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Friday, March 13, 2009

Thunder Chickens

The two great things about Spring is that it is time to garden again, and it is time to hunt thunder chickens (turkeys). The only bad thing about turkey hunting is that it does interfere with my weekend gardening. Considering I love turkey hunting as much as I love gardening...I don't mind. I have much longer to garden than I do to turkey hunt.
So I am heading to the camp to see The Hunter and see if we can't find some turkeys.
I am leaving my little baby seeds to grow and nurture themselves. It is supposed to rain all weekend here....so I won't have to worry about watering them.
I am excited to return home Sunday and see what goodies Mother Nature decided to show me in my garden. I hope to return home to an amaryllis in bloom, a few irises forming blooms....and a lot of little green babies poking up in beds!

5 comments:

EB said...

I'm fascinated - can you say more about the turkeys - how plentiful are they, are they wild or reared, how many do you shoot, and do you cook them? I think of turkeys as huge immobile birds, but perhaps the ones you hunt are different - what makes them good sport?

Dirt Princess said...

EB....there are 5 types of wild turkey species in the U.S. - Easterns (which we hunt here,they are in the entire eastern U.S.), Mirriam (Northwest), Osceola (Florida), Rio (West U.S.), and a hybrid type which is a mix of all of the above. The National Turkey Federation estimates 6-7 million turkeys in the U.S. They are WILD...very wild. March 15- April 30 is their mating season. You only hunt the male turkeys (gobblers). You do this by getting in the woods before dawn, you listen for an owl to hoot and usually they will gobble. They do not like crows, or owls (they eat the eggs), so they will gobble at them. Once you locate the gobbler, you yelp as a hen would. The gobbler will then come to find "the hen". It is alot of fun...though it may not sound like it. We do eat them...they taste totally different from store bought turkeys that are farm raised. Most farm raised turkeys are tame, and white (which I never understood). You can only kill 4 or 5 per year, per person. This is very hard to do though since they are hard to get. They are very mobile and can run extremely fast (which is very funny). They are very smart, and have exceptional eyesight. This is what makes them so hard to hunt, because the slightest movement and they will see you. We actually have our hunts on YouTube and you can watch them if you would like. I have also started The Hunter a blog so he can chat about our hunting excursions. I am fascinated that you were interested...lol. Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/user/ezduzitoutdoors

Sorry that was such a LONG response....but turley hunting is so exciting. :)

EB said...

That sounds just surreal! Honestly, it sounds like something my subconscious might come up with in a dream. Thanks for the link, I'll take it up when I'm fortified with more tea ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh I am so jealous of your warm weather! I can't wait to watch the video of you hunting.

Randy said...

Happy Hunting!;-)Hope your flowers are in bloom when you get back!

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