Thanks to Rachel I now know I have Bronze Breasted Turkeys, now my question is, when do they quit crying for mother? I have had them for a couple of weeks, they will be fine for awhile then seem to think they are alone and start beeping, really loud! I only have 2, can't imagine the racket more would make. Will they outgrow this? when? It really bothers my husband, he will call out to them to be quiet, they listen then start up again. Any suggestions? Thank you all, I love this site.

-- tina shrout (clia88@newmexico.com), June 27, 2000

Answers

Mine are really quiet. They must really like your husband! They want him to talk to them! (kidding) I call my turkeys to come eat sometimes, awwk-- awwk-- uk-uk-uk. They come. Can you move them farther from the house? A big armload of green grass will keep them busy for quite a while if they are penned up.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), June 27, 2000.

I don't know if this applies to baby turkeys, but if baby chicks that age were being noisy, I would check to see if they were cold or if something else was wrong. We use the noise level as a rough temperature gauge; too much cheeping means they are cold -- though I can't imagine why they would be cold at this time of the year! LOL!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), June 27, 2000.

Thank you Rachel and Kathleen. I guess my turkeys are just spoiled. During the day I have been keeping them in my flower bed. (I had enclosed it with chicken wire to keep the chickens out then when I got the turkeys it made such a good pen, it has shade and lots of green stuff.) So they certainly should have been happy. When I would go in the house they would cry. So I put a chair by the chickenwire with one of my old shirts over the back. That kept them quiet. I just wondered how long this will go on. Maybe it's my fault, I might be over mothering them.

-- Tina Shrout (clia88@newmexico.com), June 27, 2000.

I can talk turkey with my pair a little bit. However, I have a guy who comes to work three days a week (when he shows up anyway). You should see him and the tom and hen talking to each other. It's like they are carrying on a converstation on neighborhood gossip or something. Turkeys can get to where they flat out like people and want to talk to them. Mine come when I call them by name (Thomas and Henretta).

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 27, 2000.