After the tragic loss of three of our four our turkey poults, we had to figure out what we could do for our one survivor.
It was understandably stressed out, and spent the entire day calling, calling, and pacing back and forth. The logical solution seemed to be to contact the folks we got them from and see if they had more. Dan heard back, and they did. Could we get a few more? And then things got weird and they stopped responding to our emails. Problem? Glitch? Maybe we failed their turkey parenting test? We didn't know.
After communications came to a halt, I thought maybe best thing was to find a new home for our little guy. To give him to someone who had turkeys about the same age. I got a craigslist ad ready, and Dan contacted the Buff breeders again. The reply was prompt this time, and suggested that maybe we could meet somewhere in the middle to get the turkeys. Dan said okay, when? Silence again. Finally, an email came that evening asking if Dan could meet them that morning. Yes, that morning. He got the email hours after the suggested time, which points to the fact that computer communications are not always as instant and efficient as we assume they are. Dan replied that he just now got their email, and that was the last we heard from them.
I had wanted to stick with the same breed if possible because I liked them. But also, because they would be the same age and size, and hopefully, coming from the same breeder, there would be some sense of familiarity for our Tiny Turkey. But for whatever reason, we were hitting a dead end.We needed a Plan B because it was no good for our little guy to be so stressed out.
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| One thing that helped was a trick I learned from when we had guinea fowl. A mirror! It gave him a "friend," and he calmed down quite a bit, but it seemed to puzzle him as well. |
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| Occasional visitors helped, but Tiny Turkey really missed his buddies. |
Dan hit craigslist again and here's what he found.
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| Black turkey poults. They'll lose their white feathers in their first moult. |
This is another heritage breed, known as Black, Spanish Black (because they were popular in Spain) or Norfolk Black (because they were popular in England). They can be traced back to Europe in the 1500s, but I don't know when they were brought to the New World. The breed was admitted into the American Standard of Perfection in 1874 and are now on the Livestock Conservancy's threatened list. They are said to have friendly personalities, quick growth, and are tolerant of a large range of temperature conditions. Like all heritage breeds, they can breed and rear young naturally.
We put the new poults in the chicken tractor's coop, but left the door open. Tiny Turkey remained in the run. He panicked when I removed the mirror, so I tried to place it to entice him to go up the ramp and check out the coop.
Finally, he did and discovered that he was no longer alone. It didn't take long for his new friends to follow him out and into their new world.
The newcomers are still a little skittish, but I think Tiny Turkey will help them calm down and adjust. They're about the same age and size, so even though this didn't work out the way we thought, I think it worked out well.
We still have no idea of their sexes, so for that we'll have to wait and see! We're just hoping we don't have three toms! Dan's already making plans for when they outgrow the chicken tractor, which may be fairly soon as they are growing well. For now, though, everybody's happy and that's a relief.
