All the ime people ask me if turkeys are stupid. They seem to have a reputation as the lightest in common sense of the barnyard animals. I have many times heard stories that they are so stupid they stand with their mouths open as the rain is falling and end up dead from drowning.
We have not had that experience with our turkeys. We take delivery on Thanksgiving turkey polts while the weather is still cold and rainy, and find that the polts need babying at the beginning otherwise they just fall over dead. And last week when it was so hot they needed shade and plenty of water..but then so do we. No evidence there of stupidity.
We are awaiting the next delivery of feed from our supplier, Ross of Quarryville, PA. They are the only feed supplier that we could find locally who offers a GMO free mix..and so sometimes we have to wait. They would prefer to deliver by the truckload and blow into a grain hopper but we are not yet equipped with one of those, so our deliveries still arrive in feed bags. I think the bagging puts us last on the delivery list, it must be a hassle for them!
So the turkeys were fed what every other animal was fed..left over, going stale and moldy bread from Atwaters. The pigs, laying hens, chickens, and even the cows (the cows helped themselves, it was not intentionally fed to them) jumped on that bread. It is stale and hard and requires the animals to work, which they love. With the exception of the turkeys. While I do not think they are stupid they do like a routine. And they are suspicious of anything different in their little worlds. A stick added for a roost will throw them into a tizzy. And bread, added to the pen at the time their grain is usually added (in the morning, right after moving the pen) caused this minor rucus, and consumption took hours rather than the usual 6-10 minutes.
Sorry to upset those silly birds, but I still would not call the stupid.
We have not had that experience with our turkeys. We take delivery on Thanksgiving turkey polts while the weather is still cold and rainy, and find that the polts need babying at the beginning otherwise they just fall over dead. And last week when it was so hot they needed shade and plenty of water..but then so do we. No evidence there of stupidity.
We are awaiting the next delivery of feed from our supplier, Ross of Quarryville, PA. They are the only feed supplier that we could find locally who offers a GMO free mix..and so sometimes we have to wait. They would prefer to deliver by the truckload and blow into a grain hopper but we are not yet equipped with one of those, so our deliveries still arrive in feed bags. I think the bagging puts us last on the delivery list, it must be a hassle for them!
So the turkeys were fed what every other animal was fed..left over, going stale and moldy bread from Atwaters. The pigs, laying hens, chickens, and even the cows (the cows helped themselves, it was not intentionally fed to them) jumped on that bread. It is stale and hard and requires the animals to work, which they love. With the exception of the turkeys. While I do not think they are stupid they do like a routine. And they are suspicious of anything different in their little worlds. A stick added for a roost will throw them into a tizzy. And bread, added to the pen at the time their grain is usually added (in the morning, right after moving the pen) caused this minor rucus, and consumption took hours rather than the usual 6-10 minutes.
Sorry to upset those silly birds, but I still would not call the stupid.
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