Turkey crop contents

[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)

 

[DoubleRidge]

Gotta find me a milk bottle now)

Good idea...an old milk bottle would be cool and it would last year's....the small bottle I have pictured is just an old bottle my wife had....it will probably hold 3 or 4 collections of gizzard stones....looking on line, some guys who have collected them for years, have larger jars....once my smaller jar is near full I'll add a cork and start another.....just another way to reflect back on past hunts.

 

[UCStandSitter]

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.

View attachment 134014

I might've pushed too far last night on this...

I pulled up this pic on my phone and showed it to my wife across the room with a, "Would you eat this salad?" Her response, "Ooh that looks good. Where is that from?"

Recommendation: If you decide to conduct this experiment at home, don't tell your wife what it actually is. Say Panera or something. I can tell you from experience your wife will not be amused if you tell the truth...

 

[redblood]

One i killed last yr was about 100 percent soybean seeds. Been robbing my crop fields right after planting!

 

[Stlbaseball1]

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.

I've never heard of this. Where do you find these rocks in the turkey?

 

[DoubleRidge]

I've never heard of this. Where do you find these rocks in the turkey?

Inside the gizzard....You have to remove the gizzard, open it up with a knife and you will find these small stones along with ground material of what the turkey has eaten... basically these stones grind the food and break it down so it's more digestable....so you remove the contents of the gizzard and rinse the stones clean....I'll empty contents of the gizzard onto a paper plate and separate the stones and then rinse them...taking care not to lose any.

 

[Stlbaseball1]

Thanks!!