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Turkey crop contents

catman529

catman529

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Nov 10, 2010
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Franklin TN
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.

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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'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.
 
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?
 

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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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 

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