First Place

Jennifer May Bryant won first place with this photo of her Royal Palm Tom Turkey. As first place winner, Jennifer has won a $100 gift certificate.

Photo by Jennifer Briant

The turkey in the  photo is about 2 years old and is one that Jennifer purchased from Murray McMurray Hatchery as part of a Barnyard Special. Jennifer said:

We raise these for pets, and our sons have shown them in 4-H Club. We were very pleased with this breed because they have great personalities and are some of the prettiest turkeys to look at. They also are good layers, they breed naturally and they can hatch their own eggs. These are also very gentle birds, and they have always been good with the children and other animals.

We purchased a 24 acre property over 7 years ago, and we were so excited to finally have a place to raise poultry, that we had our chickens ordered from McMurray Hatchery before we even had a house. We did however have a chicken coop. We purchased an old travel trailer and converted into a large free- range chicken coop. After looking through the catalog for weeks we ordered somewhere around 50 chicks for our first order.

[The turkey in the photo] won Best in Show at the 4-H Youth Fair, and he was in the newspaper when they ran the story about the fair.

They always draw quite a crowd at the shows. We do give them a bath before shows which is a lot of fun. A bathing suit is mandatory because you just end up totally soaked! In general these are sweet and friendly birds.

The females enjoy riding on our carts when we are cleaning pens or feeding. They just jump right up there and when you start moving they ride along.

Once, one of the young female Royal Palm Turkeys (they fly short distances when they are young) was roosting up on top of the free range coop. As I was going into the coop to collect eggs she flew down and landed right on my head. At first I wondered if an eagle was trying to carry me off, but thankfully it was just a Royal Palm turkey hen that was apparently very excited to see me and her breakfast (needless to say, I did not need a second cup of coffee that day).

They really seem to enjoy people and have been a lot more intelligent than I had expected.

Second Place

Pepper McCarty won second place with this photo of a Rio Grande Turkey and received as a prize a $50 gift certificate.

Photo by Pepper McCarty

The McCarty’s have raised this turkey for 5-6 years, and there’s an interesting story behind him:

We actually “found” him.  Quite a story.  My husband is a landscape contractor in Dallas, TX, and he showed up on one of the properties he maintains.  (High dollar, estate-type residence).  Not the neighborhood you’d be raising poultry in.  And not close enough to the “wild” to have wandered in.  (I know he has a story to tell, but he’s not talking!)  Long story short, the homeowner said he had been there several days, hanging out on the outdoor furniture.  My husband and his crew caught him and relocated him back to our yard, where he hangs with the ladies.

Third Place

Richard Wilberforce won third place with his photo of a male Gambel Quail. His prize is a $25 gift certificate.

Photo by Richard Wilberforce

Richard sent us this comment about the photo and his experience raising game birds:

The quail is approximately two years old.  I raised him from an egg.  I retired from managing one of the largest game bird farms in North America and can’t get raising them out of my blood. It’s only a hobby now and between game birds and poultry I raise about two hundred a year.  I raise Afghanistan Pheasants, Bobwhites, Scaled Quail, Gambels, and ten breeds of poultry.

Other Photo Contests

To see information and announcements about our other poultry-related photo contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests