The White Turkey

Last fall I traded one of the Royal Palm tom turkeys I had for a Broad Breasted white hen turkey.  She fit into the group quite well and in the spring laid a clutch of eggs in a nice nest.  She patiently sat on them until she had about a dozen cute little BRONZE colored turkeys under her wings.  (I suspect she may not have been a purebred as I was told!)  Unfortunately, she lost half of those babies the first night as she took them out into the yard and some got stuck on the wrong side of the fence, couldn't reach their momma to crawl under her for warmth and got too cold overnight.  It was sad to find them the next morning.  Eventually, she lost all of the others as well.  No wonder turkeys have such large broods!

Still determined to be a mother, she again laid a clutch of eggs.  At one time I was sure the coyotes had gotten her as I could never find her in the yard.  Then one day I saw her getting a drink and eating some grain.  She headed back out into the far pasture after getting her fill.  Alas!  I found her nest and it had so many eggs in it I wondered how she could possibly cover them all well enough for them to hatch.  But hatch them she did and another 14 little bronze fuzzy birds appeared.  She kept them together in the barnyard for a couple of days and then each day they wandered farther out.  The last time I saw them they were headed toward the west and did not return that night.  There is a pond over there which I'm sure she thought was a better location than here at Prairie House where it is already crowded with birds.

There are two households to the west of here which is the direction she was headed.  I talked to one of the neighbors a few weeks later and asked her if she had seen the white turkey with the babies; she said she had not.

I saw the neighbor again just the other night while we were both helping out at the food bank.  She said she asked her husband if he had seen the white turkey and he said, "Oh yeah.  The neighbors dogs killed it like they do everything else can get a hold of."  She didn't seem to be very happy with the neighbor's dogs either.

Needless to say I am sad.  I didn't mind so much that she ran away, but I was really hoping she was a survivor and I might see her around again this spring.  Hopefully some of he babies survived.