Turkey crop contents

A friend of mine who lives up in Ohio has permission on some property in Williamson county down the road from me. It's on the edge of the western highland rim and there's a big hardwood ridge behind the landowners house.

We went up yesterday evening to try and roost one. Ended up with a Jake stare down at 30 yards and Jason rolled him. It's only the third turkey he's killed, he was pretty pumped.

There was a bunch of red oaks up on that ridge, and apparently quite a few acorns left. The bird was full of acorns, clover, dandelions, and a little bit of wheat which I assume came from straw where they planted grass seed. Thought it was pretty cool. There was multiple dandelion flower heads in there, and one bulb that looked like a wild onion.

Yep pretty cool. Congrats to your buddy!

Looks like a salad a Karen would order at Panera

Looks almost good enough to eat. Put it on a plate with a little vinaigrette, sell it downtown. Bet folks would gobble it up! haven't checked any in a while cause the last one I cut into was full of green liquid, almost as if his last move was to throw up? Might be normal from clover/ grass just never seen it in the birds I've handled over the years. No signs or smells of infection but still nasty. I have cut into one plumb full of worms from scratching cow pies.

I am pretty sure they are still on the red oak acorns where I am hunting as well as they are not showing up much around any food plots.

Thanks for the great picture!

I've even seen them full of germinated red oak acorns.

Most of mine usually somewhat empty though. But I've seen a lot of cool stuff in them, and one of my favorite things to do is check the crop.

Couple weeks might be full of grasshoppers

Dude ate the whole buffet!

Killed one 2y ago that had nothing but spiders in his crop... at least 30 or 40.

That's why turkeys are well adapted to most habitats... they can eat and survive on almost anything!

Cool pic. I agree it looks like a salad.

Not to highjack....but to piggyback on same topic....Little graphic...my appology....but we always check the crop (or craw) to see what was last on the menu....this tom was taken opening day middle TN....so with that.....what do you think the red berries/seeds are? Kinda reminds me of sorghum....but I'm not aware of any even remotely close to our location?

megalomaniac said:

Killed one 2y ago that had nothing but spiders in his crop... at least 30 or 40.

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My wife would pay good money for one of those!

Very interesting Catman, thanks for sharing.

I don't open them up much anymore but last year shot one mid April and it was slap full of grasshopper. I mean FULL of whole grasshoppers

The one I killed opening day was full of acorns, had some pretty good sized pebbles in there as well. That probably would of been painful on the way out.
Killed one last year and it was full of snails.

Cool pic! It tells one what the jake's priorities were (food). I always check the craw and rarely kill an old bird that has much in it during the spring. Sometimes yes, but contents are sparse more times than not. Buddy killed an old bird opening day in Hickman county that had some whole corn in it. Not a corn field for miles.

scn said:

I am pretty sure they are still on the red oak acorns where I am hunting as well as they are not showing up much around any food plots.

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I'm positive!
I believe this was the biggest red oak acorn crop I've ever seen in that area.
Even deer were mainly feeding on red oak acorns way into March.

My opening day bird was empty. His mind was on those 6 hens.

bigtex said:

The one I killed opening day was full of acorns, had some pretty good sized pebbles in there as well. That probably would of been painful on the way out.
Killed one last year and it was full of snails.

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The pebbles go to the gizzard and help crush the food before it's digested

Andy S. said:

Cool pic! It tells one what the jake's priorities were (food). I always check the craw and rarely kill an old bird that has much in it during the spring. Sometimes yes, but contents are sparse more times than not. Buddy killed an old bird opening day in Hickman county that had some whole corn in it. Not a corn field for miles.

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I think he was so full cause it was evening right before fly up. At least my chickens always fill their crop before they go into the coop at night, I figured turkeys do the same.

catman529 said:

The pebbles go to the gizzard and help crush the food before it's digested

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Yep....gizzard stones....lighter color towards the bottom are from last year's tom....darker color on top are from this year ....wish I'd started collecting them years ago.