive for sure! I like how he makes himself look big, and the noise is quite a deterrent as well I’m sure. Good luck, hope it works out for JJ.
When he puffs himself up he almost doubles in size. I’m grateful, with as big as he’s grown, that he has such a good disposition with people though 😉
What an awesome turkey! I love how seriously he protects his flock. 🙂
I’m surprised at how ‘possessive’ he is of the area behind the house. He’s certainly raised a few eyebrows when we’ve had contractors working around the house recently 😉
That is SO cool. I love it! =) Great solution. And kind of a cool ecological story, too.
I’ve seen our wild turkeys chase off deer. They don’t seem to take kindly to anyone sniffing in their general direction, so when the deer got too curious, the turkey flapped dramatically (can a giant turkey flap any other way) and the deer took off.
We have wild turkeys around, but we only occasionally see them here. I’ve never seen wild turkeys chase off deer. It is interesting that they’re not always willing to share their space with them, especially as the deer aren’t really a threat. Foraging competition maybe, but they’re not predators.
Clare I was so thrilled to see a turkey post…JJ is gorgeous..what a handsome fellow. And a great guard….how lucky!
He is gorgeous, for a turkey that is 😉 He’s almost as good at keeping an out as our dogs!
J.J is an amazing bird! Smart, handsome, and protective. He is making a strong case that he is more valuable as a watch turkey than as a Thanksgiving feast!
He’s too important for keeping the rest of the flock together, and out of trouble, to find himself on the table. I have to admit, the longer I have turkeys, the more I like them, and in some respects I think they’re easier than chickens. They seem to get along with each other better than the hens do. On the egg-laying front though, they can’t compete. But as a deer-deterrent, they excel! 😉
Wow – he is amazing! What a difference a year makes! We don’t have turkeys like that here in South Africa.
He really has turned into quite an impressive bird, hasn’t he? As turkeys are native to the Americas, I suppose that makes sense, unless you have breeders there that raise them specifically. You do have some fabulous wildlife that we don’t have though!
How does JJ do with squirrels?
He seems less bothered by the squirrels, unless they’re right on the ground in the yard, then he’ll chase them off. Otherwise he mostly ignores them. He will occasionally chase off a bird too, like our local Steller’s Jays, if they’re making a nuisance of themselves. He doesn’t really like to share his space much 😉
The composition of that first shot in the video is just too, too perfect. Love it!
I agree, J.J.’s timing for ducking into that opening shot was perfect. He’s such a ham 😉
Clare, I’m so happy to see a Fowl Friday post. I think one of the last times you posted, you had suffered a predator attack on the turkey poults and were reconsidering whether you should continue to keep turkeys. I thought you had decided not to — and am delighted to find out that wasn’t the case. JJ is both handsome and earning his keep!
You remember right, Jean. We lost three poults as a result of that attack (which we suspect was a raccoon). This year we’ve had trouble with skunks tunneling into the turkey pen to steal eggs. We decided to keep a number of Jenny’s poults from last year, so this year we didn’t need any extras 😉 We’re now trying to decide if we should move the turkeys altogether, as we’d really like that area for a small buck pen, but we’ll have to see what we come up with. Clearly, with our deer problem, we need to keep at least a few turkeys on the farm!