Wild turkeys ordinarily move around in flocks. There are bachelor flocks populated with mature gobblers. There are flocks of jakes - juvenile male birds that rove-around like a gang of unruly teenagers. And when a mature gobbler has romance on his mind he will form a mating flock with five to fifteen hens. Aside from the carnal advantages that may spring from the care and maintenance of your own personal harem - turkey flocks primarily exist to provide safety in numbers.
The wild turkey's single most powerful sense is eyesight. They view their world in living color and their daytime visual acuity is three times better than ours. Furthermore, a single bird's field of vision covers 270 degrees. If you had an inclination to sneak-up on a flock of a dozen birds - with all of those eyes on high alert - the odds of success would be a low probability calculation.
This is what is known as a brood flock.
It centers around three matron hens - one of whom is the Boss Hen or leader - and they are collectively raising a group of 2020 newborn recruits. Baby turkeys are called poults.
From all outward appearances there appear to be two age groupings in this flock. Some of the poults are almost the size of barnyard chickens while the balance are slightly smaller. If I had to hazard a guess - hatched a week to ten days apart.
The hens are the three larger birds in the background and the poults are grouped in the foreground.
This flock has had the temerity to strut thru our yard on occasion so we already know about the three hens and what appear at last count to be eighteen to twenty-four or more poults.
How many of the young can you count in the photo?
I'll post the correct answer later.
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