The Call Again Farm Journal

This morning, Rosy was desperate to get of the nest box.  When I let the other turkeys outside, she started making a ruckus.  I then commence to let her out of the nest box into a small, enclosed area of the barn.  She briefly stopped at the waterer, as thought to take a drink, but changed her mind.  She started running around and calling out to the rest of the turkeys.  After she'd gone to the bathroom and run around for a few minutes, I determined that it was time for her to go back into the nest box so her eggs wouldn't get cold.  I tried to catch her, but she made it plenty clear that she wasn't going to go back in until she spent some time with her flock, so I let her outside.  After I did all my morning chores for the turkeys and chickens, Rosy really did have to go back in, because there was no way I was going to get back into my barn clothes and take care of her after I took a shower.  I must have spent more than five minutes chasing that silly turkey around the yard before I caught her and put her back.  She stood in the nest box for a little while before finally sitting down to incubate her eggs.  (I image if she could, she would have sat down with a sigh.)  She didn't seem quite sold on this whole broody business.  When I put the turkeys away a few minutes ago and did the evening chores, she seemed happily settled down, though.  I'll see what she'd like tomorrow.

I candled the older clutch of turkey eggs in the incubator today.  It is the eighteenth day of their incubation, which corresponds with the final picture for candling in The New Incubation Book, labeled "Sixteenth day and beyond".  I didn't egg rid of any eggs because there were that definitely were bad.  There were a couple eggs that looked somewhat questionable, so I'll probably candle a few days before the eggs are do to hatch.

I also tried to do seventh day candling on the younger clutch of eggs, but it was too hard to tell which eggs are good and which aren't at such an early stage of embryonic development.  I was getting too stressed out and worried, so I gave up.  I'll definitely do twelfth day candling on them, which is easy and fun.

A woman and her grandson stopped by today on their walk.  I'd seen them before, pausing along the side of the road for the little boy in the stroller to watch the turkeys.  They saw Bob in the yard, and came and asked where the turkeys were.  It turns out that they were out of the fence, in the woods, so I had to herd them back.  I caught my hen Blue, and was carrying her over to show them when their dog started barking.  They had to leave in a hurry, but they said they'd stop by again without the dog.  I hope they do.  The woman seemed really interested to here all about my turkeys and the little boy loved them and was trying to imitate Big Guy's gobble-gobble-gobble.

Yesterday was Sonny's big day.  He made a wonderful centerpiece for our Easter dinner, and all of our guests couldn't get over how tender and delicious the turkey was.

We didn't have enough stuffing, though.  After being plucked, etc., Sonny weighed 14 pounds, and Bob and I bought enough stuffing for a 16 to 20 pound turkey.  We could have used an extra half of a bag.  Bob suspects that this is because the label was designed with the typical grocery store turkey in mind, the Broad Breasted.  They have big thick double breasts that leave little room for a chest cavity.  Our heritage turkeys, meanwhile, only have a single breast that isn't so dense, allowing more space for stuffing.

The worst part of the meal was just before we ate.  As we were about to say grace, a mother and daughter knocked at the door.  They said they lived down the street, and had been going for a walk when they saw a car hit a turkey.  The came to let us know because they knew we kept turkeys.  I walked down the street to where the dead turkey was, a feeling of dread in my stomach.  As soon as I saw the dead turkey, I felt a sense of relief.  It was a wild turkey, not a beloved member of my breeding flock!