Turkey crop contents

[catman529]

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.

 

[ImThere]

Yep pretty cool. Congrats to your buddy!

 

[UCStandSitter]

Looks like a salad a Karen would order at Panera

 

[Grouse]

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.

 

[scn]

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!

 

[woodsman04]

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.

 

[PossumSlayer]

Couple weeks might be full of grasshoppers

 

[megalomaniac]

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!

 

[Gravey]

Cool pic. I agree it looks like a salad.

 

[DoubleRidge]

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?

 

[Bucket]

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

My wife would pay good money for one of those!

 

[Shanman]

Very interesting Catman, thanks for sharing.

 

[REN]

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

 

[bigtex]

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.

 

[Andy S.]

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.

 

[TheLBLman]

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.

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.

 

[shopson]

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

 

[catman529]

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.

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

 

[catman529]

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.

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.

 

[DoubleRidge]

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

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.

 

[Joe2Kool]

Looks almost good enough to eat. Put it on a plate with a little vinaigrette, sell it downtown. Bet folks would gobble it up!

 

[Joe2Kool]

As Foghorn Leghorn would say "Gobble it up? Turkey? Git it? Ah say ah made a funny boy. Laff!!"

But seriously, it does look like a Panera menu item.

 

[megalomaniac]

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?

Sure looks like sorgham to me.

Be unlikely to have any still around this time of the year, unless there aren't many deer in the area.

I am planning on planting a 2.5ac field in it this May, then leaving it standing except for the center 3/4 acre which I will drill through with a fall blend.for deer. I hope some of the sorgham seed heads are still around by next spring, but I bet the deer eat them all.

 

[6.7strokin]

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.

Same here. I killed one last weekend and he appeared to have a small tooth in his gizzard, along with all the rocks. I thought it was neat.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Sure looks like sorgham to me.

Be unlikely to have any still around this time of the year, unless there aren't many deer in the area.

I am planning on planting a 2.5ac field in it this May, then leaving it standing except for the center 3/4 acre which I will drill through with a fall blend.for deer. I hope some of the sorgham seed heads are still around by next spring, but I bet the deer eat them all.

I thought the same thing....would be odd to have any sorghum with seed standing this time of year....and there are plenty of deer in the area....I'll be on the property tomorrow so I'm going to look and try to understand what these seeds/berries are.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Sure looks like sorgham to me.

Be unlikely to have any still around this time of the year, unless there aren't many deer in the area.

I am planning on planting a 2.5ac field in it this May, then leaving it standing except for the center 3/4 acre which I will drill through with a fall blend.for deer. I hope some of the sorgham seed heads are still around by next spring, but I bet the deer eat them all.

I think the same. All our sorghum seed heads were eaten up by February. Plan on planting more again this spring and drilling through them this fall

 

[GOHUNT]

Strange, nobody reporting finding whole kernel corn in a Turkey crop…go figure. In later kills I've found a crop full of buttercup flower heads, (Ranunculus sp.)

 

[BSK]

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?

Looks like sorghum, but could also be seed heads from sumac. I still see sumac seed heads around.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Looks like sorghum, but could also be seed heads from sumac. I still see sumac seed heads around.

I change my vote. I bet that's what it is

 

[Bell3wv]

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.

Gotta find me a milk bottle now)