Soooo proud of our Jubilee girl. We have just come back from the broody stall where she is now settled with no less than SIX Harvey Speckled turkey poults. With yesterday’s two poults under a heat lamp and the remaining four eggs still under mum, we were really nervous this morning wondering what we might find…!
Well, the two heat lamp babies were fine and braving the pecks (!!) we found three hatched under mum and the 4th egg somewhat dry but with a determined live poult trying to get out. We unpicked him or her and then used the Stanley range to once more do the drying off. It was then back to get mum and the other three into the aviary which went surprisingly well. No blood was drawn and in fact Jubilee was surprisingly docile. It was as though now she knew all the eggs had hatched, she no longer had to be quite so protective (not quite sure of the logic there but just grateful she is so much calmer).
Next up was re-introducing her to the two heat-lamp poults because we did not want them NOT to be part of the brood. Again, it went well, we casually put them in the nest box whilst mum was looking the other way and then fingers crossed, watched as she walked in, shuffled around a bit and then settled down, Within five minutes all five youngsters were snuggled underneath and we slowly withdrew.
Fast forward to this evening by which time poult number six was dry and so with no hesitation we carried him/her down to the stables, entered the aviary and before she had even realized it, popped the youngest born under her wing.
Huge sighs of relief and celebrations all round.
Here’s to everyone getting through their first full night as a family!!