Image by jle152
I was hiking in an oak forest in El Sobrante, Calif. when a turkey hen pretty much jumped at me, making lots of noise and circling around me a few feet away — I had to shoo her away with my bag to keep her at bay… I was pretty sure turkeys do not get rabies, but I was beginning to wonder….
Then I noticed that under the oak just ahead of me – with low branches touching the ground were a bunch of very tiny chicks, only noticeable because – against their best interest – they were moving around and chirping a lot….
So, the behavior of the mother was trying to cover that, and her strategy appeared to be as follows:
1) She was making constant noise to cover that of her chicks.
2) If I got close to her oak, she would get straight between me and the oak, raise her wings to look bigger, and act like she was determined to get a piece of me…
3) If I started walking away, she would keep circling around me, then as I got some distance away, she clearly tried to lead me away from her clutch. She did that for 200 yards before finally loosing interest in me.
I took a video of some of that on my Droid, but it did not capture the most aggressive behavior. The camera has a pretty wide angle, so you can tell the bird was darn close. You can see how she sometimes opens/raises her wings to seem bigger, although I did not get the full effect on tape.
Question by joeyhsgirl- due 2/10/10-: Raising partridges and Turkeys together… that Ok?
(Hatched the Turkeys from eggs and the Partridges from 3-4 weeks old.) Doing Ok together but worried about future
Give your answer to this question below!
Okay for now, but unless you have a LOT of room you may want to seperate them. Turkeys are so much larger they will pick on the partridges and may even kill them.
dolly
December 12, 2011 at 9:40 pm
i would just see how it works out every little thing is different. So if they don’t get along just build a small fence or something like that.
Lulu
December 12, 2011 at 10:34 pm
It is fine for now. Just seperate them later on. You will have to give different feeds later on. Hope this helps.
MyFirst
December 12, 2011 at 10:49 pm