In spring, the thoughts of all male scrub turkeys turn to wooing a female brush turkey. They don their best shade of black plumage, the wobbly yellow skin around their necks turns an even brighter shade of yellow, their little bald heads turn a brilliant rosy red and they start removing all the mulch from every suburban garden in the area in order to see if a bigger nest really is the best.
A brush turkey ready to be relocated
Unfortunately male brush turkeys either have really poor eyesight or have permanent beer goggles on, because anything that looks vaguely feathery and about the right shape suddenly becomes as attractive as Kim Kardashian in their eyes. This means your black or brown backyard chooks may suddenly be repeatedly fending off the amorous intentions of a local young male scrub turkey.
As funny as it sounds, male brush turkeys don’t take no for an answer, and many a backyard chook peacefully pottering around the petunias has been severely injured or killed by these roaming Romeos.
In spring, if you spot a male scrub turkey lurking around, it pays to keep your chooks caged up. If your chickens have been attacked, then call us to arrange to have a cage trap set near your chicken coop to catch the turkeys.
The other option is to only keep white chickens to reduce the chance of the male scrub turkeys getting confused.
