A Tale of Two Turkeys

Their meager beginnings evolved into a life of luxury
but ultimately came to a tragic end.

It all began when Big Momma the Buff wanted chicks.
All the other hens in the coop laughed at her
sitting on her eggs all day.
They knew they would never hatch.
All Big Momma's hard work would be for nothing.
She would not eat, or drink for worry her eggs would get too cold.
Everyone felt that Big Momma would make a wonderful mother,
but how could we help her dreams come true?
Something had to be done.
There must be baby chicks in need of a good mother...
or even baby turkeys.

Big Momma was so proud of her new family.

She would take them out of the coop with such care,

making sure no harm would come to them.

She heroically chased off the other hens, dogs and even

people from getting too close to her babies.

Her little chicks and baby turkeys knew how lucky they

were to have a mother like Big Momma,

 they followed her everywhere.

The turkeys grew and grew.

Soon they were twice as big as their nest mates.

They didn't know they were turkeys and not chickens.

They just kept on growing.

 

Until one day, very close to Thanksgiving,

the farmer decided they were big enough.

To the very last day the two brothers had always

been together. Whenever you would see one turkey

the other was never far behind.

But their fates in the end were much different.

You see only one turkey made it to the farmer's table...

The first turkey was a delicious 22lb. addition to the

Thanksgiving feast.

The farmer was anticipating how wonderful the second turkey

would be, brined to perfection on Christmas eve.

But fate had something else in store for the remaining bird.

One cold and windy November morning,

 a coyote found his way to the farmer's villa.

The coyote was caught red-handed

eating the last of this poor turkey.

Now all the farmer wants for Christmas is

a Ruger mini 30 rifle with a Redfield scope.

All the farmer's wife wants for Christmas is

a new coyote fur rug so she can wipe her feet on it

when she goes out to feed her sweet chickens.

To be continued.......

Landscaping

We rented equipment to landscape the yard.

We also used it to mow down all the suckers

from the new acre we purchased.
We got our beautiful view back!

We pulled out loads and loads of concrete from the old garage foundation.

We also decided to pull out the old barn floor.
What a dusty mess! Olive is in heaven. So is Arron.

Skye helped put in a new pathway down to the goat pasture.

We still have a few days before we have to return the loader...
I wonder what else we could use it for?

I always planned on moving the coop to the new piece in the backyard.
Arron threw a chain around it, wreath and all!

I love the new location.
I can see the chickens out the kitchen window.
It has really kept the chicken poop out of the yard too.

Those chickens free-range all over the back hill.
I love to watch them march back and forth from the pasture.
( I think the goats enjoy watching them too )
Occasionally, I will open the slider door and call them
'Chick, chick, chick' just to watch them run up to the house,
then I will throw food out to them from the second floor window.
I feel like a real red-neck when I do this, but it's so fun.

...Then There Were Eight

We started out with ten chickens.
We realized right away one of them was a Rooster.

The Cock-A Doodle-Do was a dead give away!

What we didn't realize was that we had a late bloomer.

Dude looks like a lady...

Well, not in this picture of course, but we thought for the longest time that

"Gigantor" was just big boned and beautiful.

Then we began to notice changing tail feathers and hackle feathers.

After the first proud Cock-a-Doodle- Do

 we knew for sure she was definitely a he.

Then the fights began.

Two roosters together fight. Boy, do they put on a show.

I can see why cock fighting is so popular,
it's all we could do not to place bets.

But we knew it had to stop.
Two roosters are pretty hard on the hens.

Arron found a way to make them get along.

We had chicken dinner that night.

Peace has been restored to the coop.

Our eight hens are as happy as can be.

Here is a quick update as to the rest of the Villa.

Jake and Elwood are getting big. We had to take Jake to the vet for a badly sprained leg and he weighed about 85lbs. That means Elwood (lardo) is probably tipping the scales at 100 or so. We can't wait to pack with them this summer!

The rock on the house is done.

We need warmer weather to finish the stucco.

Maybe when we get back from Hawaii we'll be pleasantly surprised? (at the time of this post our Hawaii countdown is only hours away, not days)

Da' Coop Part Deux

Well, here it is.

I'd like to say it's completely finished, but... I still need a step built in front of the screen door, a storage box built to go where the chairs are, and I will be painting the trim white. You get the idea though.

 Laiken is showing you the fully painted interior,
the 'au naturale' perch, and how she can match her outfits to suit any occasion.

I guess there's nothing left to do.
It's moving day!

Good thing we had family in town to help.

Zayah and a Rhode Island Red.

Big sister Lili and the Ameraucana.

Adam and a Buff Wyandotte.

Amy and a Barred Rock.

Lad with the Polish Rooster.

While running through the pasture catching chickens,

Adam stumbled upon a secret cache of eggs.

Omlette au fromage anyone?

The chickens seem pretty content in their new home.

They are laying and doing what is expected of them.

I have 9 hens a laying, and they all use the same nesting box!

I guess the other 5 boxes are just for looks.

Owen is counting up the days loot.

I love having the chickens closer to the house. They are always the center of attention.

Lylian didn't want anything to do with them after she saw them going for Lydia's toe nail polish.

But it didn't stop Owen.

Owen likes to stuff them back into their coop through the little door.

The girls are getting all settled in for the night.

 Yeah, I think they like their new home too.

Frugal 'Eggsploits'

Next time someone asks me if I recycle I'm saying Yes.
 I may not fuss with the blue bin and recycle cans or newspaper, but I am recycling a house.

Here is our newly built chicken coop, all made out of reusable materials from the Villa.

First we had to pull nails from the old lumber.

It took a long time to pull all those nails.

After we got the foundation built and level, it went together pretty quickly.

We had just enough metal roofing left over to cover the roof with a nice overhang.

These ole' birds are gonna be sittin' pretty this winter in their fully insulated pad.

I loved the idea of using this screen door. It will provide sunlight and ventilation.

The six squares next to the door are the nesting boxes.

Arron engineered a cool folding door so I can access them from the outside.

Inside view of the nesting boxes.
 (This is where all the magic happens)

 These chicks have it pretty sweet, we even installed
wall-to-wall paneling.

This little door leads to their future run.

Stay tuned for the finishing touches, and moving day!