Baby Announcement

 We are proud to announce the arrival of a baby turkey for our mama turkey!  After a failed attempt to hatch out a  borrowed egg from the chickens, I decided we needed to go the adoption route.  So, off to Guys Farm and Yard I went to see if they had any unclaimed/orphaned baby turkeys from their recent 'chick days'.  Sure enough there was a little bronze turkey baby, needing a home.  So I laid down my $6.25, boxed up the baby and brought it home to our patient brooding mama.  All I had to do is put the little chick in front of mama, and off the chick went, under the wing Mama loving lifted at the sight of it.  Since then the two have been a happy little pair.  She took to mothering right away, and the little chick has been peeping contentedly ever since.

Surrogate Sitter

Our one remaining turkey hen decided, about a month ago, that she was going to 'go broody' as they say.  Which means she wants to make a nest, lay eggs, and incubate them.  Well, the poor girl couldn't lay an egg, but she took to sitting on those two wooden turkey sized eggs in her nest box day after day.  Those wooden eggs had been put there to keep her from going into the wilds to lay her eggs. In an attempt to make her patient and quiet struggle fruitful, I put three fertile chicken  eggs in with the two wooden ones.  A turkey weighs at least 4 times more than a chicken, and a chicken egg is not designed to bear the weight of a turkey, so almost immediately two of the three eggs were crushed.  But, now, 18 days later, the 3rd and last egg is still intact.  If there is a live chick inside....... only time will tell.  She won't let me near the egg long enough to 'candle' it to see.  But, if there is, I would expect a baby chicken in about 4 or 5 days. 

Mama gets all puffed up when I come near.  But I did get a peek at the eggs beneath.

You can see the difference in size

Look at the 'nest' she has made in her next box.