The Ultimate Babysitter

Waldo or "Wally" is the best turkey daddy ever.

He is protective without being overbearing, gentle without being a push-over.

He accepts everyone without question and patiently stands guard over everyone, alerting them to any potential danger, be it real or imagined.

We added a couple of Blue Slate cross poults to our turkey family a few weeks ago, with the idea of growing a hen or 2 into being breeder mamas for next year.  Their offspring, because they will be really mixed up crosses, will hopefully be larger than the Royal Palms, and will be market turkeys for Christmas 2014.

Wally watches over these three "adopted" babies as if they were his own.

What an awesome dad he is :)

Incubator Work Out

As promised: Ducklings!!

Bath time:

These 4 little fuzz balls have got to be the cutest things I've seen of late! 

Ya, and going back to that thing I wasn't supposed to do -- incubating waterfowl with turkeys.  Well.  Um. OK, so not only did I mix water and land, I also had the eggs due to hatch on different days, like a week apart, so I stopped turning the turkey eggs while the ducks were hatching.  Not supposed to do that.

Are you waiting for bad news?

There isn't any :)

Eight turkey eggs went into lock down, after resuming the turning schedule after the ducks hatched (I also did a quick clean out of the incubator after the ducklings were in the brooder so the turkeys would have a clean start)...

and...

8 hatched: fine and fluffy and healthy as anything.

Whew!

So Much to Say ...

So Few Pictures!

Like, none :(

Things are rolling right along on our little slice of land, I just haven't had time.  There's couple photos I have taken, and will share as soon as I can get them downloaded, but for now, you'll just have to be patient and enjoy the mental images.

The lambs are getting SO big!  It's getting hard to tell who are the mama ewes and who are the babies.  I'm letting the mamas wean the babies gradually, instead of seperating them as most shepherds do after about the 2 month-mark.  For a couple of reasons.  I think my sheep are happier all together and I'd rather not shock the mamas into mastitus or something of the sort. Plus, I really don't have a lot of extra space to seperate them completely, far enough away from each other, and provide adequate housing so that they are safe from predators at night.  So, I'm going with the gradual wean.  And it's interesting to watch.  Being a long-term breast-feeder of both my babes (we're talking over 5 years and almost 5 years, respectively), it's just easier on the moms and babes, physically and emotionally.  And I'm noticing that the mama ewes are letting the lambs nurse less and less, and for much shorter periods (like, seconds!). So ya, right or wrong, that's what I'm doing and it seems to be working for my girls.

The ducklings hatched last week -- I started with 4 eggs in the incubator, and got four ducklings!  I had to help the last 2 out.  I think they might have gotten a little shrink-wrapped when I opened the incubator to nab the first two.  You're not supposed to do that either - open the incubator when there are critters hatching -- but ducks are messy and I didn't want them pooping on the other duck eggs or disturbing the turkey eggs that still had a week to go.  Ya Ya, I know, you're not supposed to do That Either -- put land poultry in with waterfowl, but hey, I'm on a bit of a roll of doing things against the grain.  So far, it's working for me; hopefully that continues.  We'll see when the turkeys are due to hatch this week!

The turkey mamas are doing fantastically with their babies in the netted yard.  We had a couple of casualties in the first day, when the little tiny poults were finding their way out of the pen through little tiny cracks we didn't even know were there.  But since then, it's been all good.  Mamas are keeping them warm, the poults are eating well and growing strong.  I have someone coming for 8 little ones this week, which will leave mama Tasha with 3 to raise.  Mama Violet still has her 3 (she hatched 10, I sold 4 and some winged predator gobbled down 3 before we could blink).

