The Call Again Farm Journal

Tonight, when I brought the turkeys into the barn, I saw my first two violets of the year.  For some people, crocuses or daffodils are their favorite indicators of spring among flora, but for me, it's violets.  Crocuses often come up in early March, only to be buried in a week of snow storms, but violets usually don't start showing up until the arrival of spring weather is imminent.  (Incidentally, since we were speaking of daffodils, the daffodils at church were blooming today.)

Now, I admit that tomorrow night, snow is in the forecast.  However, it should only be a light dusting.  The little purple wild violets in my yard are just the latest in a long series of signs in nature, including many sightings of our local crestless male cardinal and his crested lady, hearing peepers, seeing kettles of migrating hawks, a bush in the back yard with the green buds of leaves, and the lengthening of the days, that the change of seasons is happening.  There may be setbacks, like the little snow that may come soon, but this is only one step back.  For every one step back, there are many bounds forward.  In several weeks, spring will be in full throttle.  I've seen this change many times, yet every year it fills me with awe.  This is a change that I truly believe in - and love.

In incubation news, I put a second batch of twenty-nine turkey eggs in the incubator last night.  I also noticed that another one of my turkey hens, Two-Tone, is flirting with broodiness.  This is what I call the early stages of broodiness (a mother bird deciding to incubate eggs) where the hen sits on the eggs for a while, then will get off for a day or two, then get back on, etc.  After a few days, she'll either settle down to be a good, reliable broody or, in a few unusual cases, abandon the nest.