Turkeys fear a lot more things than an ax this time of year. “Turkeys are quite afraid of certain things,” said Jeff Firman, University of Missouri turkey researcher.
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“They are not too bright,” he said. “So you have to be pretty smart to deal with all the things that will kill these birds.”
The birds will scatter and run with disastrous results if a hawk, owl or airplane passes overhead.
Fences built around a turkey pen should be on the outside of the posts and should not be tied to the bottom of the posts to prevent deadly pileups.
“I have seen 10,000 turkeys run and all pile into a fence crushing each other,” Firman said.
“If you put an empty bucket in a pen with small turkeys, one will jump into the bucket, but I have never seen one jump out. One will jump in, start to cheep, and the others jump in on top crushing the ones below,” he said.
Turkeys are scared of rainstorms, too. “They will get scared and pile up under a tree and thousands of them will die,” Firman said.
Missouri ranks fourth in turkey production with about 25 million birds a year. Prices may be a little high this year at around $1.10 a pound for frozen birds, but many stores offer birds at much lower prices to entice customers to buy related items.