The chicks we hatched out this spring are all doing well.  My 4H Daughter is slowly but surely selling off her extra roosters to people who want "Daddy Birds" as opposed to dinner, which makes her very happy, and at this time, supplies her with just enough extra cash to pay for their food.  Man, those large breeds can EAT!  She's got the Buff Orphingtons, which we affectionately call "The Monsters".  They are so big, but so gentle, and they way they walk is a sight to behold.  It kind of reminds me of Jurrassic Park - Thud Thud Thud as they cruise the pasture.  Too Funny.  The marans and my 2 sweet little wheaton ameraucanas are coming along too.  They are just 10 weeks old, but so sweet and colorful!  It seems that out of my ameraucana eggs that hatched, I have gotten the ultimate chicken wish: 1 rooster and 1 hen.  Rooster has been named Sting (we name all the roosters after singers), and the hen?  "Happy".  'Cuz that's what I am that she's a hen :)

Lastly, for now anyway, I was perusing the chicken classifieds and thinking "I am NEVER going to find any dark silkies this year"  and lo and behold, the next ad I saw was just that -- Three 12 week old black silkies!  Obviously I didn't hesitate.  I was hoping to get a hen, but now it seems I may have a little breeding pair!  Oh bliss!

I'll sound off for now -- and publish again -- with Pictures! -- very soon.

Take care, friends.

:: In Progress ::

Well.  My dance card has been FULL lately, let me tell you!

So, in short, here's what's in progress around here ...

:: First batch of Buff Orphingtons are now old enough (and Big Enough!) to be in with the main flock
:: Second round of orphingtons - 3 buffs and 6 isobels - are in the transition yard beside the main flock
:: My birthday presents, the marans and wheaton ameraucanas, are now by themselves in the chick yard, covered by netting to protect them from winged predators
:: First hatch of turkeys happened Today!  Mama Violet hatched 10/10 eggs and is now in the Turkey Nursery yard, which is also covered with netting for the same reason as above
:: Tasha the Turkey hen is sitting on a clutch of eggs, due sometime next week
:: The garlic is going Mental
:: I have volunteer potatoes and New Zealand spinach in the garden - boy is it nice when plants come up all by themselves!
:: It's looking like a good crop of strawberries and raspberries this year!
:: We gave away 1 drake (kept 1), and are hatching ducklings in the incubator next week
:: The lambs are now 10 weeks old, and the boys have all been castrated (!)
:: My "shalom" sweater is near completion!

We've plateau'ed for a bit now -- garden is mostly planted, the lambs don't need to be doted upon, the chicks are all outside and doing well, the turkey mamas and babes have protection.  It's all just basic management at this point.  The ducklings will stir things up a bit next week and will require a little extra attention, and I have turkey eggs in the incubator too and my fingers are crossed that all goes well there.  I've only ever had mama-hatched poults before and they do SO well with mama.  Why the incubator then?  I had turkeys laying eggs all over and no one sitting on them, and really, at $15 per poult, it's a bit of gold when they hatch.  All the money we get from selling baby turkeys goes to feeding the rest of the birds, and it would be so nice not to dip into our personal savings to feed everyone this winter.

Next update: ducklings!

See you soon....

I Won't Do THAT Again

What, you ask?  Loan out my incubator in the spring.  Stupid me!    A friend of my daughter's asked if, for her birthday, she could hatch a few chicks.  It was the beginning of March, and I think, sure why not.  Great experience for another home-schooled kid.  (Why should my kids get all the fun, eh?) So after I hatched out 16 of my Birthday presents, 

Blue & Birchen Marans chicks, 3 days old

I handed it over, no charge.  Am I crazy?  Yes!!  There's a guy locally who rents out his incubators to families, schools, libraries, etc for $100.  They hatch out 7 of his eggs, and return the chicks and all the equipment.  Basically charges $100 for the experience, and I'm giving it out for free.  Not to mention, the turkeys, ducks AND geese all decided to start laying and not setting about a week after the incubator settled in it's new (temporary) home.  Grrrr.  So I sold several dozen turkey and duck eggs as "fertile" eggs to try to save some of these eggs that could be turned into creatures.  I'm still waiting for the turkeys to start setting, and I'm collecting the goose eggs to incubate.  I get the incubator back next Friday, and I'm counting the days.  I sure hope these turkeys go broody soon!

