New faces on the farm

The other day when Tricia went to pick up Nellie, our Nubian milk goat, the farmer also had some other animals that he wanted to part with as well.  Tricia came home and said she'd sure like to get a couple of these animals.

Our Maker's Acres Family Farm now has a couple of new family members.  We'll just call them both "Tom," - Tom Turkey, that is:

Tom 1 by the hay bale

I joked with Tricia that the Farm is getting to be like another one I know of:
A moo moo here, a baa baa there, cluck cluck here, gobble gobble there...

Tom 2 strutting in the pasture

Before I took them out of the cage to set them free on our pasture, I went to my workbench and took the goat hoof clippers off of the pegboard and clipped one of each of their wings wayyy back.  Having one wing clipped back keeps Tom 1 & 2 off-balance and prevents them from being able to fly and thus keeps them within the confines of our pasture (and off of my neighbor's dinner table). 

These are both "holiday birds," if you catch my drift.  The turkeys that you buy at Thanksgiving are loaded down with antibiotics, hormones, and are confined to indoor factories like this:

A bird's eye view of most Thanksgiving turkey's home

We're going to try to raise our own holiday turkeys this year as another adventure or experiment.  I've heard that they are hard to raise.  Some people have even told me that they think that turkeys are suicidal and that they'll drown themselves in a rainstorm or they'll hang themselves on a fence or they'll pile up on one another in a bucket and kill themselves.  We'll find out.  The price we paid ($15 a piece) was a very fair price.  I think Tom 1 & Tom 2 will have a more natural, humane life on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, until "Turkey Day" arrives.  A friend of mine purchased a Tom and a hen.  If things work out well, I'll barter for some fertilized turkey eggs to make sure the 2014 Holidays are covered as well.

The gobblers strutted around the pasture and barnyard trying to get their bearings.  It was hard to get a close up shot of these boys.  Although you can't really see the scale in these pictures, these are large birds and make our biggest rooster look like a chick in comparison. 

If you look closely, you can see Tom's beard as he tours the barnyard

Checking out the green grass..

Checking out the muddy corner of the pasture...

Getting their feet muddy

Strolling by the garden...

The turkey, to be honest, is an ugly bird if you look at him up close, with all kinds of growths on his head and neck.  According to old Benjamin Franklin in a letter to his daughter (courtesy Wikipedia), the wild turkey is a noble creature despite his appearance, reinforcing the old adage about not judging a book by its cover!  Here are old Ben's words:

“

Others object to the Bald Eagle, as looking too much like a Dindon, or Turkey. For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk [Osprey]; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him. With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country... I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.

”

The other animals, up to this point, have not been very welcoming to the old boys.  The turkeys have kind of kept to themselves and have stayed on separate sides of the pasture.  For being big birds, they seem shy and afraid of the other animals.


Turkeys trotting

As the turkeys strode off I began to wonder why they weren't mixing well.  Hey, what if the cows and goats had, similar to the farm animals in George Orwell's Animal Farm, adopted the slogan "Four legs good, two legs bad" and are ostracizing the turkeys?  I guess we'll have to see how this plays out.  Stay tuned...