Be Careful What You Wish for….
Living in the woods in northern Idaho; we always enjoyed wildlife, especially me with a career in wildlife art. We learned that wild turkeys were prevalent in the area, but we rarely saw one. Then one fine morning it happened.
Starting with a meek little tap-tap-tapping on our bedroom glass door; we awoke to see a handsome young male turkey standing on our deck. Needless to say, we were thrilled!
Finally we had attracted a real wild turkey. Immediately we began spreading corn around our yard in an effort to attract more of these amazing creatures; after a few more came; we thought “why don’t we raise some of our very own?”
The next step: Research. Finding a source for the chicks was fairly easy; they would ship them to us when they became available. However, when I called the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, they were NOT encouraging, and came close to forbidding me to raise turkeys, even though the species I intended to raise was native to the area.
Raising turkeys was almost identical to raising chickens; we’d seen it done many times. All you really needed was a light bulb to keep them warm, some feed and a watering dish; very easy; a slam dunk.
Just before we ordered the chicks, our lives changed in two ways. More turkeys began to enjoy our hospitality; I guess he told his buddies; the group began to grow to maybe 6 or 8 birds. But the Kill-the-Turkey-Raising-Project decision was made by our other plans; namely, we decided to sell our home.
Somehow we didn’t think that any prospective buyer would be attracted by the smell and mess of 24 young turkeys in our garage. So we, somewhat sadly, squashed the Turkey Project.
But the native birds didn’t get the word! They kept coming and coming and coming, until we had a big flock of birds (almost 30) attempting to interact with us from dawn to dusk.
It became a real chore. We awoke to a deck full of turkeys Banging on our bedroom glass door almost every AM. If we fed them, more would arrive. If we didn’t they seemed to bother us even more.
But what would have happened if we had decided to raise them? We would have been imprinted on them as a parent figure; they would not have left us alone for one minute! Sooooooooooooo glad we made the right decision.
How did we solve the problem? Idaho Fish and Game to the rescue. We called them, explained the problem; they came, set up a trap, baited it with some corn, and rounded up our entire flock of Turkeys and relocated them.
Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for, it may come true (in spades)!
