Hi. just sort of an update on my little farm. about 4 1/2 months ago, my lone turkey hen kept setting on her unfertile eggs. After about 3 weeks i knew the eggs were ready to pop under her. i got 3 decent looking eggs (2 blue, 1 brown) from my hens and snuk them under her at night, removing the time bombs that were now weeping. Sure enough, in 3 weeks, 2 of them hatched. after a snif, i knew the 3rd one (brown) was bad so against the eggboard it went. POP. Momma turkey, being her first time, got really stressed when i got too close to her babies, so i let her be and watched from afar. after a few months she had them going into the coop with the rest of the flock (5 hens, 2 roos) and that was when i discovered how really scared of me they were. poor things. over the last month, i have been trying to tame them, now that moma doesn't get so upset. the dark one is still scared to death of me, but the light one for the last week has been getting less and less afraid of me. Today i spent a good deal of time with the flock, which is pretty rare. my life is so buzy that i seldom get to spend more then 10 minutes a day with them, so having 2 to 3 hours with them was really great. hand fed everyone some left over chicken from supper last week, making sure everyone got a good fill. the light one will take food from my fingers, altho the dark one i think would rather starve. i'll work on her next i guess. maybe take her inside for a week. anyways, tonight while putting them to bed i spent a lot of time near the light one as i gave the flock their good night cheek rubs and keeping mama turkey on her perch. she likes to boss everyone around, so now and again i spend a little extra time at dusk to let her know she's not the boss. tonight, i finally really made contact with the light one. i got her to sit on my hand not being afraid. i was able to stroke her cheek till she closed her eyes (both) and even when i had to relocate a few other birds, she stayed right near me when any other night she'd run and hide with the dark one near mama. it was incredible. i was able to rub her beak with my nose too. i am teaching her to sit when i gently push her tush down on the perch and she's finally starting to "get it". i got some good time with the other birds as well and it really made my night. Tomorrow i head to the farm to try finding my turkey hen a mature boyfriend as this week she finally started laying eggs again. I'd really like to raise some more turkeys this spring and i really miss having a tom around. i love their cackle, their strut and i don't want mama being lonely anymore. altho watching her kneel to the mini old english/rir (not sure) i have is pretty funny, it won't get me poults anytime soon... Have a nice weekend.
