And Life Goes On....

Since the death of their father, the juvenile turkeys have been searching all over for him.  They have even started going across the road and have expanded their search territory to include all of the surrounding land.

Easter

Easter, as we called our broad breasted Bronze tom meat turkey, had gotten too heavy keep up and was in a tizzy.  He had injured a leg jumping off a perch a while back and his limping around and plaintive calls were just too much to bear any longer.  So yesterday we had him butchered.  We hated to but it had to be done.  He has been such a good father/mother to the little ones since their mother was killed by a coyote.  Poor Easter had been the target for our new Barred Rock Rooster and just the other day Floyd Jr. decided to challenge him for control of the flock.

Floyd Junior

It was both comical and horrifying to watch.  Poor Easter acted like he couldn't believe the little guy was attacking him and did his best to avoid injury without hurting the little tom.  Luckily one of the other little toms and Mrs. T cane to his rescue.   They chased and scolded Jr. until he gave up all thoughts of domination.  I had never paid much attention to the turkey flock until Floyd's death.  I have learned a few things and no longer believe that turkeys are as stupid as people say.  They have a social order and evidently care for each other too.  I know Easter has protected the little ones when their own father wouldn't.  He cared for them just like their own mother did. Who would have thought that a tom turkey would do that? And they weren't even related.  Oh and the two Lavender Guineas in the top photo are part of the juvenile turkey flock.  After the death of their mother, we had to cage them up for a couple of weeks and the little Guineas were the same size so we put them all together. Hence they now believe they are turkeys too.  They were also under Easter's protection and care.  They used to love to crawl under him for warmth or to hide from the chickens they were harassing.  Hence the wrath of Jack was incurred on Easter.

Jack

 















We also had Mrs. T butchered as she had no control over the juveniles and missed Floyd terribly too.   We also plan on selling 3 of the 7 juveniles before winter.  We just don't have room for all of them.  I also had my 4 remaining American Chinchilla\ Flemish Giant rabbit bucks butchered.  I have retained one for breeding purposes.

Big Red

 I hated to get rid of these lovable guys but again no room and I did not need so many.  I am now down to 9 rabbits including my Darling Duo.

sisters Suzy II & Fuzz Ball

The geese and ducks may also be slated for the freezer.

Last week I sold my 5 remaining Coturnix Quail.  Now I have only one pair of Jumbo Bobwhite Quail and 2 extra males.

We are searching for a billy goat to breed Fern to this fall and maybe Peaches too.

So we are downsizing and getting ready for the snow to start.  In the spring, our adventures in farming will start all over again.

A MURDER ON THE FARM

The Tragic Death of Pretty Boy Floyd.

I named him after a gangster of the '20's.  From the monent he grew his first tail feathers Floyd was in constant display. And when you called him a "pretty boy" he would really strut his stuff.

Born June 18, 2011, he was one of the seven turkey chicks I helped from their shells in the incubator.  These were Spanish Black Turkeys that I was hatching for a friend of a friend, and he graciously left me three of them for my troubles.

They became Floyd, Mrs. T and Maude.

Here are Floyd and Mrs. T.
Floyd usually chose to either be alone or with humans when possible.

In fact Floyd was a real people person. I truely believe that he thought he was human.  Whenever we had visitors, Floyd was always right there doing his Floyd thing.  This consisted of him walking around a person in full display and very slowly inching his way closer and closer until he finally touched them with his feathers. Unless they tried to touch him, in which case he moved away and started all over again.  Floyd did NOT like to be touched.  Occaisionally I was able to pet him when he was on his roost for the night, but usually he just moved out of reach.

This year Floyd and the girls supplied us with many eggs to incubate.  Then Maude snuck off one day and started a nest outside.  She hatched 12 chicks and did her best to raise them outside by herself. (This put Mrs. T into brood mode, she immediately built a nest and tried to hatch her own too. However the chickens added to her nest at every opportunity and when the first egg hatched she abandoned the nest. A couple of weeks later she realised she had hatched a chicken and abandoned that too. However she has continued to lay an egg a day for the last 4 months.) Then week by week they dwindled until she only had 9 left. Then disaster struck.  One morning I woke up to find the baby turkeys in the duck pen with the ducks.  No sign of Maude so I went searching for the very protective mom.  I found piles of feathers where the apparent coyote attack happened and a trail of feathers where it dragged her off.  We gathered up the chicks and put them in a cage.  Two were sold along with some of the incubated turkeys to make up our final order.  We must have sold about 60 turkey chicks this year.  The remaining 7 are still here and doing well.

"Pretty Boy" Floyd and one of the young 'uns.

We have been trying to figure out what we were going to do with all of the extra turkeys this winter and Wifey suggested getting rid of Floyd and Mrs. T when we get our last meat turkey butchered.  However such a ruckus was formed by family and friends when this was mentioned that we had to keep them.  So a neighbor will be buying our extras.

Then today another disaster.  About 3:15 this afternoon I was over at my Step-mother's when I recieved a call from Wifey.  Someone had murdered Floyd.

A guy had stopped his SUV on the road by the house, got out of his vehicle and shot Floyd twice in our yard.  By the time Wifey got to the front porch he was dispatching poor Pretty Boy my stomping his head into the ground.  Wifey hollered at him "What the Hell are you doing shooting my animals."  But he just ignored her and picked up Floyd and threw him in the back of his vehicle and sped off down the road.

As soon as I got home we went in search of the vehicle at the local DNR parking lots but to no avail.  We came home and called the DNR and reported the incident.

Talk about pissed off !!!

It's degenerates like this that give hunters a bad name.  Not only to be driving with a loaded gun in the car, but to stop 50 feet from a house, on the road and shoot a tom turkey surrounded by our other turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese in their yard.

The best 30 foot shots of his life. And he needed 2 and still didn't get the job done right.

Somewhere tonight this a_ _ hole is bragging to his friends about his hunting abilities.

Well I hope he chokes on his turkey dinner.

Michigan

Michigan according to Jeff Foxworthy...If you shoot a Whitetail Buck and you call Michigan Deer Trackn Hounds to find it you may live in Michigan..If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Michigan. If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don’t even work there, you may live in Michigan. If you’ve worn shorts and a jacket at the same time, you may live in Michigan. If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Michigan. If “vacation” means going anywhere North of Grand Rapids for the weekend, you may live in Michigan. If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Michigan. If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Michigan. If you have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’ in the same day and back again, you may live in Michigan. If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Michigan. If you install security lights on your house and garage, butleave both doors unlocked, you may live in Michigan. If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Michigan. If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Michigan. If the speed limit on the highway is 70 mph -you’re going 80 and everybody is passing you, you may live in Michigan. If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Michigan. If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you may live in Michigan. If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Michigan. If you find 10 degrees “a little chilly”, you may live in Michigan. If you actually understand any of these jokes, repost this so all of your Michigan friends and others can see, you definitely do live - or have lived - in Michigan. Best. State. Ever.