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| He knows he’s so handsome. |
This Thanksgiving was full of surprises–three to be exact. Jack brought home three beautiful bourbon red heritage turkeys to add to out homestead. Lucky them, their heads weren’t on the chopping block and instead, they get a nice cozy nesting box and free roam of the yard, now that they’re settled.
It’s always so fun having new animals on the farm. I’ve never owned turkeys before, though I’ve been around them before. After a few days of observing them, I’ve come to the conclusion that where they lack in obvious intelligence, they make up for in personality.
They’re not so dumb as the old wives tale that claims they’ll drown themselves staring up at the rain but they are slow and deliberate about everything they do. That actually makes them great for the kids. Whereas most of our past roosters have had little man syndrome and are determined to fight every child that crosses their path, the turkeys coo softly, move carefully, and don’t get ruffled much by kids squealing excitedly around them.
Even when they’re not outside herding the turkeys around, the kids often have their noses pressed to one of the windows, watching the turkey flock roam.
After careful consideration and weighing the advice of friends, we’ve finally named them. Pip is the big boy (seriously, he feels like he weighs as much as Claire), and the girls are distinguishable by their slightly different hue of feathers. The lighter is Goldie and the darker is Rosie. While the girls are shy and barely coo to each other, Pip loves to talk. Sometimes, I’ll go outside to toss out the trash and he’ll gobble away at me from across the yard. I laugh, and he gobbles some more.
One of the reasons we don’t let the chickens out very often is that they come running for our patio the second they’re loose, and poop all over it. That doesn’t go over well with children carelessly running between the back door and the car. Well, guess who else thought they’d explore the deck? I took a few pictures and sent them on their way.
The other downside is that they haven’t quite learned where their home is. As they prefer to forage heavily for their meals, they don’t really care that there’s a big bucket of food hanging in their coop. So, when nighttime falls, they find a roost where they like to sit. The girls are still petite enough to fly up decently high, away from danger, but Pip is too big to fly. He sits on the steps to our shed and tries to sleep. I don’t know if a fox or a raccoon would be able to take him down but we still round them up and lock them up every night, just in case.
We’re hoping next spring brings some new turkey chicks but until then, these three are plenty entertaining and bring a whole new level of fun to the farm!
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| Showing off! |