Duck, Duck, Goose...

... Chicken, Beep.

Duck Egg, Duck Egg, Goose Egg, Chicken Egg, Beep Egg :)

Hee Hee!  We're up to our eyeballs in eggs over here - must be Spring!  The ducks have started laying and since we have 3 ducks and 2 drakes, we are getting a lot of duck eggs - fertile ones at that.  So while my incubator is on loan to a friend, I'm selling fertile duck eggs.  Not a bad interum gig.  The geese, Jordie and Lucy, are also wanting to start a family!  So I think we are going to let them do that; Lucy is just collecting her eggs at the moment.   Apparently, in her "other" life at the farm-before-ours, she often tried to set on a nest, but the ducks would bother her right off of it.  Not this time!  We'll make sure she has the privacy she needs.

And Mr. Raven paid us a call the other day, and because of him, we discovered the turkeys have started a clutch of eggs as well.  We moved the nest and showed the turkey hens where it was, and they seemed quite happy with the new location.  Not only was the old location in full view of passing crows and ravens, it was right beside the pond.  I could totally see unaware turkey babes plunging into the water and us finding the unlucky hatchlings floating... not to mention distraught mothers!  Ugh.  So move them we did and since they seem to be adding to the nest, me thinks they are pleased with our suggestion.

Spring Reading!

"Hatching and Brooding Your Own Chicks" by Gail Damerow.  Truly, if you're planning on hatching chicks this spring (or ducks, turkeys, geese, quail, or whatever), this book is super awesome, especially if you have kids that are interested in the process, as the photos are Amazing and very helpful!!  I bought it on a whim from amazon.ca and am not disappointed!  Gail Damerow is a noted "expert" on chickens and has written several books, including Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, which is also very helpful, though I really enjoyed the photos in this book.  It even has real-life images of what a chick looks like in every day of development, which is great if you're like me and crack the unhatched eggs to find out why they didn't hatch. You can then figure on the approximate day the embryo died and possible reasons why.
I highly recommend this book to anyone planning on hatching birds this spring!

And Now We Wait

I can't help it.  I love spring, and now, with Christmas, New Years and my dear daughter's birthday over and done, I'm now waiting for spring.

Truly, when the grey cloud of blah sits comfortably over our valley for days and weeks on end, and all we see of the sun is a brief gasp before he pulls his head back above the clouds, it's all we can do to cope.  We're not much for skiing and skating.  I think maybe we've spent too many winters in Mexico sunshine and we're now wimpy Canadians.

So, we wait.

And plan and dream of chicks and ducklings and goslings and baby turkeys and lambs!  If all went well with Mr. Man's visit, first possible lamb is due to show it's adorable face anytime after March 9.

And so, I wait.

And.

Wait.

How many more days?

Sigh.

Winter to Me :: In Pictures

Cosy up, peoples, 'cuz, baby, it's COLD outside.

Looking for Inspiration

I don't know about you all, but I have issues with the holiday season.

All the shopping and spending and stress just does not resonate with me.  Not. At. All.

I do my best to make the gifts for my immediate family and hope that friends and extended family will be happy with warm wishes and a big hug.  I have no desire to step into the hustle and bustle and traffic.  But I do like to decorate, a little bit.  Subtle bits, here and there, to add a a little festive to our home.  Make it that much cozier, seeing as we are spending so much time indoors these days.  Which is trying for a family who is outside all the time in the warmer months.

So, where to go for inspiration??  Well, Soule Mama, of course.

We took a little walk in the backyard (with an entourage of curious turkeys), and collected a few little treasures.

Then we did a little crafting.

(We did a wreath too, but haven't got a shot of that yet.)

Thank you, Amanda Blake Soule, for being such a gentle inspiration when one needs a little help.

