Turkey Stance before Thanksgiving

[jbseth]

Hi All,

After years of Thanksgivings, the Turkeys have had enough and are making a stance. 


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wild-turkeys-tom-river_n_5dc5fe9fe4b02bf5793ff4d4?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5iaW5nLmNvbS9zZWFyY2g_cT1XaWxkK3R1cmtleXMrTmV3K0plcnNleSZmaWx0ZXJzPXRuVElEJTNhJTIyMDQ1MkM2RUEtQ0VFRS00ZmUxLUFDRTQtQjIwODRCNjc1RjMyJTIyK3RuVmVyc2lvbiUzYSUyMjMyNTgwMTQlMjIrc2VnbWVudCUzYSUyMnBvcHVsYXJub3cuY2Fyb3VzZWwlMjIrdG5Db2wlM2ElMjIyOSUyMit0bk9yZGVyJTNhJTIyM2M3YmZmMzUtOTA3NC00ODU4LTk4ZjUtMmUwODZmYTIzMzVmJTIyJkZPUk09QlNQTjAxJmNyc2xzbD00MDUwJmVmaXJzdD0yNg&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAC5aBbEeNqtrsu9v1hRiNrrK1nzlQ6ibJ0vXPOgNERBuHN19eT8PfCKFPmDqXSYWqZUHX0HpuvwXzEijbxbCZ6NcNyhcsedOFAzn5N8BXTfcLllR0SLrOWqrer4E0o93gHBCNFIqkgi2LKTwlUlhXzZWOh6st8jL1qkW_GiHIdBQ

- jbseth

[Deb]

Stop it with the synchronicities, my head is spinning!

Tom's River also made national news today: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/10/us/porsche-crash-toms-river-trnd/index.html

My aunt and uncle lived in Toms River in their retirement years, just 20 minutes away from where the turkeys are invading. I have a cousin that still lives in that house.

Good for the turkeys! I hope they get moved to some turkey paradise in the Pine Barrens or something.

[T.M.]

Hi All,

In the spirit of comedy I offer WKRP The Great Turkey Drop. 

[jbseth]

Hi T.M.,

That's priceless.  "As God is my witness, I thought Turkey's could fly."

Many years ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I can remember watching "WKRP, in Cincinnati," each week as it aired on TV. It was always one of my favorites. 

Thanks for reminding us of a great episode.

-jbseth

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Hi Jbseth,  I loved WKRP.    I loved that line too!

[Deb]

OMG I loved that show. And yet one more "coincidence."  "Oh, the humanity!" Yikes, when I was replying to this post earlier, I associated Toms River with the Hindenberg Disaster, thinking it went down in Toms River. But I was wrong.

It was actually Lakehurst—8 miles away. So I left it out of my post. My mother told me about it often. It seems she may have seen it happen, or maybe just was relaying the news of the event. Hard to say, my mother died in 1985 and I don't have any relatives I can ask.

Thanks for the reminder of the TV show, there were a lot of great shows back then. This is one I'd forgotten.

[jbseth]

Hi All,

I was just watching that WKRP clip again. It is sooo funny.

Correct me if I'm wrong here but somewhere right around 2:48 into the clip, it sounds like Les Nessman says something like, "Oh, the Hindenburg Tragedy was never anything like this".

Am I hearing that correctly? Does he mention the "Hindenburg"?

This would totally make sense to me, from what I recall of his character. 

- jbseth

[Deb]

Am I hearing that correctly? Does he mention the "Hindenburg"?

OMG I didn't catch that the first time. He says something "Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this." He'd never live that down today.

I always had a visual from my mother's description of what happened of people jumping out of the Hindenberg when it caught fire. So the turkeys being pushed out the back of the helicopter would be reminiscent of that.

[T.M.]

Hi All,

It was based on the Hindenburg. I watched the clip to see if I could hear the reference, cause I didn't catch that,  then my yt auto played another clip, that explained the Hindenburg reference. Here is the vid, the true story behind this episode

[jbseth]

Hi All,

Well, I guess that wide turkeys can actually fly (see attached video). 

However, I’m not sure how will they’d do, if dropped from a helicopter at 2,000 feet.  Along with this, I don't think that this necessarily mean that a domestic turkey (think butterball) can fly.




-jbseth

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Right On!!     Thanks Jbseth

[jbseth]

Hi All,

Well, along with this, I guess that wide turkeys can also fly right into a window (see video below). 

