- Oct 12, 2010
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My Bourbon Red Tom Turkey is about a year old now. When I bought him as a baby, it was with another chick. But they both grew up to be toms and I made a choice. I traded the other tom for a turkey hen, "Jenny-O".
"Gentleman Jack" really is a gentleman. He is friendly and likes to show off how pretty his is. Mainly to me though. He tries to be amourous with me, but I gently turn him away from me and explain to him once more that we can only be friends. Then he will finally relax and enjoy the attention. He has gotten much better about this. I am hoping that next year he gets a touch of spring fever and will see Jenny-O in a new light.
Jack really doesn't pay attention to any of our other birds (chickens, ducks and geese), and I have never seen him with the the turkey hen. As soon as I got Jenny-O, she was laying eggs. Although in no particular place. In fact, she perched on the goats pen at night and laid the eggs from up there, her eggs falling 6 feet to the ground. But about a month ago, she crawled into an empty dog crate and began laying eggs and sitting on them. To see if she was serious, we put some straw in front of the crate and she has pulled it all inside with her piece by piece creating a nice snuggly nest. We have no idea if the eggs are fertile, but we are letting her try to hatch them.
Our goose, "Nicki" has always laid about February - May. We collect her eggs for about 3 -4 weeks, until she is consistant where she is laying them, taking that as a sign she is ready to settle down for a nest. Nicki then sits and hatches, then raises her brood. And that is it until the following spring. But then two weeks ago, for the first time in five years, Nicki began laying eggs later in the year and is sitting on them...well, after I settled the issue of who the nest belongs to.
Last weekend we heard alot of gobbling and honking going on. When we got up to feed and investigate, there was Jack sitting on the goose eggs, while the geese complained and tattled to us. Nicki in the lead with her mate, Dusty and the rest of this springs goslings (4 mos old now). But Jack wasn't budging. Picture a child sitting on a chair head down, eyes closed, holding on tight so that you can not pick him up off the chair. That was Jack.
Currently Jack is confined to his pen until we can relocate the geese back into their pen without causing them to give up on their nest.
And still Jack pays no mind to Jenny-O.
"Gentleman Jack" really is a gentleman. He is friendly and likes to show off how pretty his is. Mainly to me though. He tries to be amourous with me, but I gently turn him away from me and explain to him once more that we can only be friends. Then he will finally relax and enjoy the attention. He has gotten much better about this. I am hoping that next year he gets a touch of spring fever and will see Jenny-O in a new light.
Jack really doesn't pay attention to any of our other birds (chickens, ducks and geese), and I have never seen him with the the turkey hen. As soon as I got Jenny-O, she was laying eggs. Although in no particular place. In fact, she perched on the goats pen at night and laid the eggs from up there, her eggs falling 6 feet to the ground. But about a month ago, she crawled into an empty dog crate and began laying eggs and sitting on them. To see if she was serious, we put some straw in front of the crate and she has pulled it all inside with her piece by piece creating a nice snuggly nest. We have no idea if the eggs are fertile, but we are letting her try to hatch them.
Our goose, "Nicki" has always laid about February - May. We collect her eggs for about 3 -4 weeks, until she is consistant where she is laying them, taking that as a sign she is ready to settle down for a nest. Nicki then sits and hatches, then raises her brood. And that is it until the following spring. But then two weeks ago, for the first time in five years, Nicki began laying eggs later in the year and is sitting on them...well, after I settled the issue of who the nest belongs to.
Last weekend we heard alot of gobbling and honking going on. When we got up to feed and investigate, there was Jack sitting on the goose eggs, while the geese complained and tattled to us. Nicki in the lead with her mate, Dusty and the rest of this springs goslings (4 mos old now). But Jack wasn't budging. Picture a child sitting on a chair head down, eyes closed, holding on tight so that you can not pick him up off the chair. That was Jack.
Currently Jack is confined to his pen until we can relocate the geese back into their pen without causing them to give up on their nest.
And still Jack pays no mind to Jenny-O.
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