Triticale Update

I promised a triticale update, oh, I dunno... ages ago.  I was waiting to see if I would get around to the final thing on my triticale-to-do list -- making bread from the flour -- but, that adventure is no where in sight.  I,  currently, am up to my eyeballs in turkey babies (hatching and selling), apple-collecting, tomato-harvesting, and the end-of-season garden clean up (well, only in some areas), as well as entertaining a little fuzz ball named "Beep" who insists she's human.  Or at the very least, a very intelligent parrot.

So, I could go on and on about all those other things, but instead will just give you a glimpse of what this whole triticale experience has meant for me.

It started off as ground cover, to shade weeds and hopefully inhibit their growth.

It did a pretty good job of that, seeing as we had probably about 66% less weeds than last year, and that's only from planting the triticale and the vetch.  Good thing #1.

I have spent several hours among the stalks, cutting off the seed heads and storing them in various containers.  I have to hide and secure the containers, or the turkeys will find them and Eat Them All.

 Which is not a huge bad thing as the grain is high in protein (turkeys need a higher protein than chickens, especially in the first 6-8 weeks), and cheap free.  Free is good! (Good thing #2)  AND I've recently discovered that triticale is NOT on the GMO list, so all the seed heads that have fallen to the ground should germinate in the spring. Yay!  Plus it's nice to know that I'm not feeding adulterated food to my birds.  (Good thing #3)

Good thing #4 - I could be using the straw part of the plant as bedding for the animals, but honestly, I'm too full of other things to do right now... but I could  use it for that.

And then, of course, Good Thing #5 - it apparently makes great bread.  I would love to get a chance to try that, but that remains to be seen.

Oh, and Good Thing #6, predators can't see the sheep as the triticale blocks their view.  I think we would plant it again for this point only.

So, there you have it.  The Update.  Whew.

Absent...

My weekend reading post will be absent again.  I've had some trouble getting into a good book lately for a variety of reasons.  It's September.  (In case you were unaware.)  Septemberrrrrrr. We've actually been hitting near-frost temperatures around here the past several nights.  And with warm afternoons and chilly overnights, I've got my hands full.  We've been outside as much as possible, enjoying the afternoon warmth that may or may not be with us much longer.  And our early evenings are spent making sure the garden is well-tucked in -- and harvesting as much as possible --

-- and the littles are warm.  Mama turkey Violet still has her 2 (we sold the other 8), and the 4 chicks that are now 5 weeks old still need a bit of heat overnight, though they are spending their days outdoors.  Then there's Beep, who still seems happy in the incubator, between bouts of being toted around in some kind of kid-made contraption.  Beep will stay in there (I can gradually lower the temperature) until she really starts to feather-out, then weather-pending, she'll start spending days outside.  I think I will put together a little chicken tractor for the garden as things are finishing up, for the 4 older chicks and Beep to do their chicken thing.  Oh, and there's next week, when Tasha's littles are due to hatch. And she's sitting on 20 eggs.  Oh, my.

Then, the fact that it's September.  It kind of sneaked up on me.  I wasn't ready to go back to schedules, even though we are homeschooling this year, and more "unschooling" than anything.  We are at the dance studio 3 times/week, plus soccer practice and games, 4H every second week, and music for the little man.  I will breathe a little deeper once October is here and soccer is done and most of the harvesting is also done.  Most because I plan to grow stuff as long as possible, whether with cloches, under plastic, or with straw bales and old windows.  

Oh, and my little reading light died on me, which is where I do most of my reading, in bed, just before the heaviness of my eye lids overcomes me.  So, stay tuned; I have a mess of books on my nightstand and I will get back to those weekly reading posts.  Soon.

Beep.

Hi. Meet "Beep".  We're calling her that as that's the noise she seems to make.  (We're also calling it "she" because that's what we hope it is!  Call it wishful thinking.)  Beep was incubated under Violet the Turkey mama with her other 10 babes, but when Violet abandoned her nest after her 10 babes had hatched, this little one still had 2 days to go.  So I stuck her egg in my shirt for 2 days to see if it would hatch.  I actually thought it was dead, as I did a "float test" and came up with nothing.  Why I stuck her back in my shirt after a dud test, I'll never know.  Call it mother's intuition.  Beep is living in the incubator for a few more days until she has enough feathers to go out with the other chicks, who are now 4 weeks old.  Or she might just live in the house for a while.  She's a chatty little thing, loves being part of the action.  We often bring her out for cuddles, and she seems to love listening to bedtime stories and chatters along with the reader.

