This is the kind of sight that makes us totally fall in love with our poultry all over again. Turkeys have a reputation for making terrible mothers but we have to say, that on the whole ours have always been fab. We have, as mentioned before, had too much nest sharing this year resulting in low hatch rates BUT once the poults are hatched and mum and poults have been penned together to encourage bonding, all our females become very protective and very good at keeping their charges together. Katherine did not cope with being moved when her poults were four days old (our fault) BUT we were eventually able to give the poults back to her, since when she has been really vigilant. A major joy in allowing our females to raise their own broods is how eventually we end up with all the poults and all the mums from all the hatchings, grouping together and becoming one big VERY happy family. Our chickens just don’t do this in any consistent way, our turkeys always do. We often comment how Napoleon must be at his happiest at times like these as he has ALL his wives (all four of them) AND all his children, all to himself. The chatter between them all is great – mums and chicks ‘tweet’ back and forth all the time, whilst Napoleon struts and gobbles and 'ttssks'.
Over the weekend we intend to put the turkeys back in the main poultry area because there is so much space and grass there, it make sense to use it all and secondly, because we are probably going to have to put Pepper in the Collecting Area some time soon