So, a little turkey just shows up at my house out of the blue last week, trying to get into the chicken coop. Seriously.
She's just a young thing, but she was all alone and somehow found my coop. She must have heard them. My husband found her trying to get to them! Once he caught her, we put her in and put her in a kennel to cool off after we hydrated her (poor thing was so thirsty). She's still too little/young to go in the coop so he has built her a nice, big cage that she can live in, in our basement for now, until she grows up enough to introduce to the flock. (And not to worry, if anything goes wrong there, I always have a friend who could take her but we sure hope integration goes well.)
I suspect that she's not fully wild, as there is a (mostly?) loose, roaming flock that (lives?) several blocks away, but who can say for sure? I suppose it's also possible that she could be wild. If she's from there, I just don't know how the poor little thing made it all the way up here through traffic. She'd had to have crossed quite a busy street, and come past all the dogs, cats and hawks, and who knows what else. Nope, I'm not taking her down there, I said. She was begging to come live with us, LOL! At any rate I am mystified, but rather excited to have the little bird.
She is eating, drinking, and her chirp sounds have changed, calmed down, after the first day. I think she was still calling for her kind (peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-!). She is still a bit skittish of us at first and makes that defensive hissing sound when you go near her, but it's easy to win her over with crickets, we've found. So I think she's happy overall. Well until tonight when she seemed bored; he said she was dragging her beak along the side of the cage. I discovered some great threads on the Turkey board here (HAH, now there's a place I never thought I'd find myself) and think I discovered why! I've set up some nice, big mirrors for her to enjoy and not feel so lonely. She was very intrigued! One is full-length so even when she's on the roosting poles (and she does get on them!) she won't feel alone.
And that's my Turkey tale of the week.
She's just a young thing, but she was all alone and somehow found my coop. She must have heard them. My husband found her trying to get to them! Once he caught her, we put her in and put her in a kennel to cool off after we hydrated her (poor thing was so thirsty). She's still too little/young to go in the coop so he has built her a nice, big cage that she can live in, in our basement for now, until she grows up enough to introduce to the flock. (And not to worry, if anything goes wrong there, I always have a friend who could take her but we sure hope integration goes well.)
I suspect that she's not fully wild, as there is a (mostly?) loose, roaming flock that (lives?) several blocks away, but who can say for sure? I suppose it's also possible that she could be wild. If she's from there, I just don't know how the poor little thing made it all the way up here through traffic. She'd had to have crossed quite a busy street, and come past all the dogs, cats and hawks, and who knows what else. Nope, I'm not taking her down there, I said. She was begging to come live with us, LOL! At any rate I am mystified, but rather excited to have the little bird.
She is eating, drinking, and her chirp sounds have changed, calmed down, after the first day. I think she was still calling for her kind (peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-!). She is still a bit skittish of us at first and makes that defensive hissing sound when you go near her, but it's easy to win her over with crickets, we've found. So I think she's happy overall. Well until tonight when she seemed bored; he said she was dragging her beak along the side of the cage. I discovered some great threads on the Turkey board here (HAH, now there's a place I never thought I'd find myself) and think I discovered why! I've set up some nice, big mirrors for her to enjoy and not feel so lonely. She was very intrigued! One is full-length so even when she's on the roosting poles (and she does get on them!) she won't feel alone.
And that's my Turkey tale of the week.
