Meet... "Sugar Pea"...(and of course that's our tom all poofed out there in the background) named this past week as she is now officially declared herself part of our growing flock of farm birds.
If you've read previous blog posts here about the wild tom turkey who came around for a week or so flirting with our domesticated female turkey and challenging our tom for days on end...(he finally quit coming around after running him off a time or two with our toy-fox-terriers joining in the chase).
But low-and-behold...one day out of the blue little Sugar Pea showed up. At first glance I thought it was Mr. Wild thang coming back for another round of flirty flirt and fighty fight with our Tom...but at closer look she was much smaller than he was...and of course she had that turkey-girl look.
Minutes later, what unfolded in our yard was rather fascinating. At first is was pretty obvious that our female turkey wasn't real pleased that she had some competition. She puffed out and jumped and jolted at our new visitor. But then...as if being trained by the best...misses wild turkey knew just what to do to be invited to stay for a while. She was interested only in our Tom and preceded to do the traditional wild-turkey-dance. Circling then sitting down on the ground with head low. Seconds later...she was one-in-the-family so to speak. And ironically our female turkey (who Chris has since named "Honey Fly") and miss wild (now "Sugar Pea") have become the best of buds. It's as if our turkey hen has been lonely all this time. They chatter and trill and talk to one another as they walk the yard.
Not sure what will come of this odd little pairing. Whether we will have pullets soon or maybe next year as Sugar Pea appears to be only about a year old. Interestingly, Sugar Pea won't perch in the barn at night with the other birds as she seems to trust more in her wild upbringing and perches WAY up in the tree behind the barn at night...nothing short of 50 feet off the ground (ain't no coon gonna snatch her at night when no one's looking...smart girl).
I would have never thought that a wild turkey would join a domesticated turkey pairing (although they are the same species of turkey which probably helps with this). But she is welcome to stay. Now if wild tom returns...well...no telling what may happen.
The saga continues...stay tuned as the story unfolds.
No comments:
Post a Comment