Can you imagine that?

https://www.inverse.com/article/38476-can-turkeys-fly-thanksgiving


-jbseth

[T.M.]

It was flying pretty good till the window 

[Deb]

Loved the video explaining the WKRP episode!

Now in steps the Crazy Chicken Lady. I have backyard chickens. They can get about 3-4 feet off the ground for a very short distance. That's it. I have a friend that has an animal rescue. She's rescued a few turkeys and they cannot fly. Neither do her chickens. As the inverse link explained, turkeys and meat chickens have been bred to have extra large breasts and very meaty, and in the process have lost their ability to fly (as opposed to the wild versions). They are actually only meant to live 6 months. Then, because of their abnormally large body mass, their hearts give out or their legs break under the weight of their bodies. Nice, huh? I bet Seth would have something to say about that.

On the other hand, I have a friend on the East coast that has a farm. A hawk grabbed one of her chickens and then dropped it out of the sky. The chicken was able to flap enough to at least break it's fall and landed relatively unharmed.

As a final note, a couple of weeks ago someone from the Philippines visited my house, saw my chickens and my 6' privacy fence, and kept asking me why my chickens didn't fly over the fence. He has, among other things, a chicken "ranch" and didn't understand why my chickens were still in the yard. I thought that was odd, he should know better. But maybe his chickens can fly.

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Hi Deb,

I had a couple of flocks of chickens long ago. They free ranged. I started with 12, lost 6 in both flocks that way. The remaining 6 were very smart and aware of their surroundings though. I remember some of them doing short flights.
Maybe it's also in what they are fed. Mine didn't get a lot of feed, they found lots of bugs to eat, and I always gave them a good amount of table scraps too.  Mine could fly over the horse corral I had pretty easily.  Might depend on the breed too. I stuck to Road Island Reds, a dual bird, good for either meat or just eggs. I never could bring myself to using them for dinner. They just became pets, with really tasty eggs. There's nothing like a fresh egg from a bird with a good diet!

[jbseth]

Hi All,

I was going to say, these chickens definitely appear to be capable of flying.

They don't look like they're really big chickens though. And that may have something to do with it.






- jbseth

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Hi Jbseth,  Reminds me of my chickens! In that I always locked them up at night, and they knew when dinner was and we're always at the coop at that time.   

[Deb]

Amazing video! But out of the US...

I had my first flock of 4 (covenant limits) 8 years ago. I've only had layers. I've had a variety of breeds, raised from day old chicks. With my first flock, I dealt with two daytime coyote attacks 8 years apart, threats (and death) by a either hawks, owls, foxes, raccoons, rats, neighborhood dogs, cats and kids where the neighbors thought it was ok to let their pets and kids into my fenced yard. I live in the most suburban of suburbs, but I also live in Colorado. My last chicken from my first flock was carried off by a coyote in April. I was devastated.

After my first experience with chickens I completely tore apart the chicken run, rebuilt it to Fort Knox safety standards, and bought a new coop. New rules are free-ranging only when I can supervise, which is only a few hours a day. The girls get to forage and I turn over my garden so they can have access to worms and other stuff. They see me pick up the shovel and come running. They get a gourmet blue plate special at the end of the day consisting of dinner scraps, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried bugs, plus their regular Purina "free range" pellets. Dinner is their favorite part of the day.

So maybe they can fly over my 6' fence, but choose not to. I can say when I walk outside, everyone squats. T.M. you know what that means. So maybe that's why I don't know that chickens can fly.

I love my girls. I recently bought a book, "How to Speak Chicken," and it has a lot of information about how amazing chickens are, superior to humans in many ways. I'm not surprised.

[T.M.]

Hi All,

Hi Deb, chickens are fun and smart!!  When I had mine I was in the desert. Neighbors were a good distance apart. My German Shepherd was outside a lot of the time, and I had a couple of horses, so coyotes and other dogs weren't much of a problem during the day. Night time was a different story, and I made sure they were locked up.
I think most of what got mine were hawks and owls. The remaining ones would stay under scrub bushes during the day. They could hide pretty good!

The neighbor next to me was cool. He had chickens, and Guinness, I think they are called. Big birds. They would come over and visit    he had dogs that would chase off other dogs too. Another neighbor had a few Emus.
It sucked to lose the ones I did, I couldn't really afford to get them a run. Plus with the sun and heat, it just wasn't really feasible, it's hard to build an enclosure, cause then you have to find a way to cool it, during summer

Someday I hope to get a couple girls again!!