Wild Turkey Attack?

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Can Wild Turkeys fly? Do they eat chickens? Maybe it was after the water.... I dunno but I've been setting up my processing equipment and was just walking back out of my house and heard a racket, I looked over and my dog was all riled up at the end of his cable... and then this HUGE and I mean HUGE bird flew right over my head maybe 10 feet away. It was REAL flying too, not a fly/ jump or anything else. It came from the direction of my baby chicken pen and I went over there and all the babies were hiding under a bush. Everything looks ok, but man was that FREAKY! I didn't know those things could fly! And why was there only ONE of them!?!??! Too bad I had just set my camera down... it looked like this;

(not my pic)

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

It is turkey breeding season with that being said. The weaker toms are pushed out of the flocks to fend for themselves as the more dominant toms Breed to the hens for this years Offspring. Sounds like you had a young hungry Tom who was looking for a chance at survival. They do not eat meat so I doubt he was after the chicks. Perhaps water perhaps feed perhaps the green grass in there pen.

 

[SLWyandotte]

they do fly. not very well but they do fly. usually they will flap until they get about 20 feet of height then glide down. they are just too heavy to fly very far.

 

[bluegoose]

They can fly and no they dont eat chicks they come around my birds all the time looking for hand outs and someone to hang around with jakes get lonesome.

 

[centrarchid]

Wild turkeys can fly well enough to almost vertically fly into canopy of trees and then go horizantally at least 1/4 mile. Interactions I have seen involving wild turkeys and games indicate turkeys are clearly dominant and will occasionally walk up to a chicken to prove who is boss. I have not seen turkeys consume chicken hatchlings but young chicks and adult chickens may perceive such as risk.

 

[Airplaneguy57]

We have the Rio grande sub species down here. They can and do fly very well. They like to visit my BBWs to try and woo them. Spring turkey season is just around the corner.

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Quote:
you are very incorrect we have over 80 eastern wild turkeys on one of the farms there there year round and we have seen them fly over 500 yards down the cliff and completely clear the pond back to the western ledge more then once. Let me see if I got any pics of yesterdays flock. We also sit sometimes and watch them take roost in the bare trees i will be sad when those trees fill in and we have to wait till next year.

 

[EmtheFishLady]

I would have DIED.

 

[crj]

Turkeys here in my area have no problem flying. One morning 4 wild turkeys were hanging out with my trio. They flew off when I came out the door. At first I thought mine were flying away, they are Bronze turkeys, sure enough, mine were just standing in the yard wondering why their friends just took off.

I forgot to mention I had some chickens out too and they didn't seemed bothered by them at all.

 

[DanEP]

A few years back I was sitting in a deer stand when a whole flock of turkeys flew past me over the top of mature oak trees and were really moving, I thought that was really weird till a few minutes later a black bear came out of the woods from the same direction.