Welcome Beep!

 

Newly hatched

So these are the newest littles around here.  Violet hatched out 10 babes yesterday!  Wow.  So cute and So. Little.  We let her do her thing and wander around the yard yesterday and she successfully overnighted all 10.  But when a chilly wind struck up this afternoon, we decided we needed to step in.  As the 5 babies that were in the old dog run are now free ranging and perching at night where-ever they please, we set up the heat lamp again and some fresh straw, food and water (with ACV and molasses for an extra boost) and caught up Violet and all the babies and settled them in.  Surprisingly, Violet seemed Very Happy with the new digs.  Like she knew she could relax a little and her babies would be safe.

Now a side story to this is that we also had 2 chicken eggs underneath Violet which were due to hatch Thursday (tomorrow).  So when Violet left her nest with her hatchlings YESTERDAY with 2 days left to go on the chicken eggs, we started to fret, especially since 1 egg already had a crack in it.  What's a good farm mom to do?  Well, pop it into my bra, that's what.  Oh dear.  Through the crack in the shell, I could tell it was still alive, so I figured that as long as it's still alive, I'll do my best for it.  So I've kept it in my shirt since yesterday morning.  This morning, dear daughter bumped me with a chair and TOTALLY cracked the shell. I figured it was done for.  But no, still kicking.  So I wetted a wool coffee sleeve that I had knitted a while back, warmed up a heat pad and have continued to tote this little package around.  And now?  Now it's CHEEPING.

Venturing Out

Our youngest turkey poults are now about 7 weeks old, old enough to get outside.  They have been living in the old dog run house for the past several weeks, turning a heat lamp on at night for them.  They are getting a little cramped in there now, so this morning, we opened the door just slightly so they can check things out - Outside.  The big and scary Outside.  So they take a few steps, and run back in.  A few steps further, run back in... Repeat.  Typical kids :)

Hide n Seek :)

Hmmm.  Hello Violet.  What are you doing?

Oh my!

I couldn't find one of our turkey hens the other morning.  My imagination thought the worst, so I started looking for feathers, a sure sign something got her.  Couldn't find any.  Another thought entered my head, so I started looking in well- hidden spots, and found her, very quietly, sitting... on 16 eggs.

The Full-ness of Summer

"Do you have a sec for me?  Puhleeeese??"

Wow.  It's already August.  Where does the time go?  It seems we spend most of the year waiting for summer and then it goes by in a blink.  I truly wonder where my days go.  I have been working 3 mornings a week at our family business, but the rest of the time is relatively unaccounted for.  I have not enrolled the kids in any camps, other than 1-3hr art camp, and the boy in a 2 hr/day music camp - but that hasn't even happened yet. 

My days are FULL.  With what?  Ummm.... there's been more than a few birthday parties for kids' friends lately.  Not very much beach time at all.  The harvesting of various veggies and berries and the resulting canning or processing of such foods. Knitting where I can, even just for a few stitches.

And my "rounds" as I like to call them.

All of which can be interrupted at a moment's notice by one of the children, usually the boy, hollering about something from the deck as they can't be bothered to come and find me.  (Our place isn't THAT big.)  More often than not, the boy needs me to watch him go to the bathroom.  He's 5.  And on the precipice of becoming a musician.  Me thinks he's just getting used to having an audience.  I half expect him to bow after he's done his business.  Anyway, I digress.

About 3 times a day, I start in the backyard with the turkey babes, watering, feeding, checking the heat and watching for anything out of the ordinary.  Then to the adult birds, ducks and geese included.  Then to the "nursery" yard, where the several of this year's chicks (not so much chicks anymore) are foraging and learning about life as a chicken.  I usually cuddle one or 2 of the little ladies (Princess Leia being a favourite -- she's a pure white Easter Egger).

