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Yeah - we have too many here also. When I moved here in the 70s, a wild turkey was a rare sight. Now, they are all over. The environmental department has been live-capturing our local birds with nets and trucking them up to Québec, Canada. Hope they can gobble in French. I can shoot the turkeys just about whenever I want. The conservation department gives me permits and tags when I complain about crop-damage. Same goes for deer. Permits can be used anytime EXCEPT when hunting season is open. But, the reality is - I don't shoot the deer or turkeys anymore.
A few years ago - mid-summer - I shot three turkeys with one shot - when they were in my sweet corn. Come to find out they were in there chasing grasshoppers and I felt kind of bad. Then one summer I saw the rearend of a deer in the middle of our sweet-corn close to our house. So, I walked out there with my 30.06 - had my little daughter with me. Got pretty close - and found a doe with twin fawns nibbling a few ears. And, nearby another doe with one fawn - doing the same. I didn't shoot - maybe I'll blame that on my daughter being with me. But - I've gotten so I enjoy most of the local animals alive better than dead. I've found that the crop-damage is not too bad - except for springtime. The turkeys love to pull up young corn completely out of the ground - and they take the seed-pod and leave the rest. I have a lot more trouble with racoons than anything else. A Deere will nibble an ear of corn and at least come close to finishing it. The turkey can make more of a mess especially when they make "crop circles" taking dirt-baths in the middle of a field. But, the coons? They roam around - tear down 20 ears of corn for every one bite they take. They act as if they really enjoy destroying the crops - more than eating them. We've also had trouble with our "sitting hens." Every single time we've gotten a chicken that actually has some instict left and goes off and makes her own nest and sits - she gets killed by a racoon or a red fox.
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