The Call Again Farm Journal

Well, with all the business of Christmas, I got out of the habit of blogging.  It's spring now, and I've made a "New Season Resolution" to start blogging again.

No major changes have occurred on the farm since I last blogged, but there's a little news.  Blue's poults are now all grown up, and one of them made a very tasty meal for the piano tuner.  We haven't gotten around to butchering the other three yet, and two of them have acquired names, courtesy of Dianna.  She calls the young tom "Sonny" and the flighty young hen "Flake".  She's lobbying to name the other young hen "Sister" (her aunt and uncle were called "Sonny" and "Sister"), but I'm resisting.  Who wants to eat their aunt and uncle?  Our rooster, King Louis XIV, is just about as mean as ever, but I've been handing him more and giving him food in an effort to tame him.  The birds have gotten the idea that's it's now spring.  The turkeys have started laying eggs (which they like to hide in clever places like the raspberry bushes) and the chickens' lay rate has started to pick up.  On Thursday, I put twenty-three turkey eggs in the incubator, so we should have some baby turkeys hatching on April 23rd.  I'm planning on starting incubation of more turkey eggs and some chicken eggs soon.

We've had a flock of wild turkeys hanging around lately.  Every few days we see about nine wild turkeys flying or running across our pasture, from across the street into the woods.  Every now and then, a wild turkey will get to the fence in the back of the pasture and not know how to go through.  I'll then go outside and over to where the wild turkeys is.  That will freak it out so much it will fly into the air, then realize oh! flying is the way to get over the fence!  Turkeys aren't stupid, but they can act like they are when they panic.  The funniest part about having the wild turkeys around is seeing how they react to the chickens.  A wild turkey was running through are yard recently but almost ran into a chicken.  It then stop, and starting walking very slowly and jerkily.  It was scared of a bird that was half its weight and a third its height!

I promise that I'll blog again tomorrow!