Yesterday an event happened with my turkeys that warms my heart every time I think about it. With all the troubles in the world, I thought I'd share the story in the hopes that it will also give you good feelings. We need more of those.
I've been raising and writing about Royal Palm turkeys since last summer. After problems with predation, my original nine turkeys came down to two survivors. I named them John and Priscilla. Two just weren't enough turkeys. I saw an ad on Craig's list and went and bought four more young turkeys -- three Royal Palms and a mixed Royal Palm and Black Spanish. I never meant to name them but they ended up with names that described them. I solved the predator problems, managing to have all six birds survive the winter although my dog Bear, who is half Siberian Husky, has done some turkey chasing this spring that took away a lot of feathers before I got him stopped. The three hens have been brooding on eggs since mid April.
Below the fold is the story that still makes me feel happy every time I think of it.
The baby Royal Palm turkeys I bought in Amherst, NH have been home almost a week making them nearly a month old. I've been keeping them inside the turkey house locked in the wire dog crate. I've been waiting for a break in the rainy weather to try letting them out and today such appeared. The toms seem to mostly ignore them but I've heard the little ones peeping to the hens and heard the hens chirping back.
First, I closed the back gate to the winter pen with the toms out back in the poultry netting on the grass. The hens were snug in their nest box, also inside the turkey house, as usual. Then, watching closely to protect the little ones in case the hens caused trouble, I opened the gate to the crate. It took the little guys a minute or two to notice that the gate was open but then a brave one came right out and hopped through the open doorway, down the step to the ground. Then he flew (!) back into the house, looked around for a minute and went back out the door. This time, he disappeared around the corner, peeping loudly as he (she?) went. Then two more hopped out and joined the first. The last baby finally came out of the crate but she (he?) wasn't going outside. Little Girl came out of the nest box and tried a few pecks at the baby. I yelled at her and she stopped. Big Girl was still inside the nest box. The baby went right over into the box and climbed over the back of Big Girl and snuggled herself between the hen and the wall. The hen seemed fine with this. Then Little Girl decided she needed to be in on this and climbed back into the same nest box. I worried that the baby would be smothered or pecked but knew she was in more danger of being squished if I tried to move the hens.
So, hoping she was all right, I headed out to see how the other turklets were doing. The first thing I saw was two of them in the backyard with the toms. The winter pen fence had proven no barrier to these little ones. They looked too big to fit through the wire on a cyclone fence but I guess they are mostly feathers at this point in their lives. Fortunately, the toms seemed quite pleased to be with them. While I watched, the third pushed his way out through the fence and into the alley way between the fence and the house. Bear was standing at the other end of this alley but didn't come charging to grab a turkey McNugget. He just stood still and watched. Still, I came right out of the pen and got Bear and put him inside the house, petting him and telling him he was a good dog while doing so. Returning to the turkeys, as I walked up to the loose one, he decided to go back through the fence and join the two others.
Dark One and Big Boy were in full feathered strut while John seemed more relaxed. Then the toms started to circle quickly and John joined in as well. Dark One kept to the center, with his wings partly spread and his head low. The other turkeys circled around him. The babies circled too. The toms picked up speed and so did the little ones. I worried some about the babies getting stepped on but they are very quick and seemed quite able to avoid the feet of the big guys. Soon, Dark One left the center of the circle and then all six turkeys ran after each other in a larger circle, moving quite quickly. I watched all six turkeys twirl for a while before they settled down. Once I realized that the little ones were in no danger, I laughed at the sight of the big toms and the tiny little ones all running in circles together. After their game, the little guys headed to a corner near the back gate that had deep, lush grass. One little one went through the netting and settled in the grass on the other side of the fence. The toms all stayed close to the little ones, looking as if they were protecting them. Then the big toms started to argue again. The little one outside the fence laid low in the grass so that only a bit of his head could be seen. He knew how to hide quite well it seems. The toms moved away from gate area and the little ones ate some of the grass. The baby outside the fence came through the fence again and joined his fellows.
I went out of the pen, gathered the items from the garage needed to clean the turkey house and went back to clean the now empty crate and the rest of the house. The baby who had remained inside the house now was sitting just outside the nesting box so clearly hadn't suffocated. I finished cleaning their house and then went into my own house to call the veterinarian as Spirit still wasn't doing well despite her course of antibiotics. I needed to be in Keene in an hour and a half so after reading for a bit, I got Maria to come help me round up the turklets, in case we needed to be on both sides of the fence at one time. With the babies so able to walk through all the fences, I didn't want to risk leaving them outside while I was gone.
These babies are used to being handled so catching them wasn't hard and they all stayed inside the fence while we got them. I took them, one at a time, snuggled against my chest, admittedly stroking and kissing them while I walked, and put each one into the turkey house. The baby who had stayed in was back under the two hens. I put the first one captured inside the house, closed the door to the outside, and went back to the backyard for the next which Maria caught and handed to me. When I came back to the turkey house with this one, the one I had captured first was in the other nesting box. The hen atop the baby, Prissy, seemed quite content to shelter it. I could see the baby who had never gone outside back behind the other two hens. Now every hen had a baby. I put the one in my arms inside the door and then went back and got the last in. I had planned to put them back inside their crate but they were doing so well with the hens I let them all stay loose in the house so they could all be together.
I haven't decided what to do about the babies when I put the toms in the house tonight. I don't think the toms would hurt the babies on purpose but it is a small house and they are big birds. A lot will depend on whether the babies are with the hens or not. If they are in the nesting boxes with the hens, they should be safe enough. If they are just roaming around the turkey house, I'll put them back in their crate for the night.
Hours later I came back from the veterinarian. She thinks Spirit's problem is low thyroid. She took lots of blood and we should have the answer soon. Bear and Cait got their spring vaccinations without complaint. Home with lots of bags from grocery shopping, I unloaded the car, fed the dogs, and then fell asleep for a while.
At dusk, as usual, I went to put the boys in the turkey house for the night. I stopped first to check inside the house to see how the babies were. No babies were in the crate and none were in sight. Two hens were piled into the first nesting box, where there had been only one earlier. Big Girl was in the second box. While I looked, the hen on the outside of Prissy-- Little Girl -- either fell or rolled out of the nesting box. Looking in, I could see the remaining hen with her head raised and from under her wing, the head of a little one brightly peeked out. I assume the other three were also safely tucked under warm wings. So sweet. So cozy.
The hen that came out of the nesting box knocked an egg out as she fell out. The hen remaining was striving hard to pull it back over the board in the front and into the box. I picked up the egg and gently put it inside the box in front of her. She quickly used her head and neck to put it back underneath her, keeping the young one snug beneath her wing as she worked. The little one watched with interest from her snug shelter. Seems that having a baby or two in the box with the hen isn't making her forget her eggs. The hens still have hope for those eggs even though I don't. They don't smell bad or anything so I'll let them remain a bit more.
Later: I just put the boys inside for the night as usual. They stood near the hens, apparently looking around for the babies for quite some time before they moved towards the back, deeper into the house. I heard some peeping so I think that reassured them. I think they wanted to locate the babies so they wouldn't step on them when they took off to their shelf above the floor.
I'll take the crate out of their house tomorrow and put it away until the next time it is needed.