Turkeys and snakes

[keyser12ga]

Do turkey's kill snakes?  While trying to obtain some hunting ground, a landowner said he didn't allow turkey hunting because they keep the copperhead population down.  I had never heard this before and it got me wondering.

[hookedspur]

Yes we raised turkey as a kid and in the spring when the hens had polts if they found a snake in the yard he was done.

[dodger]

we fed a baby rattlesnake to our pen turkeys... he was gone in 5 seconds flat... the little turkey eat him alive

[spaightlabs]

I've had landowners tell me no because they keep the grasshoppers down around the house...

Tell 'em snakes keep the rat and mouse population down so they should give the snakes a break...

I was able to convince a couple of the grasshopper folks that I wasn't gonna shoot all of the turkeys, just one, and that it wasn't gonna be a hen, and the absence of one Tom wasn't gonna stop even one hen from getting bred.

[keyser12ga]

Thanks for the info guys, I knew I could count on the braintrust here.   He was pretty adamant about it, but at least he let me know there were copperheads in the area, I had no idea.  Said he killed 11 in one day.

[spaightlabs]

Doesn't sound like the turkeys are doin' their job on the snakes then - tell him you need to go shoot one to send a message to the others that slackers will be punished!

The NWTF has research showing that killing one big Tom out of the group causes the others to pick up the snake killin', right now the 2 year old toms and jakes won't kill snakes cuz they are afraid of the dominant bird, you gotta take him out!

[keyser12ga]

haha, nice.  He gave me the name of a neighbor that would let me hunt and it worked out.  It was just odd, someone that didn't mind letting people deer hunt but not turkeys, never usually works that way.

[J Hook Max]

 I wouldn't want to hunt anywhere someone could kill 11 copperheads in one day.I would be too scared to sit down.

[Gobble!]

I wouldn't want to hunt anywhere someone could kill 11 copperheads in one day.I would be too scared to sit down.

if there was enough big birds there you could talk me into it

[WyoHunter]

I wouldn't want to hunt anywhere someone could kill 11 copperheads in one day.I would be too scared to sit down.

Me too! 

[Bonjour]

I'd tell him that I would help with the snake problem to make up for the birds portion. You could probably skin them out and make a couple bucks in the process. Win, win situation there. 

[OldMarine]

Turkeys will eat about anything that won't eat them,I've killed them with spring lizards in their crawl and salamanders ,but never snakes,but I'll sure they will eat any protein.