Wondering to myself when I'm going to get to repairing the little coop in the chicken garden adjacent to the main chicken yard so that I can move these lovelies so as to become aquainted with the main flock through the fence.  Gotta do that SOON.  Then, leaving them, through the garden to be sure everything is going as it should be, stopping to munch on something yummy, or yank out a few weeds.  Then to the sheep yard, a chat & a scratch with the girls there, checking on water, and enjoying the simpleness that is sheep.  Watching them for a while, where they are hanging out at various times of the day, what they are eating and when.

Making mental notes to self about all that and thinking about how we are going to pen them with their newborn lambs next spring.   Lastly, to the main chicken yard to watch the grown up birds getting lost in the tall tall grass there, clucking happily to themselves as they find another tasty morsel.  Watching them for a bit.  And lastly into the coop itself to collect whatever gold lies there (in the way of fresh eggs, of course).  And winding my way back up to the house, wash off the eggs and any other goodies from the garden.

All the while, thinking about all these critters that have found their way to us, what they mean to us, how they enrich our lives in so many ways.  And loving them all, even the ones that will eventally be in the freezer, and thanking my lucky stars that I can do this.

Are they turkeys or are they vultures?

Turkeys now doing well.  They like to perch on top of the old playhouse, about 10 feet in the air. All the girls and the 2 yard babies can get up there, and to the untrained eye, they might resemble vultures!  Quite funny and quite safe up there.  Poor Waldo is bigger and is molting so can't get enough air to perch that high, so I usually find him, or clues that he's been, on the gate.  Hmmm.  Turkey poop is similar to chicken poop. But bigger.  And smellier. Yuk.

We moved the babies to a bigger home too; their little cage in the chicken house was getting too crowded.

I was worried about them the first night.  I think I mentioned that turkeys get upset easily, so changing their home was a little daunting.  I was concerned they'd forget how to eat, or be too scared to venture out, away from their hatch-mates, so I made sure they knew where their food and water was by dipping their beaks into it.  They seem to be getting the hang of it.  My fingers are crossed that we're out of the woods with these  little guys!  I swear, chicks are on their way after about 4-6 days.  Turkey poults are more like 3-5 weeks.  Gotta keep a close eye on them, that's for sure.

Turkey Trials and Tribulations... OR Turkey Math

I wouldn't say I'm out of my element.  I've raised turkeys before.  But, I've never had breeder turkeys who are hatching and raising their own babies.  This part is entirely new to me.

When we received this generous gift of birds, there was 1 mom with 3 babes, 1 mom with 12 babes, another mom with 4 babes and then an orphaned babe called Sydney.  The mom with 4 babes ("Alexa") was traumatized during the 5 hour hot road trip and we were worried that she would abandon her little ones, so we put them in a brooder with little Sydney.  We also decided that the runty one of the 12 babes would do better in the brooder too.  So that made 3+11 poults outside with moms and 6 in the brooder.  The other night there was some commotion outside, we heard Big Wally go off a few times, and then nothing.  Upon waking and doing the ritual head-count, we discovered that mom with 3 babes ("Milly") was down to 2 and there was a raven circling.  (Why can't these birds just focus on eating dead things instead of baby things??)

Friday we came home after a few hours at the beach with some friends, and "Violet" (mom with 11 babes)   could only account for 8.  Sigh.  Then Saturday we came home and we could only find 7 of those babes and they were scattered all over the place, some even as far as the neighbor's yard.  After rounding these little ones up not once, not twice, but FOUR times this afternoon, we decided that this momma turkey can't handle the responsibility of raising so many, even with Auntie Alexa's help.  So the kids started rounded them up.  We thought that perhaps she could manage 2, so we left her with 2 and put the other 5 in the brooder.  Um. Ok, letsee, that's 11 in the brooder now, and 4 outside.  Ooops, wait a minute!  There's another one!  But this one was soaking wet, like it had fallen in the pond.  We warmed it with a hairdryer and then carried it around under our shirts for an hour or so, then put it into the brooder.  12 in the brooder, 4 outside.

