I'm pretty sure if they have babies they won't be in a flock. The hens go off by themselves when they raise them so maybe you should be just as wary if you see a single hen. I'd never heard of anyone being attacked but will be more cautious myself now. Gardenweed is right, they're BIG when their wings are outstretched. I pulled in my driveway once and one flew up in front of my car only a couple feet from my windshield and I nearly had a heart attack. lol I haven't had any damage in my garden that I know of but don't have as many as you. I see them in our field but they rarely come up in my yard. I suspect they could wipe out a lot of seedlings in a hurry if they thought they looked appetizing but rabbits can too. Turkeys DO eat grasshoppers and that's a big plus. I wonder if they eat ticks. (hope so) It's still amazing to me how common they are now. Ten or twelve years ago, I had never seen a wild turkey at all. Now I see them almost daily if I'm out driving. Loved the videos. I think all the "attacks" were just people being followed. I'd be running too. lol Hope they won't flog you the way a rooster can. That's something to take seriously. Good luck Docmom. I think you may need to protect your seedlings with wire mesh or something. It might be easier to plant them out in a nursery bed for awhile spaced closely so they're easier to protect. Or at least protect your most precious seedlings until you get an idea of how destructive the turkeys and other critters are going to be.

Now this is an interesting discussion. I had a very funny wild turkey experience. My neighbours have a pair of domesticated wild turkeys - though when Tom struts, puffs and gobbles, he looks pretty wild. I was sitting on my front porch when the pair came visiting a few days ago. They gobbled around for quite some time, and eventually Tom seemed to become curious. He approached the porch, jumped up onto it, looked me in the eye, gobbled, and jumped right onto my lap! Boy, was I startled. I flung him off and went inside the house. The pair stuck around all afternoon, hanging out by my bonfire pit. The female spent the afternoon rolling around in the ashes, while Tom stood by gobbling. It was a bit startling to have a wild turkey jump on your lap, but it sure was funny.

My DH loved the way this is prepared at an Italian restaurant we frequent, and I thought it must be simple to duplicate. Here's the photo from the restaurant version and then the one I made which tasted even better - guess I used more cream and maybe I poured on too much sauce for the photo. Turkey & Noodles in Curry Cream Sauce *********************************** 2 - 3 portions 1 lb turkey breast, cooked and cut into chunks butter - 1 heaping TBS flour - 1 heaping TBS milk - about 1 1/2 cups heavy cream - about 1 1/2 cups 1 chicken stock cube or spoonful of chicken bouillon mix 1 heaping TBS curry powder (I used Sharwoods's mild) fettuccini noodles for 2 - 3 servings fresh ground pepper butter 1) Put water on to boil for noodles. 2) If turkey is not already cooked, it can be done in microoven with 3 TBS water until just done 3) Melt butter in saucepan, take off stove and mix in flour to make a roux, gradually adding warmed milk a few drops at a time and stirring to keep smooth. 4) Put back on low heat and finish adding milk, then cream a little at a time and stirring. Crumble in chicken stock cube and curry powder. Stir to blend. 5) Add turkey chunks and heat gently, keeping warm while cooking noodles in pot of water. 6) Drain noodles, add butter and fresh ground black pepper. Pour sauce over noodles and mix. Serve on hot plates and add grated parmesan. Note: The Spanish and German chicken stock cubes and chicken sauce bases are excellent and quite different than the ones I saw in Canada. This dish tastes better than the version in the Italian restaurant and goes well with a nice crisp green salad. ******************************** I usually make a turkey curry at the end of our Christmas bird. The dressing and cranberry sauce as well as the gravy all goes with this. The recipe is taken from a Sharwood Curry Powder advert for chicken curry which I also make but here I substitute leftover turkey. TURKEY CURRY **************** Serves 4. 1 apple, peeled and chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 TBS oil 2 TBS curry powder 1 level TBS flour 15 fluid oz (scant 2 cups) stock (boil turkey bones to make stock) 1 TBS chutney (I use Sharwoods Mango Chutney) 1/4 to 1/3 cup (60 grams) sultana raisins 8 oz (225 grams) diced turkey (include different sized small pieces from the leftovers on the turkey platter) salt 1) Fry chopped apple and onion together in 2 TBS oil. Add curry powder and flour. Fry gentry 1 minute. 2) Blend in the stock, bring to boil. Add 1 TBS chutney and the raisins. Simmer, covered - 30 minutes. 3) Add turkey pieces to the sauce, season with salt and simmer very gently 10 - 15 minutes more. If you have some leftover turkey gravy - that also goes well added into the curry sauce. 4) Serve over rice and pass around cranberry sauce, warmed turkey dressing, mango chutney and chopped walnuts. SharonCb

ThunderBoltBee, They are amazing! Turkeys; they're not just a side dish for cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce! LOL I don't use any millet mixes in my bird feeders because I have to battle the non-native English House Sparrows (HoSP) tooth, beak, and nail. Millets attract them like magnets. I have a Purple Martin colony (April-August), nesting tree swallows, chickadees, nuthatches, nearby bluebirds, and various other cavity nesters that the HoSP love to kill. They will go box to box breaking eggs and killing chicks to clear "their" territory of other cavity nesters. I trap all them all breeding season and have managed to clear my native birds' immediate nesting territories of these pests. While the HoSP will eat black oil sunflower seed, if they're starved to it, it's not their favorite food so I offer only BOSS. All the native songbirds, and native cavity nesters (insectivores excluded) love it best. I use different types of feeders, making it easier for the native birds to pick the one they are most comfortable using, but all the feeders hold the same BOSS. I also offer suet blocks; I usually make my own. During the coldest part of the winter I offer shelled peanuts in a special feeder that only allows them to pull out one peanut at a time. That cuts down on waste, too. Of course, the doves (and turkeys) and other birds love to glean from the ground, too. And my turkey flock - they are real turkeys. I bought 50 lbs. of cracked corn last winter. They wouldn't touch it. I even did tests. A big pile of corn near a smaller pile of BOSS. The cleaned up the BOSS and turned their beaks up at the corn. Wes finally took it out to a field and dumped it for the deer. It was gone the next morning! From now until deep snow time the turkeys will have to glean under the feeders and be content with a quart or so of "extra" BOSS on the ground. Once they are in distress I'll start with the two-gallon bucket a day limit. One reason I think they are so spoiled is that I am surrounded by thousands of acres of sunflowers, wheat, soybeans, etc. There are corn fields, too, but they love to hang out in the other crops. I guess they think the corn is for the deer and raccoons!