A thanksgiving day surprise

[Robert_in_NY]

Since my injury I am staying with my parents until I can take care of my daughter so I get to look out the window and see the deer in the pens anytime I want. This morning for the first time ever there are 10 wild turkeys in the pen. We have had turkeys come up once every couple years but they walk along the outside of the pen. Today, Thanksgiving day, they are safely inside the pen

I thought it funny considering the day so hopefully the pics will load. If these turkeys are like the ones that went into the pens at my grandfathers place then they will be there all day until they fly up to roost. The turkeys there flew back into the pen the next day though

I do want to apoligize for the picture quality, I can not see very well in the mornings as one of my medications I take makes everything look like smoke. It is very hard to read and I have to have everything zoomed in on my computer just so I can start to read the post. Hopefully the pictures will allow you to see things somewhat. I took them at 8am this morning and it is dark and raining so couple that with my poor eyesight and these are some great pictures

Happy Thanksgiving guys.

edit- I just looked at the third pic I posted and it is terrible. It looked better to my eyes on my computer before I uploaded it. So please don't waste your time looking at DSC04120.

 

[MrJimi]

Looking good
Get well soon
Jim

 

[Bird]

Under the circumstances; i.e., your physical condition and your weather combined, I'd say they're pretty good pictures.

 

[EddieWalker]

Robert,

The pics are good enough to make both Steph and me take notice!!!! That buck just sort of jumps out at you, then it's like, oh yeah there's turkeys in there too!!!!!!!

It's always interesting to see different species mix together. Yesterday, I was out near Lake Tyler with my son and we saw a wild hog cross the road and walk into a field with some cows. He ignored them, but they all stoped eating and watched him real close. Kind of like cows imitating ground hogs. Heads up and alert. hahaha

What do your parents do with the deer?

Eddie

 

[WayneB]

robert like the first picture and what a rack! Turkeys are cool too. Oh and the third picture looks fine as well, you should see some of my pictures lol.

Take care and hope recovery is soon for you.

Wayne

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Thanks for the compliment Bird.

Eddie, the buck is Bucky and is the first buck fawn we hand raised back in 97'. He is a great deer and isn't too bad most of the time. Right now he isn't very friendly as the rut is in swing so he keeps everyone away. He is also the only deer to ever stick his tine in my leg. He was in a playful mood as I was walking by him and he lowered his head down and leaned forward as my foot was stuck in the mud. My walking and breaking branches got him wound up. It was fun trying to get him to back up as the more I pushed his head to pull the tine out the more he wanted to push back. It wasn't very funny at the moment but looking back it was as he was about 3 years old at the time. Since then I am much more careful about how I walk around the bucks.

Mainly my dad started raising the deer for a hobby. He sells a few to people that want them for the same reason or to start a farm. He also sells the urine and that helps offset the cost of raising them.

My daughter loves the deer and we had a yearling doe that was hand raised she would wrestle with. She would grab the does head and sit on it and when she hopped off the doe would head butt her when she wasn't looking and then start jumping around with her head to the ground wanting to play. Ava also loves feeding the new fawns and playing with them as once they are about 3 weeks old they calm down a lot and they will follow her all over.

I am going to assume that deer are imprinted at birth that turkeys are not a threat. They could care less these turkeys were in the pen. The deer you see paying real close attention is a button buck and they are curious at this age. The rest of the deer really didn't care. Now if a stray cat walked by the pen all the deer will jump up and start running and snorting with tails flared

 

[kenmac]

Thanks for the compliment Bird.

Eddie, the buck is Bucky and is the first buck fawn we hand raised back in 97'. He is a great deer and isn't too bad most of the time. Right now he isn't very friendly as the rut is in swing so he keeps everyone away. He is also the only deer to ever stick his tine in my leg. He was in a playful mood as I was walking by him and he lowered his head down and leaned forward as my foot was stuck in the mud. My walking and breaking branches got him wound up. It was fun trying to get him to back up as the more I pushed his head to pull the tine out the more he wanted to push back. It wasn't very funny at the moment but looking back it was as he was about 3 years old at the time. Since then I am much more careful about how I walk around the bucks.

Mainly my dad started raising the deer for a hobby. He sells a few to people that want them for the same reason or to start a farm. He also sells the urine and that helps offset the cost of raising them.

My daughter loves the deer and we had a yearling doe that was hand raised she would wrestle with. She would grab the does head and sit on it and when she hopped off the doe would head butt her when she wasn't looking and then start jumping around with her head to the ground wanting to play. Ava also loves feeding the new fawns and playing with them as once they are about 3 weeks old they calm down a lot and they will follow her all over.

I am going to assume that deer are imprinted at birth that turkeys are not a threat. They could care less these turkeys were in the pen. The deer you see paying real close attention is a button buck and they are curious at this age. The rest of the deer really didn't care. Now if a stray cat walked by the pen all the deer will jump up and start running and snorting with tails flared

Interesting! I had no idea people raised wild deer. Do you use them as a food source or just pets ?? how many do you raise or have ?? Eddie was talking about wild hogs. Do people also raise them for soe reason. I have heard they are agressive

 

[Robert_in_NY]

People do raise wild hogs for game farms. I know another deer farmer who started a hunting preserve (well, a joke of a preserve) and he tried raising hogs himself. He was scared to death of the pigs so quit trying to raise his own and bought from other farms.

If we get too many deer and have no outlet for them we will put them in the freezer. We try to keep our population down to avoid this problem.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, the pictures get the point of the story accross just fine! Hope your recovery is going well.

 

[frank_f15]

hey robert great photos , That really is a nice looking buck better keep him locked up good and secure for the next few weeks. would be interested is seeing more photos once you are up and about.