| Ducks | Turkeys | Chickens |
Turkeys seemed the natural progression to our poultry obsession so here are a few we would like you to meet. We started out with an assortment from a Heritage turkey farm. When they arrived we found Naragansett, Royal Palms, and Bourbon Reds. As they matured we found that one Tom stood out as the dominant male. Spreading his feathers wide while all the rest of the males remained at half mast looking very sheepish. If any dared to show an interest in a hen “Tom” soon put them sternly into place. He started meeting us at the gate defending his brood. He has become so aggressive we now enter with our “turkey stick” to ward off his advances.
The demand for our Heritage naturally grown birds far exceeded our supply so we sacrificed as many as we dared without cutting into what was beginning to look like a budding romance between “Red” (our Bourbon Red hen) and “Tom” (our Naragansett tom). Red’s favorite friend was a Naragansett hen we named “Henny Penny” and, although she was not on Tom’s list of favorites, she and Red had started laying eggs regularly. We researched frantically to find out what to expect next, but unfortunately not much has been written about "turkeys raising turkeys" since the advent of sex-less, overweight commercial meat birds. We decided to let nature take its course and see if the Heritage birds could do what they were meant to do. They didn't let us down!
It was not long before Red was sitting on a clutch of eggs. Henny was still doing her best to attract Tom’s attention to no avail but she decided to keep laying and hope that perhaps, by osmosis, she could have some fertile eggs. She and Red shared one nest and took turns back and forth setting while the other ate or drank or just went on walk-about, sometimes crowding together at the same time. We soon had 24 fuzzy babies peeking out from beneath our two moms. Our first clutch did so well with Red and Henny sharing the brooding duties, we believe they never would have done as well alone.
Our breeding flock has grown to include one of Red and Tom’s babies, Henny Penny of course and a White Holland hen we call Fido for her penchant for playing tug-of-war with our gloves. All of these birds seem to get along well and Tom tolerates Barry, his son, who is friendly with Fido and Red but never Henny……strange…..she seems attractive enough to us but, obviously, turkeys have their own set of criteria. She can live out her days with us as an incredible nanny and fierce defender of her adopted clutch of babies each spring. Last year she took care of Red’s and Fido’s babies without a hitch. So sad that none of her eggs ever hatch and we discreetly dispose of them so as not to hurt her feelings. We did not start out with much of a plan but our turkeys seem to have chosen well and our babies are always happy and healthy.