The 4 turkey hens and 20 or so chicks that wandered thru the yard this 
summer were oh so cute!  I even put out cracked corn and scratch grain from 
my chickens.  They were a wonderful, cute addition to the yard.

WHAT A  FOOL  I  WAS!

Now I have all of these adult turkeys cruising the yard and they are 
destructive buggers.  I use grass clippings in my garden in between rows to 
keep down the weeds and keep in the moisture.  Turkeys just lover to scratch 
grass clippings, burying small seedlings in the process.   They also went 
down the row of broccoli seedlings snipping off the leaves ... "is this one 
any good ...no? ... well maybe this one ... no? well how about that one." 
You get the idea.

I spend hours mulching around my trees and shrubs with leaves or shredded 
leaves.  Yep, most of it is destroyed and shredded even more.  And turkeys 
like to take dust baths, just like chickens, except their holes are twice as 
big.

Yesterday, I discovered 10 of them ripping up the leaf mulch in the tomato 
patch with the rest of them cruising the blackberry rows scratching up the 
mulch there.  Luckily I had my fierce Welsh Pembroke Corgi with me who got 
all excited when I started running and calling to him "Go get them ... get 
'em ... go chase them."  We are within 10 feet of the stupid turkeys and the 
stupid dog is running around in circles trying to figure out what I want him 
to chase.  Of course the turkeys are 3 times taller than he is, so he is 
probably thinking "you want me to chase these big boys?"  The turkeys are 
just kinda walking a little fast when he finally starts after them.  He had 
a great time and I had the pleasure of turkeys flying directly over my head. 
Almost as neat as having Mute Swans flying 10 feet over my head.

Bottom line ... beware of what you might ask for.

Jim Wilson
Queenstown

ps:  still have one hummer coming to the feeder.
My yard is 5 1/2 acres so the turkeys can roam thru and I can never know it. 

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