Well, it was that time of year again, where our heritage turkey hens get broody. Tasha, our star mommy, got broody in a little nook in a pile of “stuff” in our barn. So, I decided to move her and the eggs into our brooder barn (formerly the summer kitchen), with a nice nest, and private, but after a couple of days, she wouldn’t sit on them. So, back went the eggs into the nook nest, and her free, and lo and behold, she started sitting on them again. Then, the strategy became, let her hatch them out, and hopefully we can gather her and the chicks and put them in the brooder barn.
Well, 28 days or so later, sure enough, little turkey chicks (I call them “turklets”, like “chicklets” 😉 ) started showing. We wanted to let her finish hatching, but didn’t want to wait long because of our cats potentially getting them. But then, we came home one day, and things were in some chaos, so something had happened, and so we tried to round up the chicks and her, and get them in the brooder barn. It went ok, although I believe we lost one in the process. Still, she had been sitting on quite a few eggs, and we were able to get her and five live turklets inside.
These chicks have always seemed fragile over the years, and so we had no idea what to expect. In fact, another turkey hen or ours, Olivia, recently started sitting, and they started to hatch out, all three or four were basically out of the shell, but dead when I found them. Always so sad. But, by God’s graces, Tasha’s grew, and continued to.
Here they are fairly young, maybe a couple of weeks after hatching:
And then perched with mommy for the night. She’s very protective, so any resupplying of water and food had to be done at night, or she might go crazy and try to fly out the window, which she has done 🙂 :
Last year, after shortly letting out Tasha and her two turkets, something happened one night in the barn, and then next morning, one had disappeared, and the other was terminally injured, so we lost both of them. They weren’t tiny when we let them out, but I wondered if perhaps that was part of the cause of their loss. And so, this year, I wanted to keep them in the brooder barn longer.
And here is their video, from when they were younger, to the perch night, to freedom day, and a little beyond! (I do mention these are the only ones she hatched out, but that wasn’t correct, as noted above.)
And finally here they are recently hanging out up in the tree:
We are grateful to the Lord for these new provisions, and we pray they continue in health, in accordance with His perfectly wise and good will!
— David
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