The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[KF0002]

Well, she's in this story I might be writing??
(Here is the only scene I've written her in. She plays a very passive role though...
Background: Acorn is a bourbon red turkey hen and appointed herself leader of the flock because the most of the toms get eaten before they turn four so she decided she deserves the leadership position more than any of them. Rangers are the heritage turkeys.
After the domestic turkey flock's shed burns down, and the house of their keepers, due to a heat lamp fire in the chicken coop they have to strike it out in the wild but unfortunately it's early December so there isn't much room for trial and error)
Christmas is so named because we had a Calico tom named Christmas once because that was when we planned to eat him, so he stuck around a while. Quite memorably, he was very fat.

Spoiler

Acorn’s trumpeted arrival had caused a large lump in the snow to awaken, lift its wrinkled white head, and blink at her with pale blue eyes. It may not surprise you to find that it wasn’t a large lump of snow at all. It was a Broad-Breasted White named Christmas. Apparently, he hadn’t even bothered with roosting, or if he had, the branch had broken under his weight. Not far away, his sister still rested on a small boulder, which was the tallest object she could manage to scale. If this was a testament to her deplorable athleticism, at least it also showed she had something of an instinct of self-preservation and a good amount of determination. It also spoke of her intelligence, which had garnered unprecedented mercy from the Keepers. They changed her name from “Butterball” to “Snowball,” thus making her the first Broad-Breasted turkey they ever chose to spare.
Broad-Breasted turkeys were known to the Rangers as Dumpies, large, clumsy flightless turkeys that never seemed to survive beyond the late autumn of their first year. The Keepers took them away one-by-one, and they never came back. But they did nothing to delay the inevitable, never escaped into the wild, never learned any survival skills. With perhaps one exception…
Acorn ignored Snowball, who had the sense to stay out of her way. Instead, she fixed her dark gaze on Christmas. She was surprised that he had managed to get over the six-foot fence, but she didn’t let him know that she was impressed.“Try sleeping in the trees, next time,” she said tersely. “Sleeping on the ground like that will get you killed by one thing or another.”

It's kind of a first draft so if it's bad I warned you

Will this be a children's story? Because I think it is very interesting, and something I definitely would read.

 

[KF0002]

I'm not sure if that's a real thing or the correct term but it sounded good.
I was thinking like Gumby and how they filmed those.

Kind of like the animation they used to create Chicken Run? I love that movie. Yes, I still watch cartoons.

 

[KF0002]

I have 5 Legbar x Leghorn chicks total from this hatch. So the White Legbar rooster did a decent job after all. His fertility rate looks to be approximately 50%, while the Red Leghorn's fertility rate was 90-100% since he is quite a bit younger. I put the White Legbar rooster with the Brown Leghorn hen on 3/27/25 according to my notes. We set this group of eggs on 4/13/25, so about 2.5 weeks after they were put together, and I got only offspring from the Legbar this hatch. The chicks from the Legbar rooster look very different from the Red x Brown Leghorn chicks, so there is no question. All of the Legbar x Leghorn chicks look pretty much near identical to Cream/Crele Legbar female chicks because they are all single barred.

So while a hen "might" retain a rogue sperm or two from a previous rooster for 2+ weeks, it isn't a high probability based on my own personal experience.

 

[The Moonshiner]

So while a hen "might" retain a rogue sperm or two from a previous rooster for 2+ weeks, it isn't a high probability based on my own personal experience.

Ya I hate that 3 week deal. Right now I'm wanting to just throw things together and get to hatching but I'm trying to slow down and think things through. If I throw a rooster with some hens and then think about a different route I should of taken I have that clean out time to deal with. Hate it.
I think you're right but I just have to know for sure for my own sanity.

 

[Amer]

Will this be a children's story? Because I think it is very interesting, and something I definitely would read.

Tbh I don't know
The problem with my stories is they have a childish concept like turkeys, but the conflict of the story isn't something I think would interest a child: like coming of age, or giving up prejudices and exhibiting the humility to listen to and respect others.
The fact that even one person would consider reading it might give me the motivation to write more.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Tbh I don't know
The problem with my stories is they have a childish concept like turkeys, but the conflict of the story isn't something I think would interest a child: like coming of aged, or giving up prejudices and exhibiting the humility to listen to and respect others.
The fact that even one person would consider reading it might give me the motivation to write more.

Hey I read what was in the spoiler and I hate reading so.....
I see what you're saying but it's not all a bad thing. It'd be a way kids could learn those lessons and in a way that they could get the message without it being like lectured to them if that makes sense.
You'd just have to add enough goofiness or adventure or whatnot to keep them invested.
I'd read that kind of stuff to my kid or have him read it now days and then it'd open the door to deeper conversations.

 

[KF0002]

Tbh I don't know
The problem with my stories is they have a childish concept like turkeys, but the conflict of the story isn't something I think would interest a child: like coming of aged, or giving up prejudices and exhibiting the humility to listen to and respect others.
The fact that even one person would consider reading it might give me the motivation to write more.

You know there is a geeky adult audience (like me) who love poultry that it would appeal to. You may even be able to find an animator to collab with and you could do the narration.

 

[The Moonshiner]

@TesoroSena has a published Turkey book.
Tes come and tell them about it.

 

[KF0002]

Hey I read what was in the spoiler and I hate reading so.....
I see what you're saying but it's not all a bad thing. It'd be a way kids could learn those lessons and in a way that they could get the message without it being like lectured to them if that makes sense.
You'd just have to add enough goofiness or adventure or whatnot to keep them invested.
I'd read that kind of stuff to my kid or have him read it now days and then it'd open the door to deeper conversations.

Agreed. I love reading, and totally would have read a book like that when I was a kid.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thoughts, anyone?

Okay I have that Trailblazer. Was on a gravel road the other day dodged some potholes but hit some washboards. It developed a rattle somewhere underneath after that.
It only rattles when the vehicle is moving and of course that makes it hard to locate when I'm in the vehicle making it move. I'm thinking jack up the rear end put jack stands under the rear axle so the back tires are off the ground. You see where this is going?
Get in start it give it a little gas and set cruise control. Then hop out and try to find the rattle while the back wheels are spinning in the air.
Brilliant or I've lost my mind thinking it'll work?