As you can see, I have on my finest Carhart coveralls. Only the finest when hunting turkeys.....or working in the yard.
The above photo is a bit out of focus, but I can't be responsible for catching the turkey, holding the turkey and taking the photo too! I am good, but admittedly not that good.
This bird was a bit less than happy to be caught. I am sure that the tipping to get him to fan his tail did not make him much happier either.
Do you want to know my secret? OK, so you dig a hole and build a big fire in it. Then you open a can of peas and carefully stack them around the hole. Wait, no that's not it. Like the last bird, I used the free chicken food angle. The toms in our area get fairly bold at certain times of the year. This guy had been hanging around the yard for a few weeks, looking for a hand out. Well, I walked out my back door to work in the yard on the morning of my birthday, and there he was. He stayed a respectable distance away from me (behind the screen house of the chicken coop, but waited to see if there was any food around. I walked to my garage, and got a scoop full of scratch grains for the chickens and came back out. When I sprinkled some food on the ground, he came running around, and at that point I figured I could catch this bird. He would not take food from my hand, but came to within 6-7 feet from me.
So, with a hungry turkey at hand, I laid my plot and put it in motion. I sprinkled a small amount of food in from of the gate to the chicken run (screen house). Then I opened the gate to let my chickens out and dumped the rest of the grain just inside the screen house. Well my chickens piled out and I backed off and watched. Turns out that my rooster, at less than half the size of a wild Tom, does not take any crap from a turkey. The Tom got right in amongst the hens to eat the grain. But, when he got to close to my rooster, Fred, he was met with a flared hackle and flying spurs, which backed him down quick. It gave me a new found respect for Fred.
Well, I got tired of waiting and could just feel the daylight burning, so I went to work. Periodically I would check back and see what was up. Sure enough, after a bit the hens moved on, but the Tom kept working the free handout. After a while, all the outside grain was gone, so he followed the pile and stepped inside the screen house. I checked on the situation, and seeing him inside the screen house, I rushed him and shut the gate! I had him......but still had to go in and get him. Turns out the "flight" response totally dominates in these situations, or at least it has in 2 out of the 2 turkeys I have caught. I was expecting maybe a challenge by some flying turkey spurs, but really I had to grab him before he flung himself against the chicken wire too many times and hurt himself. After a flurry of flying feathers, I grabbed him, pinned his wings down and brought him out for inspection. After looking him over, showing him to the kids and posing for a photo op, I let him go. He gladly ran off, unhappy with the whole affair.
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