Q and A: Turkeys fighting and Watering vs. rain

Turkeys fighting

Do you have any trouble with your turkeys fighting? Whenever I have a young tom coming along at about 6 months I have to separate him from my older tom. And then this year, I had two hens lay, one of them hatched poults. When the poults were about a month old the two hens began brutally fighting with each other. I had to separate them. I didn’t know the hens would fight. I sure would love to be able to let them all out to free range all day. They get along when it is not breeding/hatching/raising time. Any ideas? They are Midget Whites.

Mary
Lancaster, New York

I’ve had a little trouble with the Toms fighting. Your hens are evidently doing the territorial fighting thing. They feel super protective over their poults and want to ensure their family has adequate “space” and are fighting to drive the other out of their territory. You may have to just let them be separate until the poults are larger and older then try letting them range together then. The more room the free range is, the less fighting you’ll have…usually. — Jackie

Watering vs. rain

We regularly water our garden via a drip irrigation/rain barrel system and hand watering via “collars” we’ve made from old milk bottles. The plants respond positively, but we’ve noticed that after a ½ inch of rain or so, the plants seem to grow like crazy! We’re giving them more than that amount of water at every watering, but the rain effect… I always thought (been gardening for almost 20 years) that plants aspirated through the leaves, but the rain phenomenon indicates I may be wrong there. Whatcha think?

Deb Horan
Mason, New Hampshire

Rain has always been called “poor man’s fertilizer.” For reasons unknown, a good rain beats watering hands down. Plants do absorb rain through their leaves, as well as roots. That’s why foliar feeding works so well. I’m sure rain contains minerals that benefit plants and we all love the smell of that rain-fresh garden! — Jackie