Coming back to check on everyone that night, one of the little ones in the brooder (I can only assume that it was the chilled poult from this afternoon) didn't look so great.  So brought it in the house and tried to warm it, but alas.  Too late.  The sweet little creature died in my hands.  *Heavy Sigh.*  At least it wasn't alone.  In hindsight, we should have carried it around under our shirts for the rest of the day.  Turkey math: 11 in the brooder and 4 outside.

Sunday morning, my son came in to announce there was another dead one in the brooder.  Whew.  Removed it, said a few apologies to the little creature and buried it in the compost pile.  A few hours later, we check again, and 3 MORE had passed.  Gosh!  What the hell was going on???  I lowered the heat lamp, checked temperatures, changed their food, added ACV to their water (was only adding it sporadically before) and crossed my fingers.  Updated turkey math: 7 in the brooder, still 4 outside.  I can only assume now that the one we warmed actually survived and the ones we rounded up were the ones we lost.  Maybe they got too stressed being separated from their mom several times that one day, then permanently.  Maybe they got chilled in that time. I'll never know.

It's now Tuesday night and since that last catastrophe, we haven't lost any others.  Turkey math at 4 outside and 7 in the brooder still stands.

Will post more pics soon.

The Farm is Expanding!!

Well, I certainly didn't think I'd say THAT this summer, and definitely not in the way it has.  My "plan " was to get my wooly sheep next year for sure, and bees shortly after that.  Hmm. Life doesn't always work out how you plan, does it?  I casually said to the family the other day, how I'd love to have geese again.  Our friend's parents, who live on a farm in Saskatchewan, raise African Geese, and we were chatting with them about possibly bringing out either some eggs for us to hatch, or some new goslings next time they came through town.

It wasn't even 5 hours later when we got a message that our neighbor wanted to speak with us.  "Oh No." We thought.  We already know he doesn't like our noisy rooster, Jagger.  We thought he was calling to complain or something.

Nothing like that at all.

Turns out, he has a friend who was looking for a home for some of his birds.  Story goes, that this guy's neighbor decided to put up a dog run right up next to his fence where he has kept several hundred (yes, HUNDRED) breeding turkeys and their families.  Long sad story short, turkeys stress very easily.  Poor guy came home to over 300 dead adult and baby turkeys.  He was absolutely heartbroken.  So rather than risk losing the rest of them, he put out the word.  And Our Neighbor suggested Us!  Unbelievable!  We thought he frowned upon our critters, but he says he knew we would be a great home for these birds.  Oh, wow.  Never underestimate someone, people.  You never know when they might surprise you.

So our new additions were delivered Sunday morning, after a 5 hour truck ride in the heat.  Yes, can you believe it??  He was so anxious to see them in a new, safe home that he delivered them, free of charge.  He just wanted to be sure his birds were going to be well cared for.

So, introductions:
There's Waldo, king pin of the turkeys.

Yes, as in "Where's Waldo", because, if you clap 2 or 3 times, he'll "gobble gobble" no matter where he is and you'll find him, and probably most of his ladies too.

Violet

Violet with her 3 babes...

Chuckie the mama duck with 3 4-week old ducklings

Jordie (big white guy), Lucy (pretty brown/white goose) ...

There are a few more, (okay, several) without names yet.

So, in total, there are 6 adults Royal Palm Turkeys, 20 poults (baby turkeys), 2 chinese geese and 6 ducks.  Whew.  They are used to free-ranging and take pretty good care of themselves.  We've set them up in the backyard, which was quite lonely and desolate up until Sunday and we will eventually build them a winter shelter.  As they've been wintered in 100 Mile House, they are used to much harsher winters than we get here.  So, we are sitting a lot, watching a lot and learning a lot about these new arrivals.  And loving every moment.